His Master's Voice 1122 radio

The HMV1122 is a 4 band superhet with gramophone input. When I found it in 2005, I could not help but compare it with the HMV 1101 I acquired in 2002. It has a lot more frills, such as the ornamental rim around the tuning eye. The speaker grill is a perforated sheet of brass, painted creamy white. On the front, there are four controls: a dual knob for volume/on/off and tone, and a dual knob for the band selection switch and tuning. Judging by the dial and by the labels on the back, it must have been made in Belgium, just like the 1101. There are more similarities, such as the voltage selector on the power transformer, the type number label on the back and the rubber-stamped serial number on the chassis.

The valves are all Rimlock types, roughly dating this radio in the period of 1948-1955:

ECH41	frequency changer,
EF41	IF amplifier
EBC41	detector and AF preamp,
EL41	as output amplifier,
AZ41	as rectifier,
EM34	tuning indicator.

I bought this radio through Internet. The case was dirty and it had a few ugly spots where the finish was damaged. The previous owner did not know if it worked, and I was glad he hadn't tried. As a matter of fact, he couldn't, as the mains cord had been cut off.

As with the HMV1101, it was impossible to find any service documentation on this HMV1122. So I was on my own. But this HMV, too, wasn't too hard to fix. First, I had to replace the mains cord, the remainder of which was made of rubber and falling apart. Then I reformed the electrolytics in the power supply. They were still very good. I tested the coupling capacitor to the output valve and replaced it.

Then it was time to turn on the radio. It did work, but it was cracking badly. The EL41 output valve did not draw much current. I replaced it but my replacements were nothing better. I cleaned the pins of the EL41 and the EBC 41 to make the cracking disappear. Then I turned to the tuning eye, that did not react. Both the anode resistors had gone high, so I replaced them. Now the tuning eye was working again.

I finally degreased the tuning cord, which was slipping. After all this, I cleaned the case. This succeeded reasonably, but on some spots the finish had chipped off. Testing the finish I concluded it was cellulose lacquer. I decided to leave it the way it was.

So now it was working fine, but I decided I didn't find it particularly pretty. In 2006 I traded it.