VINTAGE RADIO WORLD

gallery

some recent restorations
Up
WOOD
CHASSIS
ETHICS?
BAKELITE
PILOT
MARCONIPHONE
BUSH
EKCO
PHILCO
COSSOR
VIDOR
BEFORE/AFTER
GALLERY
TECHNIQUES

 

Aerodyne 'Swan' circa 1933/4. 3 valve plus rectifier AC TRF, medium and long wave coverage, reaction. Dial marked in metres but no station names. Rola ME loudspeaker.
Aerodyne 301 just post WWII, this set is badged 'Aerodyne' but is probably an Alba product. Aerodyne went into receivership before WWII. AC/DC, 3 band superhet with tone control.
Bush DAC10. AC/DC superhet, medium and long wave coverage. Tuning by preset or manual. Unusual case is almost mirror-images back and front - all bakelite, with contrasting Urea formaldehyde escutcheon.
Mid-1950s medium, long and VHF/FM receiver with magic eye tuning indicator, piano-key and manual selection and concentric controls. All Bakelite, with gold sprayed highlighting.
1930s Cossor TRF, model 373. Battery operated with medium and long waves and reaction. Featuring iron-cored tuning coils. Wooden (ply) cabinet with cast metal escutcheon. Concentric trimmer built into main tuning control.
Bush DAC90A. This very successful receiver was manufactured for several years in the 1950s. The chassis is a five valve ac/dc superhet with long and medium coverage. Bakelite cabinet.
This is a Urea Formaldehyde-cabinet version of the DAC90A. Urea is not as strong as Phenol and has a tendency to 'stress-crack' over the years, sometimes spontaneously as a result of moulding stresses, sometimes due to the internal heat generated by valves and mains dropper resistor. Because these Urea cased versions are rarer, they tend to attract a rather higher market price.
Ekco A144. Similar chassis to the slightly earlier A104, but with differently veneered cabinet. A five valve superhet AC receiver with long, medium and short, the set performs beautifully when correctly serviced.
Ekco M23. This is a three valve TRF with long and medium waveband coverage. Externally identical to the RS3: the main difference being the use in the latter of a cone type dynamic loudspeaker, whereas the M23 is fitted with a moving coil type. The cathedral shaped cabinet is an early single piece Bakelite moulding by Ekco's own presses and features a small window behind which the metal dial rotates. Wave-change is by a lever situated below the concentric tuning knob, operating a simple switch.
GEC model 401. 

4 valve AC/DC superhet in sharply styled Bakelite cabinet with unusual 'thermometer' scale system. Medium and ling wave coverage, AC/DC mains. Circa 1960.

K-B BR20. This is a large set, featuring a five valve AC only chassis using octal valves. There is ‘all-wave’ coverage, with the short wave divided into two bands covering 19 metres and 31 metres, allowing K-B to boast that both short wave bands were bandspread.
This very early 1930s Kolster-Brandes receiver is a three valve battery TRF with medium and long wave coverage and, typical of the time, features band-pass tuning. I have been unable to identify the model number but with such simple circuitry, restoration was possible without recourse to precise data (I based the rebuild on other similar K-B models)
Pilot Major Maestro. This is a large Bakelite-cased five-valve superhet, AC/DC mains and 3 waveband coverage. Retractable carrying handle on top. Post war product.

All rights reserved. © VRW 2006/2010

 

VINTAGE RADIO WORLD