Restoring a FADA 'Neutroceiver' Gerry O'Hara VE7GUH 2008

	Restored FADA Neutroceiver.

The name 'FADA' is derived from the initials of the founder of the manufacturer, Frank Angelo D'Andrea and the original FADA company he founded produced radios from 1923 to 1934 when it filed for bankruptcy. The model described in this article is one of the FADA company's earlier products, a 'Neutroceiver' Model C75A, manufactured in Toronto, Canada around 1925.

This set was bought from a CVRS member by Gerry back in 2008. It is a tuned radio frequency (TRF) circuit using five 01A directly-heated triode tubes - two tuned RF stages, detector and two audio stages. The 'Neutroceiver' design, as its name implies, employed the 'Neutrodyne' circuit configuration invented and patented by Alan Hazeltine in the early-1920's. This type of RF circuit was incorporated in many TRF designs of the mid-1920's until the introduction of the screen-grid tube, improved inter-stage screening methods and then the superhet made the technique virtually obsolete from 1928 onwards. In a Neutrodyne circuit, the RF stages employ small neutralising capacitors and a small extra winding or tap on each of the RF amplifier tuned anode coils to generate a small anti-phase signal to improve stability by cancelling-out the internal capacitances of the triodes. The neutralizing capacitors in the FADA are bespoke sliding rods in tubes (once set-up they need not be adjusted unless a tube was changed-out and instability was noticed). These receiver designs also often had the coils angled at 54.7 degrees between the axis of each coil and a line connecting the centres of the coils to reduce undesirable inter-stage coupling, as in this FADA. Like all early 1920's radios, this set is designed for battery operation, requiring a 6V 'A' cell (accumulator), 22V and 90V 'B' cells, and a 9V 'C' cell to operate (or a specially-designed multi-voltage battery eliminator).

	LEWIS and Neutrodyne labels.

The cabinet of this particular set still carries the label of 'Lewis Piano House Ltd, 1044 Granville St., Vancouver, BC.' - illustrating both local original sale provenance, and that at that time music stores also sold radio sets (and, indeed, many furniture companies manufactured cabinets for radio manufacturers). The chassis is in beautiful condition, ebonite base, nickel-plated tube sockets and other hardware, and all original components and wiring - all that was needed here by way of restoration was a careful clean-up and installation of a set of 01A tubes to get it into working order. The cabinet was in much poorer shape though, with some disassembly, re-gluing and gentle 'de-warping' needed before stripping and refinishing with tinted semi-gloss lacquer. The 'Lewis' label was left in place and a mask made for it for protection during the re-finishing work.

The end result is a beautiful mid-1920's Canadian-made period piece that still pulls in the broadcasts well after almost nine decades. Tuning is fun and a bit of a fine art - as in most sets of this era, before ganged tuning was the norm - this requiring careful trimming of all three tuned circuits to optimize the tuning.

Before restoration.

Straightening the cabinet.

Re-gluing the base.

Top view of the finished radio.

One of the neutrodyne capacitors.

Restored chassis.