The FM Phantom that wasn't

[Kent King]

So this interesting chassis landed here this weekend, thanks to fellow member Dave Poland. He brought me a Phantom Deluxe, but I quickly realized, it was originally supposed to be an FM Phantom. In the first two pictures, note the plugged tube holes and the plugs and extra holes on the side of the chassis.

The next two images show an early FM Phantom - where the FM IF and discriminator are bolted on the side of the chassis. The top view shows the two tubes that would be where the hole plugs reside:

Clearly this chassis was punched and drilled to be an early FM set, but was shipped as a regular Deluxe Phantom. I wonder if this reflects on a lack of interest in the early FM. Or perhaps an over estimation of the FM potential. Either way, a fascinating find. Any other thoughts???

Kent

[David C. Poland]

Receiver set cable has a round set plug rather than the Jones Plugs Scott began using sometime later 1941.

The 28 tube FM Phantom was introduced Spring 1940.

We also noticed the 6L6 amp that came with it did not have a hum pot adjustment.

[Kent King]

Two things come to my mind with this thought: first, the serial number is EE-357. I don't have any hard dates in that prefix, so we can't narrow it that way, but I can tell you that the EE prefix goes up to 491, so it's a pretty long road between this chassis and the end of the series. Also, the later FM Phantom's all have the extended chassis, I don't think the "bolt on" FM modules were built throughout the sale of FM sets. That said, with the custom work Scott did - who knows?

Kent 

[Norman S Braithwaite]

Or what was available to fill orders after curtailment of civilian production as we entered WWII.  Is there any indication of the date of manufacture?

Norman