It finally happened - I purchased a radio with a burned out RF tranformer. I assume I can't buy one - what do I do - salvage one off another unit and will it work if I do? Or do I need the exact same one.

Hi,
If it is one that you cannot salvage it by soldering a short patch wire to bridge a burned out section that you can reach-

Determine which type, does it have four terminals, or five?, If it is five, is one a tap on the primary, or a "tickler winding"? (A winding that has a termination on one end, and is wrapped around the primary of the RF/IF transformer- Not common on IF's, but there were a couple.) Once that has been determined if it is not a four terminal type all that remains to do is find the Frequency of IF. If it happens to be a simple two winding IF with four terminals, as long as you match the IF frequency, or close to it, you should not have a problem with a salvage box type if you know approximately what the IF frequency was. In other words, if your radio had an IF of 470 Khz, a 440 Khz should be able to tune close enough to be acceptable, and the same is true for the other way around. If you have one that is a lower IF like many of the old Philcos, and another is not available, try one from an old auto radio, as most used lower intermediate frequencies.

Otherwise AES (www.tubesandmore.com) does have a few NOS "universal replacement" types.

: It finally happened - I purchased a radio with a burned out RF tranformer. I assume I can't buy one - what do I do - salvage one off another unit and will it work if I do? Or do I need the exact same one.

: Hi,
: If it is one that you cannot salvage it by soldering a short patch wire to bridge a burned out section that you can reach-

: Determine which type, does it have four terminals, or five?, If it is five, is one a tap on the primary, or a "tickler winding"? (A winding that has a termination on one end, and is wrapped around the primary of the RF/IF transformer- Not common on IF's, but there were a couple.) Once that has been determined if it is not a four terminal type all that remains to do is find the Frequency of IF. If it happens to be a simple two winding IF with four terminals, as long as you match the IF frequency, or close to it, you should not have a problem with a salvage box type if you know approximately what the IF frequency was. In other words, if your radio had an IF of 470 Khz, a 440 Khz should be able to tune close enough to be acceptable, and the same is true for the other way around. If you have one that is a lower IF like many of the old Philcos, and another is not available, try one from an old auto radio, as most used lower intermediate frequencies.

: Otherwise AES (www.tubesandmore.com) does have a few NOS "universal replacement" types.

:
: : It finally happened - I purchased a radio with a burned out RF tranformer. I assume I can't buy one - what do I do - salvage one off another unit and will it work if I do? Or do I need the exact same one.