'39 Sky-Chief portable

[decojoe67]

This 1939 Sky Chief battery-only portable (model unknown) was found in a back room of a long-closed electronics repair shop in Moundridge, Kansas. The repairman did a labor-of-love full chassis restoration which included a repaired secondary winding on the oscillator coil, open primary winding in the speaker output transformer, and expertly winding an antenna coil, which was missing. The set now works like new. It's a primitive looking tweed-and-stripes portable with the simple tuner plate, and you just don't see Sky Chief radios much. I just had to get it and preserve it.
Oh, and the repairman made a booklet with every detail and pic of the chassis, which I received with the set.

[Sandy G]

Right sweet lookin' set !

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Right sweet lookin' set !

Thanks. The primitive look of it is appealing, but even better is that it could've easily been just tossed in the dumpster with the problems it had. Now it's preserved and enjoyed once again. This is a really early example of a battery-only tweed-n-stripes portable using the low-drain tubes.

[Electronic M]

With a name like Sky-Chief you just know if Pontiac had ever made a flying car, or Sangamo had ever made caps targeted towards aeronautical applications they'd be trying to buy the name...

With how ancient that looks if you ever encounter a boomer showing a millennial a transistor radio and telling them it was the grandfather to their portable music player, you can say to the boomer (hopefully in your best impression of the old-timer from from Fibber McGee & Molly) 'say there, sonny this heers the great grannpappy to yer transistor radio' .

[maxhifi]

This one is so basic, it almost looks like a product of cottage industry. Very cool thing to save, and good story to go with it!

[decojoe67]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

This one is so basic, it almost looks like a product of cottage industry. Very cool thing to save, and good story to go with it!

I've been in the hobby for over 35 years and I'm drawn to "ugly duckling" sets now. The primitive look with this one and the story made it irresistible to me. I bet this is only example left. I've never seen another.
Check out this photo from the Net. I was blown away that the set it displayed in the window! It should be 1939, but don't it look like '38 Emerson sets in the window?