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  #1  
Old 10-11-2009, 10:43 PM
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Adam Adam is offline
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What radios do you have?

To go with the similar tv thread I brought back, I thought I'd start another one for radios..

my list of radios ...
1930 Atwater-Kent 76 console AM - not
1935 Trutone wood table radio AM - working
1939 RCA plastic table AM/SW - working
1940 Philco 40-115 wood table AM/SW - working
1941 Philco 41-295 console AM/SW - not
1947 GE bakelite table AM - working
1949 GE plastic tube portable AM - working
1949 Capehart radio/phono console AM/FM - not
1954 Zenith plastic tube portable AM - not
1957 Zenith plastic table AM - not
1957 RCA plastic tube portable AM - working
1957 RCA plastic clock radio AM - working
1957 GE plastic transistor portable - working
1958 Zenith plastic tube portable AM - working
1958 Zenith plastic tube portable AM - not
1959 GE plastic transistor portable AM - working
1959 Motorola plastic clock radio AM - working
1960 RCA plastic table AM - not
1962 Zenith plastic clock radio AM - working
1964 Admiral plastic table AM - working
1971 Zenith pocket transistor AM - working
- 21 radios total

Last edited by Adam; 01-30-2010 at 01:53 PM.
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  #2  
Old 10-11-2009, 11:08 PM
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bandersen bandersen is offline
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Location: Chicago, IL
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Here's my collection. So many to restore, so little time...

1929 Sparton Equasonne 931 console AM - not
1932 Philco 15DX console AM - not
1935 Philco 643B farm radio "tombstone" AM/SW - not
1937 Philco 37-10 console AM/SW - working
1937 Philco 37-60 wood table "cathedral" AM/SW - not
1938 Philco 38-10 wood table "bullet" AM/SW - working
1939 Philco 39-30 wood table AM/SW - working
1940 Motorola 71-A wood table AM/SW - not
1946 Philco 46-420 bakelite table "hippo" AM X2 - one working, one not
1950 Admiral 5R11 AM - working
- 10 radios total
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Last edited by bandersen; 11-16-2009 at 11:24 PM.
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  #3  
Old 10-12-2009, 02:22 AM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
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Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
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Here's a list of what's in my small collection.

Zenith C845, works
Zenith MJ1035, works, needs volume control
Zenith H511Y (black), works
Zenith K731, works
Zenith R-70 (11-transistor AM/FM 4.5-volt portable), works
Zenith H-480 (AM/FM/stereo FM clock radio), AM works, FM very weak
Zenith Royal 1000 eight-band AM/SW 9-transistor portable, works
Sony TFM-7720W (AM-FM three-volt transistor portable), works
Sony MR-9700W AM/FM/stereo FM 17-transistor portable
Aiwa AR-112 AM/FM 11-transistor portable
Sony MHC-GSX75 AM/FM/60CD/cassette stereo system (AM/FM tuner works, cassette and CD player inoperative - bad belts?)

Total = 11
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  #4  
Old 10-12-2009, 12:48 PM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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Some impressive radios you all have!!

I bet they work wonders on AM especially
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Old 10-12-2009, 01:10 PM
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Kingfisher Kingfisher is offline
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1940 Philco 40-130 AM (not working)
1946 RCA 54B3 battery portable AM (not working)
1960? Tele-tone Model 99 clock radio AM
1962 Zenith C724P AM/FM
1963 RCA Victrola 3VF534 "modularized" stereo console (AM/FM tuner and amp)
1963 JVC Delmonico FMS-413U stereo AM/FM
1964 Panasonic 720 clock radio AM/FM
1965 Fisher 600-T hybrid receiver
1965 Arvin 35R28 AM/FM
1968 Arvin 35R58 stereo AM/FM
1960's Peerless "Globe" transistor radio AM
1960's KLH Model 18 tuner AM/FM
1960's Audition 15 transistor radio AM/FM

I'm also trying to sell a 1939 Stromberg-Carlson Model 400H (not working) too.
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  #6  
Old 10-12-2009, 02:14 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
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One of the reasons Zenith's high-end table sets (C845, MJ1035, C835, et al.) work so well on AM as well as FM is because they have an RF amplifier stage ahead of the antenna, a feature not commonly found in AM radios of the '60s and later. Zenith's 800 series radios were designed for DX as well as for high fidelity, the former because many of these radios were sold and used in areas that were located tens or hundreds of miles away from the nearest stations.

