Some of my tube sets...

[Charlie]

Today I decided to clean the shelf where I house some of my vintage tube radios, and cleaned the sets up as well. Then I took some photos of each to post here. i've had these radios for about 10 years now.

This first radio is a TrueTone model D2718. My grandmother bought this set for my grandfather in 1947. When I got it years ago, it had been sitting on a shelf in the garage for several years. I recapped it, and repainted the cabinet the same color to freshen up the looks. It's a 7-tube AM/SW hot chassis. Pulls in the stations really well.

[Charlie]

This is a 6-tube GE model 226. i think it's from 1950. Plays great.

[Charlie]

This is a Silvertone model 15 with 6 tubes. Roughly 1951.

[Charlie]

1941 Silvertone model 7038. Eight tubes. This was my first vintage radio given to me by my ex-wife's grandmother.

[Charlie]

Admiral 5E23N roughly 1951. Works, but seems to have a problem pullin in stations good.

[Charlie]

Zenith S-40174? AM/FM. Plays great.

[Charlie]

Silvertone 4204. 1954 i think. AM/FM. Nine tubes w/power xformer. I like the dial pointer on this set.

It's in need of SILVERTONE letters for the front.

[Charlie]

RCA 56X2. I bought this in Ybor City, FL. Someone had already repainted it. I don't know if this was the correct color scheme for it, but still thought it looked nice.

I tried pluggin it in earlier, but didn't pull in anything. hmmm. It used to work well... maybe something is loose.

[Charlie]

Zenith C730. 1960 maybe? This set worked just fine when i got it... kinda like the zenith portable TV's of the time. Has AM/FM/FM-AFC

[Charlie]

Motorola 5P33EW. This is a battery and AC operated AM set with four 1-volt miniature tubes. Everything in this set is original. Plays great and has a neat look.

[Charlie]

Mantola model number unknown. I believe it is possibly 1935-38, although i have not been able to comfirm it so far. Has six tubes, including the 6U5 tuner indicator.

[Reece]

Nice pictures, nice radios--all of them are something a little special, more tubes or features than normal.

Reece

[kc8adu]

Originally posted by Charlie
Silvertone 4204. 1954 i think. AM/FM. Nine tubes w/power xformer. I like the dial pointer on this set.

It's in need of SILVERTONE letters for the front.

looks like my arvin
does it have a #47 edge lighting the plastic dial scale?

[Paula]

Hi Charlie,

Nice collection of old radios -- thanks for showing them to us! I especially like the Motorola. It's a lot like the Silvertone that I'm restoring.

Speaking of Silvertone...

Regarding your Silvertone 4204, kc8adu wrote:
looks like my arvin...

Interesting observation, KC. I think that Arvin must have produced a number of Sears models, 'cause I have a Silvertone model 210 portable tube radio from around 1950, and it has all Arvin-branded tubes. And it doesn't look like any of them have ever been replaced. Perhaps Arvin built the same radio with different "badges" on it.

Paula

[Reece]

Hi Paula,

Yes, Arvin did make a lot of Silvertones. I have a couple: model 9000 brown bakelite, and model 9001, same cabinet but painted ivory, which were 1949-52 or thereabouts, definitely made by Arvin. Both use chassis 132.857. The 132 prefix indicates Arvin as the manufacturer. Here are some other prefixes to Silvertone chassis numbers:

100 Stewart-Warner
101 Colonial
103 Emerson
107 Howard
109 Detrola
110 Air King
113 Mission Bell
126 RCA
132 Arvin
164 Freed



Reece