A vintage radio with provenance

[solo1]

Another post reminded me of a radio that I have.   Vintage just like me, an old fart.

This old radio dates back to when i was 13 years old, the summer of 1941.  I went with my Dad to Schueler's Radio shop in ft. Wayne.  While there he bought a table model radio for my mother.  Although it was in the likes of the "All American Five" it had six tubes.  The 'All American Five' was any radio that had five vacuum tubes. The tubes filaments were wired in series to come up with a total of 120 volts ac, a convenient way to heat the cathodes. All those old radios operated on 120 volts ac or dc. A simple and cheap way to make radios.

Anyway, I have this 74 year old radio.  It has a Bakelite cabinet, very brittle after all these years. two bands, AM and short wave .  Some 30 years ago i replaced an loctal tube with an octal and rewired the tube socket for the different tube. I will not play it although it did play the last time that I tried it.  All of the capacitors and some of the resistors are probably shot and it would be destroyed if it were turned on now. The power 'zip' cord is brittle and the cardboard back with the built in coil is badly torn.

I'm just posting this to 'dazzle' you with old terminology.  I could throw out names like screen grid, control grid, plate, condensers, aerials, cycles per second, and super heterodyne, if frequency, and dial cords but I won't 

I'm going to have a person repair and refurbish it for me.  I have the technical knowledge but my arthritic hands don't work very good at soldering plus i don't have a frequency generator any more.  I do have a tube tester though.

It will be good to see the tubes light up again just like my mother's face did when Dad gave her this gem a long time ago.  I'll have to get used to the 30 second pause after turn on as I wait for the filaments to heat up and the tubes start processing signals.

Maybe you won't find this interesting but, what the hey, I'm just refreshing my memory.  Here's a pic of the GE.





.

[Alpha Dog]

I like it and am glad you are getting it redone.  These old gems were pieces of art and entertainment and very solidly built.  We never had a radio like this in our house but my memories of my Father replacing tubes in the TVs of the 50s and 60s is priceless.  I do now remember a built in radio in a cabinet of our living room, have no idea of the make but it would have had similar technology.

I myself have a couple ( and prob. get another or two this winter - want a Marantz) of the 70's silverface era of receivers.   I have both in my office taking turns connecting them to my computer.  They do not make equipment like this anymore.  You see the Picker boys, Mike and Frank finding pieces like yours from time to time, but not from the Silverface era.

Post up a Pic of it when it is complete
Chuck

[Wizzard]

i worked on all kinds of tube stuff when I got out of college. TV's and radios. Fun days.

[hubcapsc]

I'll have to get used to the 30 second pause after turn on

Carolyn and I got a 1960 Pontiac Catalina station wagon a few
(15 or so) years ago... it had factory air, power windows... it
was one of those "survivors", 24k miles or so, pristine inside.

We figured the radio was broken, since it didn't come on when
we turned it on. One day, for some reason, we turned it on
and didn't turn it off... after about 30 seconds it lit up  ...

Riding through the countryside with the windows down and
the radios tuned to an oldies station was quite fun...

-Mike

[solo1]

We figured the radio was broken, since it didn't come on when
we turned it on. One day, for some reason, we turned it on
and didn't turn it off... after about 30 seconds it lit up  Wink ...
Quote by Mike.

Yeah Mike, I grew up in the tube era so I remember the 'pause'    I also retired from Magnavox and our 40,000 watt audio amplifier had a wait of 15 minutes before the six bridge gas rectifier tubes were willing to put out 10,000 volts of dc power.

I like tubes!

[old2soon]

Had an old wood cased Zenith Transoceanic. Could go upstairs to my room and turn it on come back downstairs and drain my bladder go back upstairs and it might be coming to life.  BUT when it did come to life it had a wonderful sound I have yet to hear duplicated.    First time I heard the B B C-my thought was-they sure duz talk funny!  Good memory jog Wayne-thanks!  RIDE SAFE.

[The emperor has no clothes]

I have a '57 Chevy station wagon with the original radio. It hasn't worked for years though. I didn't know anybody still messed with tube radios. Where are you getting yours worked on Wayne ?

[Black Pearl's Captain]

Just don't spill an 807 on it after you get it restored. I'll bet it will sound great when you get it back.

I don't think I have a single tube anymore. Sold or gave them all away when we moved 2 years ago. My last tube rig was my Grandfathers Kenwood TS520 but I gave it to my cousin W7QNX. Also gave another cousin granddad's Heathkit HA-10 kilowatt amp which still worked.