The AM section of my C845 is so good I sometimes wonder why Zenith did not include an external AM antenna terminal in addition to the external FM terminals. I suppose, however, if someone wanted to connect an external AM antenna they could use a dodge such as disconnecting the internal Wavemagnet and connecting the external antenna (through a blocking capacitor, of course) to the leads going to the tuning cap. The use of a blocking capacitor is absolutely vital in these sets because they are hot-chassis series-string radios, meaning one side of the AC line is connected directly to the chassis and will be hot with the full line voltage, depending entirely on which way the plug is inserted in the wall socket. There is exactly a 50-50 chance of finding the hot side of the chassis; many people used to find out purely by accident that the chassis was hot when they touched the radio chassis and a grounded surface at the same time. This is why I do not care for metal-cased tube-type AA5 radios such as the Arvin 540T, et al. These sets may have been decent performers in good signal areas, but they were accidents waiting to happen, even though the chassis of these radios were secured in the cabinets by means of screws going through rubber grommets. This arrangement may have worked well when the radio was new, but over time the grommets hardened and lost much or most of their insulation capabilities. Another problem was that many times the grommets would be left off the screws (or lost) when the radio chassis was returned to the cabinet after servicing by a novice technician or budding radio serviceman. I've heard of cases where these radios were operated for years or decades without those grommets in place, which again is a disaster waiting to happen.

One thing I've noticed with my C845 is that the RF amp stage (a single 6BJ6 tube, used as an RF stage for AM as well as FM) seems to work too well (!) on AM. I say this because the set will pick up the horizontal-oscillator harmonics from every TV set in the apartment building in which I live, making daytime AM DX difficult if not impossible. There are several small AM music stations about 80-90 miles from here that I'd like to hear sometime, but those horizontal-oscillator birdies seem to appear right on or very near them. On the other hand, nighttime AM DX on my C845 is great. I live near the south shore of Lake Erie and can hear many stations in southwestern Ontario, Canada, as well as Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, et al. just using the radio's built-in Wavemagnet antenna. IIRC, I even heard WBAP-AM 820 in Minneapolis on this radio one night not too long ago, although with all the noise in my apartment I consider myself lucky if I can hear anything other than New York, Philly, Pittsburgh, or Chicago 50kW stations here after dark. Oh well. AM radio stations are programmed by mostly talk-based formats these days, so I guess I'm not missing much if I don't hear much music on the broadcast band. The C845 more than makes up for that on FM, as the sound and sensitivity are excellent, better than just about any modern radio coming from Korea or elsewhere in the Orient.

IMHO, Zenith should never have left Chicago and abandoned radio production. The company's older radios are among the best there were, as were their hand-wired TVs of the '50s through the '70s. The Zenith name and their trademark lightning bolt Z are now used by Gold Star on flat-panel HD televisions that are nowhere nearly as good (or last nearly as long) as the original Zeniths. I believe this is a terrible black eye on the memory and history of the original Zenith Radio Corporation, but.....what can we do? There will be no turning back, now that Zenith as we used to know it is gone. I suggest we keep our old Zenith radios, TVs and other gear in good shape and to use them often, as this equipment (and the memory of the company that manufactured it) is all that is left of a once-proud organization. The founders of the Zenith Radio Labs in Chicago, later to become the Zenith Radio Corporation, would probably turn over in their graves if they knew (or somehow were to find out) what has happened today to the proud firm they started over nine decades ago.
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Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.

Last edited by Jeffhs; 10-12-2009 at 02:18 PM. Reason: Correction of spelling error
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  #7  
Old 10-13-2009, 12:46 PM
cpacamper cpacamper is offline
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Since March when I began this obsession, I've collected:

Zenith X337, late 1960's am-fm, my first recap, sounds great
Zenith M504, mid 1960's am only set, my first repair, works but not a great performer
Motorola 5P33W am portable ac/dc-battery set, restored works great, looking to build batteries
GE T106A AM late 1950's dual speaker 5 tube ac-dc working
Westinghouse H648T4 late 1950's 4 tube am set, d.o.a. for parts
Zenith 6D815 1948 am ac-dc set restored and working
Zenith Royal 2000 1961? am-fm battery portable transistor, repaired, sounds great
Zenith Royal 500H, am pocket transistor not touched by me but working
Zenith C730, not working on the bench mid 1950's?
Zenith B835R, not working yet circa 1956
Arvin 444A on its way from epay
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  #8  
Old 10-13-2009, 01:42 PM
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Civilian or military ?
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  #9  
Old 10-13-2009, 03:40 PM
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ekimetsok ekimetsok is offline
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Zenith 8S154 - working
Philco 116X - working
RCA 143 - working
RCA 128 - working
Philco 70 - working
Philco 37-650 - not
Atwater Kent 165 - working
Firestone - 7S4603 - working
Stromberg Carlson 410-H - working
Phllco 620-B - working

