Newbie – 1930s Rogers Majestic Champlain – Rogers Majestic “The Champlain”

[Andrew McFadyen]

Hi Everyone,

Very happy to find this forum. Just started a restoration on a Rogers Majestic Champlain cabinet. I’ve plugged it in. Lights up and some of the tubes glow, but no sound. However, before I do anything at all, including replacing some of the tubes, I wanted to ensure I’m doing this safely.

I’m reading a lot about hot chassis radios, and wondered if someone could lead me in the right direction as to whether this version is also a hot chassis radio. The original plug is on it, so not polarized. With this radio, is there a risk that I’ll put the plug in wrong and have a shock risk?

I currently have everything out of the cabinet to do the restore work on the cabinet.

Any guidance would be helpful. I’m sure I’ll have more questions here – happy to post some photos if they would be helpful.

Thanks so much.
Andrew
Campbellford, Ontario

[Andrew McFadyen]

Adding in a few photos and can post more if need be. Cabinet is rough and is in the process of a restore. Everything has now been removed to get this done 🙂

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Andrew McFadyen.

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[Alistair Thomson]

The power input to the radio is through an isolation transformer, so there is no connection whatever between the chassis and external local ground. That means that your chassis isn’t live so if you touch it you’ll not provide a path to ground from a high voltage. You could safely install a three-pin cable with the ground connected to chassis, and I’d recommend that.

Love your name, by the way. Sounds just like home to me. I’m a Scottish ex-pat now living just a step away from you in Frankford 🙂

[Les Dickson]

You shouldn’t plug it in until you’ve done some investigation into the integrity of the radio, you could cause irreparable damage to some components. The tubes are the least likely things to need replacing. All the electrolytic capacitors sshould be replaced, and any paper capacitors as well. Check the resistors and look for bad wiring.. It’s safest to use a “dim bulb tester” when you do power it up to avoid damage caused by shorts.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Les Dickson.

[Dan Walker]

Les, That is very good advice.
I restored the very same model for a friend and after I was done of sounded very good.
I hope you have a good 6F7M tube as they are hard to get and there is no sub for it. The center tuning bulb is a special 24 volt bulb.
The bulb is #1448 and .035 ma.
In your photo showing the cabinet and lighted dial, it looks like it is quite bright.
You do want to be careful with the bulbs burning the plastic dial , if they are too close or to hot
I have quite a few photos of my restoration, that I could send you if you like.
Her are a few showing some of the caps that have to be changed, and photos of the caps after they were changes.
Dan in Calgary

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Dan Walker.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Dan Walker. Reason: More information needed

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[Andrew McFadyen]

Thanks for this, everyone. Looking forward to getting started.

Alisair – nice to meet you! And close by, even. Any interest in having a look at this to help troubleshoot? Glad the McFadyen name makes you feel a bit more like home 🙂

Dan – thanks for the tip on the bulb. I think it looks brighter in the photo because I’ve got my work light in the back :). Would love some photos of your restoration! Unsure if email is allowed to be posted but I can be found at .

Les – will use the dim bulb tester as suggested. The previous owner had this going and told me he just needed to replace a tube, hence me turning it on quickly. But will slow down and do things right.

I appreciate this, and happy to be here to learn from you all.

Best,
A.

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