PHILIPS P626 (1936)

The Philips P626 was manufactured by Philips Electrical Industries of N.Z. Ltd in 1936.

6-valve (plus magic eye tuning) dual wave radio

Note: while it was common to put Australian stations on the dials of radios in this era, they were normally separated from the NZ stations - but, unusually, the 626 dial has a mix of stations from both countries.

Likely the first NZ produced radio by Philips NZ in their new Blair St (Wellington) factory.  See the main Philips brand page for more details.

Philips P626
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 20 NOVEMBER 1936

Technical Information

Valves (6): EF5, EK2, EF5, EBC3, EL2, EZ3 and 6E5 Magic Eye

Intermediate Frequency: 456kc/s

Frequency Bands: 2

Chassis Notes(most schematics can be clicked to download a full size version)

Service information Philips-626P-6V-DW-AC-193x.pdf

Of Radio Corp NZ design, and containing many RCNZ parts - but the schematic is signed RS who is likely Ralph Slade who was the Technical Manager of Philips NZ at the time.  This signature is likely just a final signoff, and there is no indication of who created or drew the design.

Philips P626

Philips P626

General Construction Notes for Philips Electrical Industries of N.Z. Ltd:

Philips early-mid century were probably the Google of their time - they had branches in many countries and a global brand that everyone knew - and were apparently happy to let engineers come up with new ideas and implement them.  Construction is often overly complex but very well engineered - although repairs can also take a complex path.  They used time-in-motion studies to find the most cost effective way to asemble sets and sometimes this means repairs can be nightmarish (if you've ever worked on a V7A Theaterette this will be all too aparent).  U suffix model numbers are transformerless (hot chassis) sets and great care should be taken, or the sets avoided altogether.

Philips model codes are complex - they are explained in-depth on the Philips brand page. 

Mullard codes: The model codes from Mullard sets (unlike their Philips counterparts) appear to contain valve count and date information.  For example, the model 525 is a 5-valve 1945 design.  The 2 appears to just be an identifier (most likely in case there were two models in 1945 with 5 valves, which there was - the 515 is the small 'Meteor' mantle set).

Fleetwood codes are often just a rearranged version of the Philips code.  For example, the FL374T transistor radio is a rearrangement of the Philips model L3Z74T.  Early Fleetwood codes were numeric with F on the end.  From about 1959 onwards the codes were much more like their Philips counterparts.  They start with F or FL (or sometimes FZ for larger consoles)...  These later codes also tend to end in a Philips-style identifier for the power source (A for mains, B for battery, T for transistor battery, etc - see the Philips brand page for more info on that).