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This RCA Radiola III A I bought from Bob in the 2012 RadioActivity Event of MAARC Mid Atlantic Antique Radio Club on June 22nd, 2012.
The set was in poor condition, no tubes, lots of rust all over (Pict 1), missing a audio transformerv(Pict 2), as you can see in the pictures. As always, the 2 remaining interstage transformers were open an the set was quite dirt. The 2 rheostats had brittle resistance wire that was broken in several parts (Left rheostat on Pict 3). The coil unit were in fair condition, just needing a terminal rewiring and a complete cleaning.
Pict 1 
Pict 2 
Pict 3 
Its restoration has given me a lot of work. Lots of phosphoric acid based rust remover and steel brush removed the rust pretty well from knob shafts, transformer base, and the ground sheet. The bakelite parts were washed with water and laundry soap. Also I rewired both rheostats with new resistance wire (Right rheostat at Pict 3) from Pelican wire Company, Inc. I used white lacquer stick for filling in the marks on radio Bakelite (Pict 4).
Two of the interstage transformers were replaced by the universal type made by Hammond and sold by various dealers as AES. The third one I got from Gary, Play Thinks of Past. The cases from the old transformers were sanded and black painted, and they fitted the new transformers perfectly, as you can see in Picts 5 and 6. The terminal board that came in the new transformer is a duplicate of the original. Also, I replaced the grid leak resistor 2M ohms and cap 250 pF by re-stuffing the original cap (Pict 5).
Pict 4 
Pict 5 
Pict 6 
The set plays great now either with a headphone using the first output or with a high impedance speaker using the final stage AF speaker output, as you can see in Picts 7 and 8.
Pict 7 
Pict 8 
