UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Ekco A182 restoration. An Ekco vanity set?

Gabe001 · 29th Nov 2022, 8:08 pm

Like most of you, I assume, I'm constantly on the lookout for unusual and interesting sets.

So when the Ekco a182 came up for sale within pickup distance for the princely sum of £20, I pounced.

I had never come across this set before, but a quick Google revealed a few photos, a short thread on this forum and a radiomuseum post. It is a continental set, boasting multiple short wave bands, MW (no LW), a push pull output stage, a rotating drum for a tuning dial, a high and low PU input, bass and treble controls, a DM70 tuning indicator, and 2 massive speakers.

The impressive valve lineup can be seen here. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ekco_a182.html

Upon pickup I was first struck by how massive the set was. Not possible to sneak this past swmbo I thought. Cosmetically it was rather poor. The brown "paint" was scratched all over, the inside was mouldy but it was solid, there was no woodworm and the brass was rather good without damage. The wood would need to be sanded down. The dial pointer was missing. I expected to find it in the case

In any case, time to get to work. The first problem was the size. I lugged it around with difficulty. Taking it out of the case required help. So did transporting the chassis with the two large speakers to the study/workshop. Anyway, swmbo was happy to help.

Dismantling the set revealed the first and major problem. The dial pointer including the cursor assembly, the brass collar around the tuning spindle and the dial cord were missing. Probably someone tried to have a go at restringing in the past and didn't put the parts back in. They were lost forever. The rest was however original and unmolested.

I decided to put this problem aside for now and work on the case. Now, I'm a some woodworking wizard, but I get by. Usually on a normal sized radio, the working surfaces are small, which is quite forgiving. On this massive behemoth, any mistake stood out like a sore thumb. I made the error of staining with naphta stain before applying Danish oil, which was a mistake because the Danish oil is a solvent for the naphta stain. In any case, with some luck more than anything, after a lot of elbow grease, I ended up with a rather acceptable result. The original lacquer came off with Polycell Paint remover quite easily at least. I really need to learn to use polyurethane varnish.

With the case done, time to polish the brass. Due to the amount of brass involved, this took a whole day. Brasso worked wonders.

With the cosmetics done, time to address the main problem, the missing tuning apparatus. After opening a thread on this forum, a kind forum member with a lathe offered to do the spindle collar for me. The problem here was the size. Too thick and the pointer will move more than intended. Too thin and it wouldn't move enough. Pi revealed the appropriate thickness. However this made lathing technically complex (thin walls). In the end the collar ended up a fraction thicker than the original. Regardless, the effect on the movement of the pointer is minimal. The second problem was the cursor apparatus itself, which was missing. This involved two pulleys with the pointer in the middle. I decided to try to 3D print this, which I did. For the actual pointer I used a copper "ground bus" solid wire. You can see pictures of all this and a video of how it works, following restringing which wasn't too technically complex. I'm pleased with it, it tracks well enough and although there is a slight wobble when the tuning dial changes direction, this isn't too bad.

Having sorted this, it was time to handle the actual electrics. This was actually quite straightforward. The on and off switch was stuck, but after working it and a bit of servisol and it started working well again. The pots were crackly, so again servisol did the trick, but I had to loosen the tags to create a gap to spray the servisol into the pot itself. The main smoothing cap was fine. I replaced the cathode bypass electrolytic caps and all the waxies and Tcc caps; some of the latter were visibly leaking yellow fluid. The main challenge here was the sheer number of replacements, about 3 radio's worth. It was torture. The resistors were checked and I replaced 3 that were significantly out of range. Moving parts cleaned and lubricated as appropriate. The end job is shown. Finally I gave the set a decent mains cable and fitted a 1A fuse in the plug and it was done. No major dramas.

And there we go. Put it back together and voila, job done. No realignment was necessary.

So how good is it?

In a nutshell, outstanding. I am currently listening to football in my study without an aerial connected, and talksport is coming through crystal clear with full diode deflection, despite the WiFi, mobile chargers, led lights, cordless phone, powerline adapters and so forth. None of my other sets can do this. It's as good as a DAC 90a/cossor 464 , if not better, and these sets have an internal aerial.

The rotating drum tuning dial is quite a novelty. The dial lamp is a standard 25w incandescent bulbs, because ekco don't do things in half. The set doubles up as a lamp. The two speakers are completely unnecessary. The phonola has an el84 push pull output stage as opposed to an el42 p-p stage in this set, and has only a single speaker. The noise limiter doesn't work particularly well and goes from minimum to maximum quite suddenly. I think it needed to be a linear pot instead of a log pot. The bass and treble control work very well. It has a high and low Pu input (4 sockets), possibly one for crystal and the other for ceramic cartridges?. Sound through the pickup with my phone as a source is good but not as good as the phonola; the el84 would have been a better choice.

In conclusion, I think ekco put this set together to show what they can do on an international stage, maybe to try to out do the Germans? I'm sure it would have cost a small fortune at the time, and that this set was someone's pride and joy. I don't think it was sold on the local market,but I could be wrong. Has anyone got one?

The rotating dial is certainly interesting and works well. The multiple sw bands may have been useful in the 50s, now less so. The dinky tuning indicator works great. I like the bass and treble control. The quieting pot at the back is probably a bit unnecessary and I feel they missed a bit of a trick by using el42s instead of el84s, given the two large speakers. Radio reception is outstanding however and it is loud enough, probably about 5-6w at max volume.

Some pics below and I'll post links to some videos in the next post

I hope this post helps someone in future. This set is rare in the UK and there's very little about it online.

