RCA Victor 528-XM-6 "Acuarium"

What a long name for such a small, simple, cheap radio! This is such a humble specimen that I almost decided against restoring it at all! But then compassion took over, and I gave it a hand. Here it is.

This radio uses an all-american-five circuit with miniature tubes, and is built on a printed circuit board which is mounted in slanted position inside the cabinet, supported from the front plastic piece. The line of slant runs under the axles of the volume pot and the variable capacitor. The tubes are 12BE6 - 12BA6 - 12AV6 - 50C5 - 35W4. The variable capacitor uses a concentric vernier drive. The filament string connected to the 220V line through a resistive power cord, of which only a short stub was surviving. I installed a 220-110V autotransformer inside the radio, so it can be used without a time limit...

The wooden cabinet was stripped and lacquered by airbrush, using aniline tint in the first coats of lacquer, true to the original style of 1960, which seems to be the time when this radio was made by RCA Chile, which by then was already called CRC, "Compañía de Radio de Chile". The plastic was simply washed with warm water and dishwashing detergent. Easy enough...

The radio works very well, but has an awful sound quality, the speaker being very small and using a minuscule magnet.



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