Signed,

W0QNX, W9QNX (807 amateur radio club president)

[IamGCW]

Real radios glow in the dark.  You can't beat the "warm" sound of a tube radio.  Look in the local area for Ham radio clubs.  Often they have members that do restorations for reasonable rates.

Cool radio.

Gil

[Momz]

My parents had that very same radio back in the fifties and early sixties. My brother and I were not allowed to touch it,..for fear that we would play "Rock-n-Roll" on some crazy AM station.

My brother and got transistor radios in 1962 as Christmas gifts, but my parents warned us not to listen to too much R-n-R. They believed that R-n-R would make you go mad.

But by the early seventies, even my dad was listening to Pink Floyd.

[R J]

Another post reminded me of a radio that I have.   Vintage just like me, an old fart.

This old radio dates back to when i was 13 years old, the summer of 1941.  I went with my Dad to Schueler's Radio shop in ft. Wayne.  While there he bought a table model radio for my mother.  Although it was in the likes of the "All American Five" it had six tubes.  The 'All American Five' was any radio that had five vacuum tubes. The tubes filaments were wired in series to come up with a total of 120 volts ac, a convenient way to heat the cathodes. All those old radios operated on 120 volts ac or dc. A simple and cheap way to make radios.

Anyway, I have this 74 year old radio.  It has a Bakelite cabinet, very brittle after all these years. two bands, AM and short wave .  Some 30 years ago i replaced an loctal tube with an octal and rewired the tube socket for the different tube. I will not play it although it did play the last time that I tried it.  All of the capacitors and some of the resistors are probably shot and it would be destroyed if it were turned on now. The power 'zip' cord is brittle and the cardboard back with the built in coil is badly torn.

I'm just posting this to 'dazzle' you with old terminology.  I could throw out names like screen grid, control grid, plate, condensers, aerials, cycles per second, and super heterodyne, if frequency, and dial cords but I won't 

I'm going to have a person repair and refurbish it for me.  I have the technical knowledge but my arthritic hands don't work very good at soldering plus i don't have a frequency generator any more.  I do have a tube tester though.

It will be good to see the tubes light up again just like my mother's face did when Dad gave her this gem a long time ago.  I'll have to get used to the 30 second pause after turn on as I wait for the filaments to heat up and the tubes start processing signals.

Maybe you won't find this interesting but, what the hey, I'm just refreshing my memory.  Here's a pic of the GE.





.

My Grandmother had one of those playing back ground music whenever the store was open for business.

I remember that ole girl well.   Grandma had it set on 1 station & you best not change it if you didn't want your butt warmed up for ya.

Don't have a clue as to where it went.    Someone probably takwd Grandma into selling it to them.

[Wizzard]

lots of those old radios just needed the electrolytic capacitors replaced as they leaked over time. Tubes are good most of the time.  Just FYI

[solo1]

The wiring is brittle and the electrolytic caps are bad but it's restore able, can't wait.  A person in Noblesville Indiana will be doing the work. I'm on the list but he has a years work ahead of me.  I chose him as I can drive down and do not want to send this fragile cased radio through Fedex or Ups.

Speaking of ham radio I'm K9AXM and i have a pair of old 6146's around somewhere, sorta like good ole reliable 807's.  I have been that route too, and have built a number of vacuum tube rigs.  I even had a SSB rig that I had to zero out the carrier by hand using meter observations.  I also built a rig using a 2E26 dual triode tube but couldn't get rid of the parasitic oscillation.  Also I made conversions over to six meter ham band on Motorola State Police transmitters and receivers. Big multiple tubes with dynamotors

I still have my license but I'm not active, too much bother for an antenna even for CW QRP (my favorite) since I'm in retirement apartments,

[Oss]

u betchya there is no sound like tubes

My family has tube radios and stereo in the basements dont know if they work any more than the old clocks that you need the special key to wind the spring and the chime

And I understand they may survive even an EMP event as no transistors to burn out

[Master Blaster]

Talk about tubes, back in the late 50s I was stationed on a Nike Ajax missile site in Connecticut. Was on the radar site up on Rattlesnake Mountain.  We had three radars, an acquisition radar to find the target, a target tracking radar, and a missile tracking radar.  They were computer controlled  to pass the target to the target tracker and coordinate it with the missile tracker to guide the missile to meet the target and explode in near vicinity.  Was a real step up as the missile didn't have to chase the target down, but would intercept it instead.  The computer was two trailer house sized containers that had hundreds of drawers full of thousands of vac tubes.  Some were mercury vapor tubes and when they stopped working you could pull them and tap them upside down to redistribute the mercury and they would be good again.   Probably the simplest tablet or almost anything these days are hundreds times more powerful than that but in its day it was a marvel.

