Sir Jim. . . . . .

With that old of a set, that special battery's small size would not justify an exhorbitant pricing for a
"classic" repro being used in it.

I amost could have ended up in the identical situaton back in the early fifties had I snatched up one
of those classic Regency FIRST pocket sized transistor series which utilized a 22 1/2 V hearing aid battery in the set.

Try finding and using one of those nowadays !

I did happen to hold out for just a few months later, when the first of the RCA portable transistor series was announced as being about to come out, so I placed my pre-order.

Now, that purchase, even at jobber pricing, was up in the $75 range.

But the model / unit which I did receive, did end up with having a serial number with string of redundant zeroes with a 17 on the very end.

Even that unit used a special battery, it being a "C" cell dimensioned unit . . . BUT . . . with the now familiar male-female snap on connectors being placed on opposite ends of the battery.

VS300 batt ? . . .from long delayed memory

I have, decades since, changed the wiring to accomodate the now common rectangular 9 V battery.

In assisting your getting that circa mid fiftiesh unit of yours back into operaton, I am submitting its service info, with my blowing up of the the foil PCB lands side of the board to the point of resolution tradeoffs.

I think that switched earphone jack is common stock at Radio Shackamus.

Or initially, it could just be a matter of connecting the free wire from the speaker, to the negative terminal of C4 electrolytic.

That C4 capacitor, coupling in the AF output from the common totem pole output from the X5-X6 C-E junction of the AF outputs.

As for the battery situation, if being mine to solve, I would be heading for some of the DOLLAR stores which are now offering 10 x blister packs of 10 AG02 or alkaline button cells for a $1. . . (or $1.29). I see both the common ~ 1/2 in dia x 1/4 in high button cells and its other 1/8 in high counterpart as now being available.

( Even along with some 4 packs of the 2 most popular sized Lithium cells ! )
I have tried and used them for life span and find they are fine and NOT costing the $1.99-2.99 per EACH, of normal sourcing.

Also, I am seeing them at Hobby Lobby over in the crafts section, where a blisterpack of 10 for $1.99 is destined to be powering their shirt blinky-dinky LED flasher lights . . . OR . . . the stick on, RED-GREEN moldel airplane, wingtip flasher-LED's.

I have built up custom batteries using them.

You just see how many are needed to get the voltage and then IMMEDIATELY scrape an end of a cell to get an ~1/8 in by 1/4 in area exposed and then immediately, get a liquid / paste rosin flux covering the raw exposed metal.

Then the heat of a HOT WELLER pistol should get you a tinned surface within 3 seconds. Move on down the units and then place 1 turn coils of pre tinned insulated hook up wire between the cells and rapid solder reflow each interconnect.

Hold the series of cells together with a tape overwrap. Then, see how close the overall length is to the required length and fabricate that length of an insulated buffer, with its end metal contact, and wire to it.

The only warning is to note that we are universally used to seeing the recessed INNER contacts as the positive terminals on about all of our battery family.

On the button cells the CASE is POSITIVE , with that inner contact being the NEGATIVE.

The only other thing I might see, is the 50 year deterioration of those few [ YELLOW ] marked up electrolytics being used in the unit.

I rely a lot up on this type of unit, for troubleshooting adjunct to a receiver being worked on, along with tracking down damped wave interference sources . . . along with u/p and SMPS induced interferences now-a-days

Standing by . . . . should you still be experiencing 4 wire i.d.'ing problems.

73's de Edd

:Hello Edd and many thanks for all that info. This concerned the Silvertone transistor rad with "odd" battery. I checked and the flat 9 v. batt. will barely fit into the case. Powered up the radio and batt. got very warm. Sems a short somewhere. Suspect those tiny electrolytics. Could have diconnected 1 end and check for short. But put radio away for now. Got some jacks for earphone
:
:
:Sir Jim. . . . . .
:
:
:
:
:With that old of a set, that special battery's small size would not justify an exhorbitant pricing for a
:"classic" repro being used in it.
:
:
:I amost could have ended up in the identical situaton back in the early fifties had I snatched up one
:of those classic Regency FIRST pocket sized transistor series which utilized a 22 1/2 V hearing aid battery in the set.
:
:
:Try finding and using one of those nowadays !
:
:
:I did happen to hold out for just a few months later, when the first of the RCA portable transistor series was announced as being about to come out, so I placed my pre-order.
:
:
:Now, that purchase, even at jobber pricing, was up in the $75 range.
:
:
:But the model / unit which I did receive, did end up with having a serial number with string of redundant zeroes with a 17 on the very end.
:
:
:Even that unit used a special battery, it being a "C" cell dimensioned unit . . . BUT . . . with the now familiar male-female snap on connectors being placed on opposite ends of the battery.
:
:
:VS300 batt ? . . .from long delayed memory
:
:
:I have, decades since, changed the wiring to accomodate the now common rectangular 9 V battery.
:
:
:
:In assisting your getting that circa mid fiftiesh unit of yours back into operaton, I am submitting its service info, with my blowing up of the the foil PCB lands side of the board to the point of resolution tradeoffs.
:
:
:I think that switched earphone jack is common stock at Radio Shackamus.
:
:
:Or initially, it could just be a matter of connecting the free wire from the speaker, to the negative terminal of C4 electrolytic.
:
:
:That C4 capacitor, coupling in the AF output from the common totem pole output from the X5-X6 C-E junction of the AF outputs.
:
:
:
:As for the battery situation, if being mine to solve, I would be heading for some of the DOLLAR stores which are now offering 10 x blister packs of 10 AG02 or alkaline button cells for a $1. . . (or $1.29). I see both the common ~ 1/2 in dia x 1/4 in high button cells and its other 1/8 in high counterpart as now being available.
:
: ( Even along with some 4 packs of the 2 most popular sized Lithium cells ! )
:I have tried and used them for life span and find they are fine and NOT costing the $1.99-2.99 per EACH, of normal sourcing.
:
:
:Also, I am seeing them at Hobby Lobby over in the crafts section, where a blisterpack of 10 for $1.99 is destined to be powering their shirt blinky-dinky LED flasher lights . . . OR . . . the stick on, RED-GREEN moldel airplane, wingtip flasher-LED's.
:
:
:I have built up custom batteries using them.
:
:
:You just see how many are needed to get the voltage and then IMMEDIATELY scrape an end of a cell to get an ~1/8 in by 1/4 in area exposed and then immediately, get a liquid / paste rosin flux covering the raw exposed metal.
:
:
:Then the heat of a HOT WELLER pistol should get you a tinned surface within 3 seconds. Move on down the units and then place 1 turn coils of pre tinned insulated hook up wire between the cells and rapid solder reflow each interconnect.
:
:
:Hold the series of cells together with a tape overwrap. Then, see how close the overall length is to the required length and fabricate that length of an insulated buffer, with its end metal contact, and wire to it.
:
:
:The only warning is to note that we are universally used to seeing the recessed INNER contacts as the positive terminals on about all of our battery family.
:
:
:On the button cells the CASE is POSITIVE , with that inner contact being the NEGATIVE.
:
:
:
:The only other thing I might see, is the 50 year deterioration of those few [ YELLOW ] marked up electrolytics being used in the unit.
:
:
:
:I rely a lot up on this type of unit, for troubleshooting adjunct to a receiver being worked on, along with tracking down damped wave interference sources . . . along with u/p and SMPS induced interferences now-a-days
:
:
:
:Standing by . . . . should you still be experiencing 4 wire i.d.'ing problems.
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
:73's de Edd
:
:
: