Stromberg-Carlson model 1101 6-tube radio

[electra225]

This was one of the first radios my wife ever got me. I've had it well over 50 years. I had it probably 20 years before I got it to work right. My stepdad said it was a "squealer" not worth messing with. The specs for this set lists all glass tubes. I found that if I used a metal 12SA7 and a metal 12 SK7 IF amp, the squealing ceased. The cabinet on this radio has always been cloudy. In the last 20 years, it has gotten right down ugly. There is a crack in the upper part of the cabinet. That part comes off so I can fix it. The paint scheme on this set will be lavendar and black. The grille area and the top part will be black, the rest will be lavendar, as close to Evening Orchid/Lido Lavendar/Laurel Mist/Lavendar Mist Metallic as I can find in a spray bomb. The knobs are dirty tan, those will be sprayed with "Cranberry" to give them a bit of contrast. The dial bulb is out and the volume control is dirty. Otherwise, it is okay electronically.

[William]

I have seen that radio a lot on eBay or Craigslist over the years. It is a nice design, and it is a 6 tuber so performance is good.

Bill

[electra225]

And it has a five-inch speaker, which doesn't hurt performance any. S-C sold lots of these sets. They are not rare, but are as good as there was in a small table radio. I never did figure out why the metal tubes killed the oscillation. I'm assuming that some kind of shielding was provided by the metal tubes, but I don't know that. I know a guy who has one of these with the all-glass tubes and his works just fine. This set has always tuned a bit broadly. Perhaps a good alignment would affect the oscillation, but it works so well I am not going to fool with that.

Does anybody know what the decal under the dial was supposed to say? It has always been partially gone since I've had it and I sanded it off so I can paint.

[electra225]

Today, I had to learn what I already knew....

Just a month ago, I let myself get sucked into several hours work that was unnecessary due to a wonky volume control. I reckon I had so much fun chasing my tail that time, I decided it would be a good idea to try it again, then hope for a different outcome.....

This radio displayed the classic signs of a dirty volume control. Scratchy, intermittent operation. So I shot it with DeOXit and found all well again. Well almost. It ran a couple hours, I had to go in the house to help the frau a minute. I came back out, the volume was way down and the audio was really muddy. Nothing I did in manipulating the control fixed it. So I started checking voltages and that. Absolutely everything I checked was fine. I got out the schematic and went over it all again. Sensitivity and selectivity was still good. When the volume control was advanced all the way, the thing would squeal like a pig. Frustrated, I shot it full of PB BLaster, then let it set while I worked on something else. Just before I went in to supper, I fired the chassis up again. It played just fine for several minutes. I'm sure PB BLaster was not the cure. This radio has a bad volume control. Remember I said I had to replace a couple glass tubes with metal to stop the squeal many years ago? The problem with this set all along has been a bad volume control.

For what it's worth, I'm not going to buy any more DeOxit. I don't see the justification for the extra cost versus using PB Blaster or WD-40. Maybe it would work better for TV controls, but, for what I work on, it's an extravagant, unnecessary extra cost with marginal benefit....

[electra225]

The paint is not as pink as it looks here. The lighting in my shop is not optimal for photographing certain colors. It is really close to Lido Lavendar, just not metallic. Every radio of this model I have seen, regardless of color, has had those tan knobs. I may paint them black if they don't grow on me.

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Greg,
I actually like the knobs, as they match
the tuning band background color well.

[William]

Yup, leave the knobs where they are.

Bill

[electra225]

Okay. Got it! Thanks for your input. I hadn't considered the color of the dial background. When I look at a project for as long as I did this one, I tend to lose prospective, and can miss pertinent details.....