[solo1]

Talking about tubes reminds me of the time that Mark was playing his guitar in is bedroom.  He had a 100 watt tube amplifier.  He had the volume turned up loud.  I told him twice to turn it down which he did but in very small steps. Still too loud so I went to the electrical distribution box and pulled the circuit breaker to his room.  A moment of silence then.............."Daaad"     Good memories, funny memories

[BigMac NJ]

just to add a visual to Master Blaster post above. Here is a picture of where I was stationed in the late 60's as a radar technician.This was an improved Nike Hercules site ( previously an Ajax site) Malibu, California. In additions to the radars mentioned it added the Target Ranging radar and the HIPAR acquisition(under the white dome).Speaking of tubes the HIPAR had a Klystron firing tube that was 6 feet tall and the final preamp tubes about 2-1/2 feet by 18 inches. Output power was 8.5 million watts on the HIPAR
couldn't get the picture to post.. see avatar on left

[hubcapsc]

[BigMac NJ]

Thanks.. 

[Black Pearl's Captain]

just to add a visual to Master Blaster post above. Here is a picture of where I was stationed in the late 60's as a radar technician.This was an improved Nike Hercules site ( previously an Ajax site) Malibu, California. In additions to the radars mentioned it added the Target Ranging radar and the HIPAR acquisition(under the white dome).Speaking of tubes the HIPAR had a Klystron firing tube that was 6 feet tall and the final preamp tubes about 2-1/2 feet by 18 inches. Output power was 8.5 million watts on the HIPAR
couldn't get the picture to post.. see avatar on left

Lots a lott of watt.

[Wizzard]

I used to work on an AM radio transmitter that had a final tube like that and after shutting down the transmitter to work on it, you had to discharge the tube or it could kill you.

[solo1]

Wow! Very good.  I'm glad that I started this post, lots of interesting posts here.
In the Service I was in the Medical corps so I didn't see things like this.  However, after the service I was a Quality Control Technician working at Magnavox Defense plant who inspected  military products that we made, the  APQ94 airborne Radar. That was about the time that we also made the ARC64 airborne radio which also had tubes.  t was superseded by the ARC 164 solid state radio at 1/10 the size. I also was Quality Assurance on Sonobuoys, the first ones were also powered by tubes.  SSQ23, SSQ41. etc.

[solo1]

I used to work on an AM radio transmitter that had a final tube like that and after shutting down the transmitter to work on it, you had to discharge the tube or it could kill you.

I also operated a 40,000 watt amplifier used on our vibration shaker.  It had two final tubes operating at 10,000 volts and three amps. When going into the 'cage' after shutdown, a grounded shorting bar was used to ensure that all voltages were dissipated since there were BIG power supply capacitors.

It had a fail safe circuit that would short the power supply to ground in case of emergency. Extremely LOUD if activated.

[Wizzard]

I used to work on an AM radio transmitter that had a final tube like that and after shutting down the transmitter to work on it, you had to discharge the tube or it could kill you.

I also operated a 40,000 watt amplifier used on our vibration shaker.  It had two final tubes operating at 10,000 volts and three amps. When going into the 'cage' after shutdown, a grounded shorting bar was used to ensure that all voltages were dissipated since there were BIG power supply capacitors.

It had a fail safe circuit that would short the power supply to ground in case of emergency. Extremely LOUD if activated.

Oh yes, we had a shorting bar and when it was shorted you had to wear earplugs because it was like an M80 going off inside a grain bin.

[Oss]

We had a Nike base about 2 miles from my home in Orangeburg sitting on Clausland Mountain

From the high school (I graduated in 73) at the west side of the mountain you could not miss is and its in most every photo I have seen taken from the bleachers at football games  over the years

The white dome has been gone for years

Thanks for telling me what was in that dome !

http://alpha.fdu.edu/~bender/NY04.html

[BigMac NJ]

HIPAR = High Power Acquisition Radar...