Regards
Gabriel

29th Nov 2022, 8:08 pm	#1
Gabe001 Octode Join Date: Oct 2019 Location: Stockport, Greater Manchester, UK. Posts: 1,646	Ekco A182 restoration. An Ekco vanity set? Like most of you, I assume, I'm constantly on the lookout for unusual and interesting sets. So when the Ekco a182 came up for sale within pickup distance for the princely sum of £20, I pounced. I had never come across this set before, but a quick Google revealed a few photos, a short thread on this forum and a radiomuseum post. It is a continental set, boasting multiple short wave bands, MW (no LW), a push pull output stage, a rotating drum for a tuning dial, a high and low PU input, bass and treble controls, a DM70 tuning indicator, and 2 massive speakers. The impressive valve lineup can be seen here. https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/ekco_a182.html Upon pickup I was first struck by how massive the set was. Not possible to sneak this past swmbo I thought. Cosmetically it was rather poor. The brown "paint" was scratched all over, the inside was mouldy but it was solid, there was no woodworm and the brass was rather good without damage. The wood would need to be sanded down. The dial pointer was missing. I expected to find it in the case In any case, time to get to work. The first problem was the size. I lugged it around with difficulty. Taking it out of the case required help. So did transporting the chassis with the two large speakers to the study/workshop. Anyway, swmbo was happy to help. Dismantling the set revealed the first and major problem. The dial pointer including the cursor assembly, the brass collar around the tuning spindle and the dial cord were missing. Probably someone tried to have a go at restringing in the past and didn't put the parts back in. They were lost forever. The rest was however original and unmolested. I decided to put this problem aside for now and work on the case. Now, I'm a some woodworking wizard, but I get by. Usually on a normal sized radio, the working surfaces are small, which is quite forgiving. On this massive behemoth, any mistake stood out like a sore thumb. I made the error of staining with naphta stain before applying Danish oil, which was a mistake because the Danish oil is a solvent for the naphta stain. In any case, with some luck more than anything, after a lot of elbow grease, I ended up with a rather acceptable result. The original lacquer came off with Polycell Paint remover quite easily at least. I really need to learn to use polyurethane varnish. With the case done, time to polish the brass. Due to the amount of brass involved, this took a whole day. Brasso worked wonders. With the cosmetics done, time to address the main problem, the missing tuning apparatus. After opening a thread on this forum, a kind forum member with a lathe offered to do the spindle collar for me. The problem here was the size. Too thick and the pointer will move more than intended. Too thin and it wouldn't move enough. Pi revealed the appropriate thickness. However this made lathing technically complex (thin walls). In the end the collar ended up a fraction thicker than the original. Regardless, the effect on the movement of the pointer is minimal. The second problem was the cursor apparatus itself, which was missing. This involved two pulleys with the pointer in the middle. I decided to try to 3D print this, which I did. For the actual pointer I used a copper "ground bus" solid wire. You can see pictures of all this and a video of how it works, following restringing which wasn't too technically complex. I'm pleased with it, it tracks well enough and although there is a slight wobble when the tuning dial changes direction, this isn't too bad. Having sorted this, it was time to handle the actual electrics. This was actually quite straightforward. The on and off switch was stuck, but after working it and a bit of servisol and it started working well again. The pots were crackly, so again servisol did the trick, but I had to loosen the tags to create a gap to spray the servisol into the pot itself. The main smoothing cap was fine. I replaced the cathode bypass electrolytic caps and all the waxies and Tcc caps; some of the latter were visibly leaking yellow fluid. The main challenge here was the sheer number of replacements, about 3 radio's worth. It was torture. The resistors were checked and I replaced 3 that were significantly out of range. Moving parts cleaned and lubricated as appropriate. The end job is shown. Finally I gave the set a decent mains cable and fitted a 1A fuse in the plug and it was done. No major dramas. And there we go. Put it back together and voila, job done. No realignment was necessary. So how good is it? In a nutshell, outstanding. I am currently listening to football in my study without an aerial connected, and talksport is coming through crystal clear with full diode deflection, despite the WiFi, mobile chargers, led lights, cordless phone, powerline adapters and so forth. None of my other sets can do this. It's as good as a DAC 90a/cossor 464 , if not better, and these sets have an internal aerial. The rotating drum tuning dial is quite a novelty. The dial lamp is a standard 25w incandescent bulbs, because ekco don't do things in half. The set doubles up as a lamp. The two speakers are completely unnecessary. The phonola has an el84 push pull output stage as opposed to an el42 p-p stage in this set, and has only a single speaker. The noise limiter doesn't work particularly well and goes from minimum to maximum quite suddenly. I think it needed to be a linear pot instead of a log pot. The bass and treble control work very well. It has a high and low Pu input (4 sockets), possibly one for crystal and the other for ceramic cartridges?. Sound through the pickup with my phone as a source is good but not as good as the phonola; the el84 would have been a better choice. In conclusion, I think ekco put this set together to show what they can do on an international stage, maybe to try to out do the Germans? I'm sure it would have cost a small fortune at the time, and that this set was someone's pride and joy. I don't think it was sold on the local market,but I could be wrong. Has anyone got one? The rotating dial is certainly interesting and works well. The multiple sw bands may have been useful in the 50s, now less so. The dinky tuning indicator works great. I like the bass and treble control. The quieting pot at the back is probably a bit unnecessary and I feel they missed a bit of a trick by using el42s instead of el84s, given the two large speakers. Radio reception is outstanding however and it is loud enough, probably about 5-6w at max volume. Some pics below and I'll post links to some videos in the next post I hope this post helps someone in future. This set is rare in the UK and there's very little about it online. Regards Gabriel Attached Thumbnails Last edited by Gabe001; 29th Nov 2022 at 8:35 pm.