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#1
06-13-2005, 03:15 PM
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What a waste . . .
of cabinet space. Please note the size of the chassis of this RCA farm-battery radio, compared to that of the cabinet. I wonder what RCA had in mind. One thing which comes to my mind is that the same basic cabinet may have been used for several different models of these radios, some having larger chassis and/or speaker(s) than this one. However, I still think it was a terrible waste of cabinet space to put such a small chassis in such a huge(!) box. RCA could just as easily have put this chassis in a cabinet the size of a table model and gotten away with it (Zenith's 1937-38 line of "cube" style radios comes to mind; I bet those don't have an inch of wasted space inside the cabinet). The only other reason I can see (beside what I mentioned above) for having a small chassis in a huge cabinet as with this RCA is to make room for the batteries.
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. 
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#2
06-13-2005, 07:34 PM
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That's enough room for an A-B pack and it's got a short battery cord. I've got a Zenith farm set in a bakelite cabinet with a long battery cord so you could put the battery on the floor and the radio on a nice table with a crocheted doily under it.....
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"proximo satis pro administratio" KAØSCR
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#3
06-13-2005, 08:01 PM
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Got a picture of the front?....I was just wondering if it was a design decision for the visual aspects of it ...or if the extra space was just for storage..
Like this Wards Airline that I saw at a friends house last summer... It belongs to his landlord... so he has no say over it ...bummer.... More pictures HERE
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 Gary in Texas
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#4
06-13-2005, 09:50 PM
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Maybe it was to fool the purchaser's friends he'd spent Big Bux on a set w/a bunch of tubes...rather than this 3 or 4 tube flyweight. Remember, we ARE talkin' the 30's here, times-especially on some farms were VERY hardscrabble.-Sandy G.
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Benevolent Despot
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#5
06-13-2005, 10:49 PM
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Battery defiantly was set up to be in the radio case so it would be out of sight, big battery means big case. My Pooley cabinet that came with an AK battery radio in it has the bottom third of the cabinet with doors to hide the batteries, bottom is lined and has a drain for acid spills.
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#6
06-14-2005, 01:24 AM
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And maybe the case is so big because the heat can get out easyer that way...
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#7
06-14-2005, 08:38 PM
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Those sets are real common around here, I just got in an order from Mouser for 6-10 cell AA battery holders. I'm going to wire them up in series to give me 90 volts then wire 6 D cells in parallel for the 1 1/2 volt filiment supply. That should be kind of neat to play the old farm set like it was used in its hayday....
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"proximo satis pro administratio" KAØSCR
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#8
06-14-2005, 08:55 PM
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I have a battery eliminator for one of mine, it is vintage mid 30's, uses one tube and a selenium cell. It has selectable transformer taps for filiment voltages 1.5 to 9V and several B+ taps. They were popular conversions when TVA electrified this area of the country in the 30's.
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#9
06-15-2005, 09:39 PM
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That big cabinet/small chassis was very popular in farm sets, I have numerous examples from Philco, Silvertone, Airline, etc. Keeping the batteries inside, for one thing, made the set easier to transport from room to room. Its kind of ashame, though, you get this big, beautiful cabinet that looks like it could hold a 12 tube chassis with electric tuning & an eye, and all you get is a 4 tube battery chassis!
Heat isn't so much a factor with these radios, the low voltage filaments mean low temperature.
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Bryan
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