Repair Of a 60's Wards Airline model 1756A Radio

Got this little set online. Lets get it playing again.

[radiotvphononut]

That radio was made by Esquire for MW and the date code on the filter cap is '66. This set was USA-made; but, obviously has lots of Japanese parts in it. It's funny that when I was a kid, I wouldn't hardly give these types of radios the time of day; but, now, I pick them up and fix them.

[jeffking]

Very few people get into these Sold State Table Radios. Me, I get into ALL radios 😁. I have a solid State Zenith. Fantastic radio.
Cheap or not, I like that Airline. I’m glad you took the time to fix it anyway. I bet it has a pretty good sound when it’s inside the cabinet.
📻🙂

[GeorgeChristofi]

Its a nicely built looking set. Some quality cabinet work for a bit of cheap electronics. I was wondering if they had that big hole in the floor originally for airflow in a tube set or if it was meant to be a down facing speaker hole for a different rebadged version.

[arthureverett]

I love those big radios. You won’t find new big radios anymore. Only the Chinese Crosley retro entertainment centers that will last for 6 months if you’re that lucky

[MartinSBrown-tpji]

When the electrolytic capacitor is bad the voltage is only half wave pulsating DC and about 70 volts. Not enough to get any tuning circuit to work.

[arthureverett]

Has a mix of Japanese and AMERICAN made parts

[TerryMcKean]

That is definitely a nice little set. As soon as your video loaded and started playing and showed the face of that radio I literally said to myself and my nearby cat-friend "Whoa!.. beautiful!"... lol... it really is. :-)

Thanks for sharing, Radio Rescue.

[josephcote]

I like the line-powered solid state sets. Had a generic clock radio like that growing up. Had a nice big bar antenna and pretty hot front end. Did a fair amount of AM DXing with it.

[RuneTheFirst]

"62" was the department/line code for electronics at Wards. Almost all of their items in those categories started with a 62. Phonos, radios, tape recorders, stereos, TVs, etc. were usually marked with or had a prefix of 62. That would also be their catalog prefix number too. Exceptions were non-Airline branded items purchased as lots, carrying other names, and sold as one-offs, such as Mayfair.

[patricknesbitt]

That radio has pretty solid sound. Must be that class A amplifier.

[gerardcarriera]

It's easy to decipher the date code on a General Instrument (not Industries) electrolytic. The code 24066 is the EIA code for GI is 240 and the 66 means 1966. 240 used to be Micamold but they were bought out by GI in the early 60s along with Pyramid and Solar. Just a little trivia for you. Looking forward to your next video!!

[nnkqrp]

That's actually a nice radio. I like it. At least it's got a real tuning cap in it.. and a really nice cabinet. Thanks for the great vids

[mohinderkaur]

Late sizties midsixties cheapy jobby will beat the crap out of the current production hitech any day. The HV Class A amps in these are pure gold.

[newvistacolor]

The date codes on the some of the caps say late 1965

[chuckbade]

I know it's been 4 years, but I'll leave this anyway. I have the same radio that belonged to my wife's family since it was new and it had the same bad hum. I removed the big orange cap, put the ohmmeter on it, and both sections were wide open. I thought that caps would normally short when they went bad, but this one did the opposite. Maybe it had a fusible component. I hollowed out the paper case with the help of a heat gun and found a big glob of burnt black wax in the top, like this thing had a catastrophic failure but didn't explode. When I get the replacements, I'm going to put them inside the old case. Maybe I'll label the top so someone will know.

[jamesgibson]

The tube AM-FM radios that Esquire made for Montgomery Ward (Airline) and Channel Master, plus some others, are very solid performers. If you shop around, you can get these cheap, and once they are restored, they are great radios. I've got an Airline and a Channel Master, both from 1963, and they were still using point-to-point wiring this late in the game!

[tectalabyss]

Liked, Shared, Added to playlists. All my best.

[johnnytacokleinschmidt]

It hums because it doesn't know the I know it's an old radio repair joke. Nice radio. God Bless

[arthureverett]

Those good old dropping resistors They must have copied GE

[vicmabus]

I like the knobs with their little starbursts!