And that's just the woodies in the music room. Numerous bakelites and plaskons scattered elsewhere around the house, most in working condition.
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  #10  
Old 10-14-2009, 06:16 PM
sprman55 sprman55 is offline
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Location: Smyrna TN.
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Eh Scott Philharmonic 30 AM pointer dial
E h Scott Phantom Deluxe AM
Collins R-391
Collins -R-388
Hammarlund SP-600-JX-6
Hammarlund SP-600-JX-17
RCA-AR-88
Hallicrafters SX-17
RME 50
Philco 53-690
RCA Radiola 18
Fada 175
BC-348-N
Zenith 9-S-204
Meissner 9-1091C
Magnavox CR-190A/B
Eico ST-70
National NC-57
Hammarlund HQ-129-X
BC-683
R-19E/TRC
Freshman Masterpiece
Zenith T.O.3000-1
Icom R-71-A
JRC-NRD-535D
ARC-5 compleat RX & TX for HF
and many other small novelty radios
Sprman : )

Last edited by sprman55; 12-13-2009 at 12:39 PM.
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  #11  
Old 10-14-2009, 11:12 PM
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radiotvnut radiotvnut is offline
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If I listed every radio that's here, it would take up quite a bit of space. Here's a partial list:

1922 Clapp-Eastham HR/HZ
1947 Firestone bakelite
1928 RCA Radiola 60
1931 Philco model 90 cathedral
Early '60's two transistor "boy's radio"
'46 Silvertone 6002 4-tube metal midget
Early '60's Motorola "ranger" transistor radio
'47 Crosley wooden AC/DC
Late '20's metal cased Atwater-Kent w/ speaker
Hallicrafters SX99
'35 Atwater-Kent 545 tombstone
Abbotwares horse radio
Guild telephone radio
Philco 60 cathedral
'57 yellow & white Westinghouse H622P6 xistor radio
'60's GE Mickey Mouse clock radio
'60 Magnavox stereo console
1950 Setchell-Carlson / Dahlberg coin op radio
mid '20's Clarion three dialer
'60's Zenith K731 wooden AM/FM
'60's Zenith G730 wooden AM/FM
Late '40's Howard table model wooden radio/phono
Several Zenith TO's (tube type).
Telefunken Hymnus tube stereo console
Mid '20's Stewart-Warner 3 dialer
RCA Radiola 18 from '27
'30's 8 tube Zenith black dial console (on the "to fix" list)
Late '20's Sentinel console (on the "to fix" list).
RME model 69 communications receiver

I think I'll stop for now.
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  #12  
Old 10-15-2009, 08:07 AM
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grumpy grumpy is offline
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Only one. KLH 21.
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  #13  
Old 10-15-2009, 06:56 PM
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truetone36 truetone36 is offline
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Here's a partial list;
Zenith Trans-Oceanic A600
Philco 42-PT-3
Atwater Kent 53C
Realistic DX-160 communications reciever
Silvertone R-101
Philco AR-40 car radio
unknown model G.E. AM/FM clock/radio
Motorola C4B clock/radio
'42 Philco ( don't remember model#) farm radio

I'll have to look over the ones in the shop to complete the list.
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  #14  
Old 10-15-2009, 09:31 PM
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There is no way I could list them all. I have an index card for each set I own and I have bought many packs of a hundred. I estimate over 400 if you count the junkers. This is way too many, and I am trying to cut back.
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  #15  
Old 10-16-2009, 07:21 PM
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AUdubon5425 AUdubon5425 is offline
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Tube:
Zenith 14H697 (1942)
Zenith K-731 (1962)
Arvin 450TL (1950)
RCA Victor 1-X-4 (1960)
Air King "Portorola" 3912 (1938)
Zenith H-509 made into signal tracer (1962)
Coronado 43-8352 (1947)
General Electric C-412C (1966)
Silvertone (Arvin) 7007 (1957)
Arvin 2564 (1957)
Silvertone 6216A (1956)
Grundig Majestic 1060 (1956)
Zenith G-503Y (1950)
Silvertone 7011 (c.1958)
Midwest 18-36 (1936)
Air King A100 "Pockette" (1946)
Philco 48-225
Truetone DC 2852 (c.1958)
Admiral YG507 (made in Japan) (c.1966)
Zenith H723 (c.1962)
Hallicrafters S-38D (1954-57)
Knight KG-221

Transistor:
General Electric 7-2877F
Sony TR-814 (1960)
Sylvania 4P19W (1962)
Lloyd's 9J45G-37A (late 60's)
Juliette CLF-1060 (1967)
Truetone MIC 1910 C-27 (1972)
Juliette APR-1404
Juliette APR-206
Juliette APB-11H (1965) (great radio)
Panasonic RF-1004 (1974)
Panasonic RF-593 (late 70's?) (a great performer)
Zenith RF88Y (Royal F88) (1972)
General Electric Superadio 7-2880B
Realistic DX-440 20-221B
Uniden Bearcat Alert BC-WA Weather Radio
Realistic Weatheradio 12-181
Panasonic RX-F10
Ross 2776
Juliette FPR-1282
Sharp GF-320 (1985)
General Electric C2441

Many of these are pictured at http://www.flickr.com/photos/AUdubon5425/
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