Pilot BT 530 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Radio Tech · 19th Feb 2017, 8:45 pm

Hi fellow members

I thought I would like to share the views and thoughts on this set, the set incidentally isn't mine, it was just one I did get working for a very old friend of mine who used to be in the RAF and later become a lecturer at Braintree College a few years ago. The set was in a dreadful state, dirty, dusty, no back panel and who ever had it before could not solder properly and it become obvious that some of the anode load resistors had for some reason a bad time in being overloaded. But after checking it through and replacing all the huge wax caps and a couple of electrolytic ones and some resistors along with tidying wiring and joints and re doing the cabinet the set is working but I did find the push button quite unusual, you have to manual tune to station required, hold the tuning control and adjust the selected preset so it bucks up against the capacitor, purely mechanical. Here are two or three pictures of the set.
Best wishes

Ken

turretslug · 19th Feb 2017, 10:26 pm

That's a very nice looking set with that warmly coloured woodwork. I find the tuning scales on some pre-war sets particularly appealing with their dozens of station names and circular or part-circular presentation, the Pilot ones make me think of one of those flattened globe map presentations. Linear scales might be practical, but they're somehow dull by comparison. Just a shame that AM radio station numbers are a mere fraction of what they were.

Those pics certainly show up something that gets touched on here periodically- how empty a chassis can look when bulky old components, particularly capacitors, get replaced with much smaller modern ones. I actually quite like the fresh, rejuvenated look it gives to an old radio chassis (provided it's not a rare or valuable set) but I've sometimes found myself thinking, surely there's some bits I've forgotten....

Anorak alert: Looking up the valve-list on this set, I'm sure that I've seen other pre-war British Pilots with a typical US-type valve line-up apart from an X65 mixer/oscillator- perhaps they used US parent company circuits but felt that the European-favoured triode-hexode was worth using over the typical US self-oscillating heptodes for better SW stability.

Boater Sam · 20th Feb 2017, 1:26 am

Lovely cabinet, I like a bit of shapely wood.

Danish oiled?

Lloyd 1985 · 20th Feb 2017, 10:08 am

That's a really lovely set, I've never seen that model before. Good work getting it going, and making it look nice too.

Regards,
Lloyd

19th Feb 2017, 8:45 pm	#1
Radio Tech Nonode Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Bocking, near Braintree, Essex, UK. Posts: 2,071	Pilot BT 530 Hi fellow members I thought I would like to share the views and thoughts on this set, the set incidentally isn't mine, it was just one I did get working for a very old friend of mine who used to be in the RAF and later become a lecturer at Braintree College a few years ago. The set was in a dreadful state, dirty, dusty, no back panel and who ever had it before could not solder properly and it become obvious that some of the anode load resistors had for some reason a bad time in being overloaded. But after checking it through and replacing all the huge wax caps and a couple of electrolytic ones and some resistors along with tidying wiring and joints and re doing the cabinet the set is working but I did find the push button quite unusual, you have to manual tune to station required, hold the tuning control and adjust the selected preset so it bucks up against the capacitor, purely mechanical. Here are two or three pictures of the set. Best wishes Ken Attached Thumbnails

19th Feb 2017, 10:26 pm	#2
turretslug Dekatron Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Surrey, UK. Posts: 4,400	Re: Pilot BT 530 That's a very nice looking set with that warmly coloured woodwork. I find the tuning scales on some pre-war sets particularly appealing with their dozens of station names and circular or part-circular presentation, the Pilot ones make me think of one of those flattened globe map presentations. Linear scales might be practical, but they're somehow dull by comparison. Just a shame that AM radio station numbers are a mere fraction of what they were. Those pics certainly show up something that gets touched on here periodically- how empty a chassis can look when bulky old components, particularly capacitors, get replaced with much smaller modern ones. I actually quite like the fresh, rejuvenated look it gives to an old radio chassis (provided it's not a rare or valuable set) but I've sometimes found myself thinking, surely there's some bits I've forgotten.... Anorak alert: Looking up the valve-list on this set, I'm sure that I've seen other pre-war British Pilots with a typical US-type valve line-up apart from an X65 mixer/oscillator- perhaps they used US parent company circuits but felt that the European-favoured triode-hexode was worth using over the typical US self-oscillating heptodes for better SW stability. Last edited by turretslug; 19th Feb 2017 at 10:34 pm.

20th Feb 2017, 1:26 am	#3
Boater Sam Banned Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Middlewich, Cheshire, UK. & Winter in the Philippines. Posts: 3,897	Re: Pilot BT 530 Lovely cabinet, I like a bit of shapely wood. Danish oiled?

20th Feb 2017, 10:08 am	#4
Lloyd 1985 Nonode Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Coningsby, Lincolnshire, UK. Posts: 2,820	Re: Pilot BT 530 That's a really lovely set, I've never seen that model before. Good work getting it going, and making it look nice too. Regards, Lloyd