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VINTAGE RADIO
By RODNEY CHAMPNESS, VK3UG
The 1935 Tasma M290 Console
In the 1920s, 30s & 40s, console radios graced
the lounges of many homes in Australia. They
were beautiful pieces of furniture and were the
centre of attraction in whatever setting they
were placed. And they poured forth beautiful
music, the news and serials, forming the entertainment focus for the household.
Thom and Smith Limited of Sydney
were a moderate-sized manufacturer
of radio and other electronic equipment throughout the 1930s. As a
result of their versatility and product
quality, they were engaged by the
Government during WWII to produce
medium-power radio communications
transmitters and other ancillary equip
ment for the services.
Many of the transmitters saw service after the war in communications
networks such as the Flying Doctor
Service.
By 1935, most manufacturers had
changed over from the tricky autodyne
converter valve to the triode hexode
converter or other purpose designed
converter/mixer valves. The Tasma
M290 had one of the new European
EK1 converter valves, which was followed by a 6D6 as an IF amplifier, a
75 as a detector, AGC diode and audio
amplifier, followed finally by a 42 as
the audio output.
The circuit of four valves and a
rectifier became almost the generic
standard for broadcast domestic entertainment receivers throughout the
rest of the valve radio era.
On looking at the circuit, it appears
to be quite normal for the era. There
is a large tapped voltage divider, near
capacitor 9, used to select the voltage
for the screens of the converter and IF
amplifier stages. It is the large green
resistor shown in the under chassis
view. Tasma were one of the few manufacturers who woke up to the fact
that local oscillators work best if the
padder (16) is placed in the circuit as
The Tasma M290 console has a rather boxy cabinet but quite an ornate dial. As
shown above, this dial is attached to the chassis, making service and alignment
that much easier.
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Fig.1: the circuit of four valves and a rectifier was typical for a 1930s radio receiver. Note that this circuit has a number of errors which are referred to in the text.
shown, rather than in series with the
earth end of the oscillator tuning coil.
The IF transformers are tuned by
trimmer capacitors which was the
common method at that time. The
intermediate frequency (IF) is a little
lower than usual, at 445kHz, although
at that stage 455kHz was not anywhere
near universal. The detector and audio
stages are quite conventional. The
power transformer is tapped so that
input voltages of between 200 and
260VAC can be used.
For some reason or other, the selection of the voltages is via a switch
on the back of the chassis. It seems
hardly neces
sary to have a switch
when a soldered fly lead could select
the appropriate tapping. It wasn’t as
if radios, particularly consoles, were
shifted regularly from area to area
where different mains voltages were
in use.
Close inspection of the circuit diagram reveals some errors, as the 75
would be destroyed if they were correct. “TC” is the tone control, shown
with one capacitor on a 3-position
switch. However, inspection of the
set reveals that the it switches various
capacitors and the moving arm (wiper)
goes to earth. In the circuit as drawn,
high tension (HT) is applied to the
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detector/AGC diode which would
destroy the valve and maybe also the
IF transformer.
The volume control is the load for
the diode detector/AGC diodes. As
the strength of the signal increases,
the negative voltage across the volume
control would increase as needed for
the automatic volume control (AVC/
AGC) action. As the volume control
is rotated to increase the volume, the
bias on the 75 would also increase,
This rear view of the chassis shows a conventional layout. The chassis-mount
electrolytics are now dummies, having been replaced by modern capacitors
under the chassis.
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Access under the chassis is only average, with the tag
board obscuring the valve sockets. Note the replacement
pigtail electrolytics near the transformer.
tending to cut the valve off. In fact,
that definitely happens and results in
no audio.
It seems that a DC blocking capacitor
and a resistor are missing from this
part of the circuit. The use of an RF
choke (7) to filter out any remaining
IF energy on the signal to the audio
amplifier is uncommon. If it has an
inductance of around 2.5 millihenry
(a common value) the reactance (RF
resistance at 445kHz) would be around
9kΩ. Most manufacturers found it was
more effective and cheaper to use a
resistor of around 50kΩ to act as an
intermediate frequency filter element.
The speaker is shown as 1500Ω.
Perhaps the field coil is 1500Ω as the
42 requires a plate load impedance of
around 7kΩ.
We’ve come to expect that circuit
diagrams are accurate. As can be seen
in this case, they are often inaccurate
despite being drawn, checked and
approved by people familiar with the
design. They would probably be more
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This rear view of the console shows the sloping shelf for
the chassis, made necessary by the sloping front of the
cabinet.
accurate if the original drawings were
laid out just a bit more logically with
better spacing between parts of the
diagram which are currently crowded.
But Thom and Smith were not the only
ones who allowed errors to creep into
their circuits.
