The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

tminus · Joined: 30 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

I wonder if you guys can help me figure out how to get reception on this antique antenna? the antenna, attached to a recordio RB40, has three wires from the amplifier. I don't understand why 3? they are: black, white and yellow. The wires are attached to a loop device that has "alternate ripple winding" and F W Sickle Co" written on it, and has attachment points (screws) marked "antenna" and "ground". It had a round device bigger than a silver dollar with wax on one side and two nuts on it to attach the antenna to? this was attached to the FW Sickles alternate winding antenna looking thing that is attached to the amp via the 3 wires.

I'm lost, as I have tried several antennas and I only get 1 or 2 channels. I made a DX antenna kit for it that "should" be awesome, but it doesn't do a thing hooked to the FW Sickles antenna on it. I tried connecting directly to the black and white wires from the amp - nada. I do not know what the yellow wire is for coming from the amp.

any diagrams out there??? thx for any help. Patrick

OLDLEE · Joined: 12 Nov 2007 Posts: 21 Location: Ontario Canada

Re your antenna: I have a Recordette, and it's antenna has three wires plus the two screw attachments. Here are the circuit details:
There are two windings in the antenna, one for the tuned circuit, and another to match to an external antenna & ground. One lead of the tuned winding goes to the 1st grid of the 1st (mixer) tube; the other wire goes to the automatic volume control (AVC) line. Mixing these two up shouldn't matter too much other than maybe a slight tuning problem.
The third wire is connected to the "Gnd." screw terminal, and also to the radio chassis ground. This is the third wire you see, according to my radio.
The "Ant." screw is attached to a wire from the other winding, via a small inductance, which is likely the round device that you mention.
You can determine which winding is which by using an ohm-meter: the one with the larger resistance is the tuned winding.
You can find which is the grid of the 1st tube by measuring resistance. That connection should show infinite resistance.
You can find chassis ground (at least for my set) by having the unit unplugged and measuring from the connector to one of the loudspeaker terminals, where you should get a low resistance of a few ohms at most.
The wire that's left is then the one that goes to the AVC line.
Hope this is decipherable...