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MARCONIPHONE VT53A

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  • Released circa November 1949
  • 10" E.M.I. 3/20 C.R.T.
  • Band 1 T.R.F. (London).
  • 16 Valves
  • A.C./D.C. mains.
  • Original Cost £38 15s +Tax
 Front view [31K]
NOTES
7KV E.H.T. smoothing capacitor [6K]Arguably amongst the worst designs seen in Britain. Fundamentally it is the same as the VC73DA console, so read that page for the thorough slagging off.

But now I can get to more of the components, check out the 7KV E.H.T smoothing cap. Ideal for smoothing an E.H.T. that could be anything up to 9KV.
SERVICE DATA I've got a copy of the Trader service sheet #974 for the VT53DA. However this is a VT53A, but I've no idea what the difference is. I thought "DA" was DC/AC mains and "A" was AC only, but the lable inside the cabinet shows this 'A' model also handles DC mains.

Label attached to cabinet [6K]
CURRENT STATE
 
The cabinet is very presentable, despite a strip of veneer missing. Good speaker cloth, no woodworm and an untouched chassis. I'm puzzled about the back and bottom covers though.The top cover doesn't fit - the original screw holes were in the wrong place and it is probably 0.5cm too wide. The bottom cover isn't right after, possibly from a radiogram. But someone has gone to the trouble of doing it very neatly and there is even the proper warning printed on the cover. All very strange.
WHERE I GOT IT Bought off fleabuy for 50 notes and perhaps another 10 for the petrol to go fetch it ... plus another 20 in the swear box as a result of using the M6 both ways during peak hours.
Rear chassis view [29K]   Underside of chassis [40K]
A very compact chassis. with all the big bottles almost butting up together and helping to keep the line output transformer, which is in the middle of them all, nice and warm.   The underside looks a bit sparsley populated but most components are in the sheilded box on the right. Not exactly good for the service engineer but probably essential to maintain stablilty in a backwards ye olde T.R.F. receiver as opposed to a a superhet system which had only been in widespread use for 15+ years.

Usually after 50+ years wax caps are half melted blackened blobs but the ones here (yellow things, bottom left) are pristine. My bet is that they've survived because:-
1) No air circulation (there isn't room!) so they never got hot.
2) The set probably wasn't reliable enough to run for very long.

 

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J.Evans 2006		 CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO
THE TELLIES GALLERY		 Last updated
20th April 2006