How your passion began?

[Telecolor 3007]

My pasion got what wi'll call a "long story". But le me begin with begining. My grandfather had untill a few years ago an Soviet tv set "Rubin 102" manufactured in 1959 (the set lays in my uncle's yard in the countryside); my grandfather also owns an East-German (G.D.R.) (D.D.R.) "Ilmenau Super 66/55 W" bakelite radio (the radio haves no variable capacitor!!!, it works with a bobine!!!). My grandmother had an '50's "Victoria S571A" Romanian radio in her celler. I got the radio, but I it remaind unrepaird for 2-3 yeras; I can say that keept my pasion for old radios alive.
For a time I quit the passion for the tubes in the favour of the passion for the streetcars (trolleycars); but in the menaing time I became more intrested in F.M. tube radios. After a time, when my interess in streetcars began to sunshine, and my passion for the tubes ti sunrinse again. I found in an antyquites shop a East-German radio "Stradivari 3" with F.M. on 87.5-100 Mhz at the price at aprox.
2.000.000 lei (aporx 62 $) but that was to expensive to me (the today Romanian minium sallary is 2.800.000 lei-80 $, then was 2.500.000 lei). After a while I found a "Capri" East-German radio, with FM on 66-73 Mhz, but Stereo. The guy asked 3.000.000 lei (aprox. 90 $) on it. I beg my mother to give me money to buy it, but she refused. After a while I went to video-audio repair shop, to ask if they have a picture tube for the "Rubin" tv set. There, I saw a Soviet "Belarus 59" radiogram. I ask the guy that eas there I he sell it (I the radio it'll be cheper). He told me that the radiogram was there to be repaird, and he asked me if I don't want another radio in stand. The other radio was a... Capri. He asked 400.000 lei plus the cost of the repair. Finally, it cost me 600.000 lei, and the radio is WOW! form all points of wiew.
In the same week I found a "Rekord" Soviet tv set that I saw in an photo album of Bucharest. It cost me 500.000 lei (includng the "home delvery"), but in wasn't so old (it was maufactured in 1956 how the guy told me, it was manufactured in 1958),and the sound didn;t work. I had to put TRANZISTORS ot it. Guess I'm not so lucky with the tv sets.
Unfotrtnely, mu mum is not pleased wih my passion. Several times she threat me that she'll dump them.

[Paula]

I assume you mean, how did my passion for old radios begin? Good question.

Paula

[Sandy G]

My obsession for this stuff has ALWAYS been there, kinda burning on low flame. On a whim, I bought a RatShak/Sangean DX440 radio. Then I got a Popular Communications mag to see where the shortwave stations were. Kept hearing & reading about this marvelous device called an R-398. Then I saw Rick Mish's ad in the back of PopCom for R-390A sales & service. Called him, the rest is history. Soon I was the proud daddy of a '67 Dittmore-Friemuth R-390A. Then I read about the OTHER members of the R-390A "family" & basically couldn't live til I had at least one of each.Next, it was inferred that you were strictly a bush-league radioman unless you had an SP-600, to go along w/yr R-390As. And you REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need a Hallicrafters SX-28. Can't fergit the Navy,& Air Force, & their R-1051s. All the while every time me & the G/F were out prowling the antique/junk shops, an All-American Fiver or 2 would simply have to come home w/me. Or a neat old console. Next, e-Bay reared its ugly & expensive head & I've been able to get ephemera I could never hope to run accross here in Doughnut Center (What A Hole). All of a sudden, I realised I have no piece of furniture that isn't electronic or have at least one piece of electronic equipment on top of it. I'm sick-they say the first step to recovery is admittance of yr "problem" so here it is...<Grin>-Now, what's YOUR excuse ?!?-Sandy G.

[bgadow]

My earliest radio/tv related memories were peering in the back of our GE color console at those tubes, watching over the repairman's shoulders on his frequent visits, and playing with the knobs, learning what they did. Until I was maybe 12 years old I had never heard a working tube radio. There were a few sets I had seen-2 of my parents friends had late 30s Philco consoles they kept for decoration (and both still have them, I haven't talked them into letting me fix them...yet!) My father had a Zenith portable from the 40s that he gave me to tinker with but all it ever did was hum; I eventually beat it apart with a hammer! At least it wasn't a T-O!