Dealing with the cabinet
The cabinet is rectangular with no
curved edges, which makes it look
rather “boxy”. The cabinet was in
reasonable condition when obtained.
It responded well to the use of paint
stripper to remove the original finish.
The black trims were painted and the
cabinet was finished with satin/semigloss clear pre-catalysed lacquer spray
(Mirotone). The excellent result of this
work can be seen in the photographs.
The yellowed celluloid dial protection was replaced with a piece of
acetate sheet from a shirt packet and
now the dial looks like new. Acetate
sheet can also be obtained from art and
craft shops. The dial mechanism itself
is dual speed with a “band
spread”
dial at the bottom; quite handy for
accurate tuning.
The controls on the set follow a
logical sequence, with the lefthand
one being volume, the centre one
being tuning and the righthand one a
tone control. All in all, it is quite an
attractive set.
Gaining access to the chassis
The front of the set where the controls are is sloped, which means that
the shelf the chassis sits on is also at
an angle. To remove the chassis from
the cabinet requires the removal of the
three control knobs, the speaker plug
and finally, four nuts and bolts which
secure the chassis to its mounting
shelf. These nuts and bolts are awkward to remove or reinstall.
The chassis was a bit scrappy so
it was cleaned down, primed and
finally painted with brown gloss
spray paint. Some of the parts were
removed from the chassis while others
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were very carefully masked to ensure
a quality paint job. The owner of the
set is renowned for the quality of his
workmanship, which is very obvious
in the photographs.
Inspection of the chassis electronics revealed that the EK1 had been
replaced by a 6A8G at some stage in
the past. This also required replacement of the valve socket. Most of
the paper capacitors and electrolytic
capacitors were replaced. The large
chassis-mount electrolytic capacitors were left in-situ to keep the set
looking as authentic as practical. The
replacement capacitors can be seen in
the under-chassis view near the power
transformer. A few out of tolerance
resistors required replacement too.
The electrodynamic speaker was
defective and was replaced with a
permanent magnet unit while the field
coil was replaced with a 2.5kΩ 20W
wirewound resistor.
A number of perished wires and
the power cord were replaced. The
original cord would have been a
twin-conductor cord in a brown fabric sheath. Burton Cables have made
modern 3-core cable with a brown
fabric sheath. However, I am unsure
whether that is still available. As has
been common over the years, the power lead has been knotted. The current
official practice is for power leads to
be restrained within an appliance by
a clamp, with the earth lead going to
a crimped or soldered lug which is
bolted to the frame.
Manufacturers of the era tended
to put most components on tagstrip
boards. Thom and Smith were no
exception. They, like many others,
put these boards over the top of other
components or valve sockets which
often made access and troubleshooting
a slow job.
Having done all this work, the set
was aligned and the performance was
quite good. These old sets can put in
quite a creditable performance.
Summary
The Tasma M290 console receiver
was produced at a time when much
experimentation and improvement in
design and style was taking place. It
may not be the most elegant console
around but it is a good honest set. The
manufacturers could have made access
for service easier under the chassis
and they should hang their heads in
This dial is almost in mint condition.
Note the smaller bandspread dial for
fine tuning.
shame over the circuit diagram inaccuracies.
These criticisms aside, it is a good
performer that gave the owner no unpleasant surprises during the restoration. It is a set well worth having in any
collection – if you have the room. This
is why I think few collections have
more than one or two consoles. They
are a beautiful piece of furniture and
the tonal quality of the better units is
good even by today’s standards. SC
WHEN QUALITY COUNTS. . . .
valve equipment manufacturers and repairers choose only the best...
SVETLANA
GOLDEN DRAGON
EI ELITE GOLD
Transformers -- HAMMOND CLASSIC
Valves --
6L6GC, 12AX7, 300B, 6550, EL34, EL509, KT88
KT66, 4-300BM, 300BM
6CG7, 12AX7, EL84, -- gold pins
Single-ended 25 watts
Push/pull / Ultra-linear 10 to 120 watts
Power -- universal primary, secondary to 250mA
Filter chokes -- to 300mA
HAMMOND
MANUFACTURING
Stockists -- NSW
Victoria
New Zealand
MEGtronics -- 02 9831 6454
Electronic Valve & Tube Company -- 03 5257 2297
Resurrection Radio -- 03 9510 4486
Logic Research Electronics -- 07 849 5293
E lectronics
Distributed by
www.siliconchip.com.au
76 Bluff Road St Leonards VIC 3223
PO Box 487 Drysdale VIC 3222 AUSTRALIA
Tel +61 3 5257 2297 Fax: +61 3 5257 1773
June 2002 79
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