General Electric Radio model 212

GE 212 with wood cabinet

Again I was hunting on eBay to find an American tube radio with good FM capabilities. After restoring 2 Zenith radios I wanted to look for a different one. I got this General Electrics model 212 for $25. It was not supposed to work, only to hum.

The GE 212 radio tube complement consists of:

The radio was listed in the Beitman files of 1949, so I assume it is a 1949 or 1950 model. Schematic (.gif): GE 212 (102k)

There were 3 versions of this radio: a soft shaped Mahogany version #210, a bakelit Ivory version #211, and this substantial wood cabinet version #212.

When the radio arrived, everything was as described: a lot of hum, nothing more. I removed the chassis from the cabinet and checked the tubes on my TV-7 tube tester. A very bad 6BJ6 and weak 35W4 and 19T8 were found. So far so good. A quick look under chassis showed the parallel resistor of the dial lamp was completely burned. The 35W4 is always connected in the same way:

No. 40 and no. 47 type panel lamps are 6.3V 0.15A lamps, the GE model 212 is using the bayonet type no. 47.

The GE's power supply was completely trash. Checking also the various waxpaper-caps I've decided to go the whole way and more-or-less totally re-cap the radio. 22 caps were replaced, only a few low value ceramic-caps stayed at their place.

The cabinet was cleaned, waxed and polished. The wire antenna mounted on the back had some broken wires which I've fixed.

The GE 212 has an interesting circuit: it is using a Pentagrid Converter, the 12BE6, for AM and for FM. This is different e.g. to Zenith's solution with a double triode for FM conversion. The Pentagrid Converter for FM works well, but not as good as a double triode. On the other side the GE 212 is missing 1 or 2 I.F. sections compared to the Zenith radios I've rebuild.

 

The GE 212 chassis

After successfully rebuilding the radio I gave it as a gift to a friend.