National SW-54

[RitchieMars]

Many years ago, a friend of the family gave my mom this National SW-54.



At the time, my parents were really into CB radio and our friend, who had served in the air force, had quite a collection of equipment. He said this one didn't work and said that she could have it. Oddly enough, it ended up sitting in the floor somewhere or another. One day, my mom's foot collided with it and she was bent on chunking it out the front door so I convinced her let me have it, instead. I didn't want to see it get thrown away, and while I didn't know anything about it, I knew it was old and that was enough to give it value in my eyes.

It's sat on a shelf for several years now, and I've never really thought much about it. Awhile back, someone over at AudioKarma was talking about ham radios and whatnot and I mentioned having this radio and he told me it was a decent entry-level receiver. I looked into it, and sure enough, it was a popular model from the 1950's. It heavy, tube-type, and made during the 50's. That qualifies it as "cool."

Since I've been tinkering with vintage electronics lately ( restoring that Zenith television ) I figured I might have a look at it, now that I somewhat know what I'm doing. It was pretty much filthy inside.



It's safe to say that this thing hasn't been serviced in a very long time. Believe it or not, there's a copper-plated chassis under all of that dust.



Despite the copper plating, some pitting has set in. Naval jelly seems to be helping, though. This radio is unique in that the underside of the chassis can be accessed by removing the bottom cover, rather than having to remove the chassis completely. I took it all apart anyways, of course. It's a bit of a mess under there, too. No wonder it didn't work...



All of the original wax capacitors are still present and are long overdue for replacement. There seems to be a crude electrolytic repair where at least one 60MFD from the old can has been left in circuit while a metal multi-section can has been added.



Well no wonder this electrolytic didn't work! It was actually a banana in disguise!

Seriously though, WTF?

So, from what I can see, this should be pretty restorable. Phil has an article about this same model of radio on his site and from the looks of it, it shouldn't be too difficult to work on. I don't know too much about this genre of the radio hobby, but if I means I could listen in on some interesting transmissions, I'd be game for giving it a try. The radio would be of much more value restored than it would be in it's current condition, anyways. Best of all, it was free!