The first working tube set was just a cheap Emerson 'fiver' from the late 50s but it worked well, and I just couldn't get enough of the sight and smell and the idea that those "DuMont-Emerson" tubes were bringing in the radio station! Funny, I was feeling the same kind of excitement they must have felt in the early 20s when radio first started showing up, yet here radio and tv were nothing new to me. I was just brought up on transistors.

I saved up and bought some other sets, at local yard sales or flea markets. Found a book on antique radios at the library, discovered I was not alone! Joined some radio clubs, bought more sets, then found a '54 RCA TV for sale! By my 16th birthday my bedroom was so full of radios and tv's I couldn't turn around! As often happens the collection had to take a back seat while I did the whole car/girlfriend/graduation/get-a-job/flat-broke-all-the-time thing. The 2 biggest moments for me in collecting were discovering that electolytic caps need replacing and will often bring a set back to life, and discovering internet forums, which teach me more than I could learn elsewhere.

[Paula]

Ebay, and the whole internet phenomenon itself for that matter, have brought together people and things that would have otherwise had little chance of bumping into one another. For both good and ill, I might add.

Paula

[Paula]

Bryan, your story just reminded me that when I first became interested in tube electronics, there was nothing 'antique' about it!


Paula

[Sandy G]

Paula, I've always put great stock in some of what the late, great Dorothy Parker had to say: "Boy, did I think I was smart. Just a little Jewish girl trying to be cute". Or: "Every morning I get up, brush my teeth-and sharpen my tongue." My sometimes witty, sometimes acerbic comments have gotten me in a fair amount of trouble over the years-but they've also won me a reasonable amount of friends.But you must expect that when you're a self-styled omnicient. <grin>-Sandy G.

[Reece]

I was always interested in electrical/mechanical things from an early age. When I was a toddler, to keep me occupied they would give me an unplugged electric fan and I would twirl the blades and watch how the oscillator mechanism worked. My sister and I would listen to "Let's Pretend" on the Emerson...I'm talking about 1945! and little Reecie would look inside the back and see the glowing lights, and smell the wonderful smell, and watch the thing with plates move in and out when the station was changed.

When I was elementary school age in the 50's my Dad and a couple of uncles helped me get started in electricity and soon with a crystal set. Then I got a WHOLE BUNCH of tubes and parts from my uncle who had experimented with it all in the 1930's. Soon I was gathering old radios, stripping them for parts, and building radios of all kinds. I built speakers, turntables, even a clandestine transmitter or two, mostly from scrounged parts. I had antennas strung all over the yard, and a neighborhood telephone system.

Collecting and restoring radios, then, waited a long time until about five years ago when the bug bit me. I have found sets locally and on ebay. I really like basket cases as there is so much to do! I managed to find two models of long-lost childhood radios, including the 1937 Emerson that my sister and I listened to. It brought tears to both of our eyes when we saw it and heard it sing again.

Reece

When I was about 7 years old (many,many years ago!)A radio repair shop opened up on my block.I looked in the shop window one day and have been hooked ever since.I still recall the battery display signs and wooden cabinet radios I saw there.
Our living room Philco cathedral likewise fascinated me.I remember so well,the warm,woody smell and being fascinated by the glow in the tubes.

Hey Bgadow!I see that I am not the only ARF person here!I still owe you a buck for the VTVM manual which I will send you shortly.
Malcolm

[bgadow]

Malcolm, this is where the real radio-and especially tv-nuts hang out!

You can save the dollar until I find something else to sell you! Still got to go through the projectors up in the attic...someday...

Originally Posted by bgadow

Malcolm, this is where the real radio-and especially tv-nuts hang out!

You can save the dollar until I find something else to sell you! Still got to go through the projectors up in the attic...someday...

Well,I do love radios and my psychiatrist will testify that I have several loose screws in what is still left of my original brain,so I guess I should feel right at home here!
I see that this forum has first class,up to date,and very intuitive software with lots of easy to use and time saving features that make it a pleasure to work with!It is as though the software authors anticipated,ahead of time,every move a user might need to make and added a built-in gadget to cover it.

OK,I will donate that buck to an xmass charity instead

Yup,still looking forward to the projector stuff possibility,whenever it happens.
Malcolm