Philips 274A No reception

[Old Sparky]

Application of Servisol Super 10 switch cleaner, and cleaning of the o/p valve's pins still leaves the intermittent connection, which may only be curable by tightening the valve base's sockets., or ideally by replacing the socket

[Refugee]

On most valve sockets the pins can be extracted and replaced.
I have occasionally fixed valve holders in this way.

[Old Sparky]

True, Refugee, but I haven't looked into this one yet. Obviously I'll need to de-solder the connections to the base in order to remove either the base complete, or individual sockets. At least there's only 5 widely spaced sockets to deal with.

[Refugee]

You only need to un-solder the wires on the bad pin.
Look carefully at how the pin is crimped to keep in in the socket on both the socket in the set and the donor socket you propose to harvest the replacement pin from.
You will then be able to see how to go about swapping the pin out.
I have in the past pinched one from a socket that does not use all of the connections such as the rectifier subject to there being clips over the valves.
Phillips sets commonly have clips on the valves.

[Old Sparky]

There are no clips over the valves in a 274A, which, for those who don't know , is a mid 1930s TRF - one of the 'Superinductance' series in which the valves are all either 4 or 5 pin types. A clip would help to keep the output valve firmly seated in it's socket. From the way it behaves there is more than one intermittent socket in the valve base which has to be tackled. Basically this radio is 'showing it's age.

[Murphyv310]

Could be a tricky repair on these sets.
You could try tinning the valve pins which may tighten everything up. Don't overdo the solder though.

[Refugee]

I agree about pre-war valve holders being more difficult to fix.

[Old Sparky]

I had thought that if some metal sleeving which would tightly fit over each pin of the valve, could be obtained, a cure could be effected, but the chances of finding tubing of exactly the correct diameter are probably remote, so tinning the pins is maybe the only practical answer.

[boater sam]

A spiral of extra fine wire from flex wrapped around the pin before inserting with the end poking down the socket often works for me.

[Old Sparky]

Despite going over the 274A again, and resoldering suspect joints it is still intermittent, which is down to bad contacts between the valve and it's socket. Tinning one of the pins made little if any difference, so ideally a replacement valveholder is needed. The radio isn't mine, so I wonder if I can source and fit a replacement valveholder before 1st. February, when the owner is calling to collect it!