Gerard's Philips BX200U

110
Item nr.

Philips BX200U Mini Radio

Bakelite turn of the century.

**Data for Philips BX200U**
Production	The Netherlands, 1950. Price was 145 guilders.
Bands	LW MW SW.
Tubes	UCH42 UF41 UBC41 UL41 UY41.
Cabinet	Bakelite. Size 27x17x13 cm. Weight 2.6 kg.
Power	ACDC 110/220V 48W.
Documents	Schema.

The Design

The quite standard ACDC design, used most of the time because of cost reasons. Indeed, DC nets were hardly around any more at the time, but saving the cost of the expensive power transformer was attractive. And dangerous, because nowadays these radios are often found without the back panel and with one or two knobs missing. Know what you do!

The radio is a fire hazard as well. The dropping resistor, output tube, and rectifiers together produce some 25W of heat and are packed together in a very small space, separated from the rest of the radio by metal shielding. Put your hand on the set above this hot corner and you'll know what I mean. Do not expect wires here to have still visible insulation on them, it is all blackened and crumbled after 50 years!

The same type was available in various colors, see this other one.Here is a picture from a Philips advertisement flyer of 1950, showing the radio in gray.The price quoted in the flyer is 160 guilders. The flyers advocates the very good sound quality of the set. Indeed, the sound can be considered quite good compared to many other radios of that era and that size.

Obtained	9/1998 from The Krijnen collection.
Condition	8.
Disposed	Sold 5/2010.
Sound sample	PLAY SOUND Lola by the Kinks was one of my favorite pop songs in the eighties (when it was already an oldie, being issued in 1970). Like the books by Willy van der Heide, the first version of the song had Coca Cola in the text, but BBC didn't want to go commercial and requested the change to cherry C-O-L-A.

This Object

There were some tubes missing and because I didn't have a UF41 I rewired the set so as to use a UAF41. Now the set is dual-tube, because it will play with either a UF41 or a UAF41. Inevitably the back panel was missing, I produced something out of a scrap back to protect the innards from being touched. In expectation of a replacement BX200 back, we shall say.

Part of Gerard's Radio Corner.
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