[Ron Ramirez]

I've been wanting to acquire a Philco from "across the pond" for some time now.

Well, actually, I should clarify that. I've been wanting a 1930s UK Philco tombstone for quite some time now.

I actually used to own a 1280 Universal, and a 2620 that had a chassis made in Philadelphia and a cabinet apparently made in Perivale, Greenford, Middlesex - the home of Philco's UK subsidiary.

And I currently own two bakelite Philco Tropic sets that were made in the UK.

So, here is my newest arrival!

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00001.jpg]

Called the "Empire Five" (five tubes or valves), this model 282 was made in Perivale.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00003.jpg]

It has a long wave band, medium wave (AM), and a short wave band.

It mostly survived shipment. Unfortunately, it had a non-original power transformer that was barely fastened in, and it came loose and bounced around between England and here. Fortunately, it only damaged the two electrolytic capacitors. It could have been a lot worse. The transformer was dangling by one wire when it arrived. I cut the remaining wire and removed the transformer.

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00004.jpg]

The transformer could have struck the 80 rectifier, but amazingly, it apparently didn't. At any rate, the 80 isn't broken.

Here are a couple shots of the transformer:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00006.jpg]

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00005.jpg]

And a closer look at the back of the set:

[Image: http://www.philcoradio.com/images/phorum...e00007.jpg]

Now that it's here - and since the power transformer was not original anyway - I plan to convert it to 120 volt operation so it can be used here, by adding a new vertical mounting power transformer, which is the same as was used originally.

I should also mention that it was shipped via UPS, and it made it from England to here in only three days! (And that included a delay of nearly a day in UK Customs!) I have had packages take longer than that to arrive here via UPS from other parts of the US!