Neat L'il 1951 Arvin...

[Sandy G]

I got this l'il feller I guess 10-12 yrs back for a song. It is a 1951 Arvin model 540. It has a tan steel case, & uses 4 tubes. I don't think I ever took it to see Terry, but it works dandily, anyway. I have a small collection of these 4 tuber Arvins, & no, they ain't perzactly great DX machines, but if you give 'em a halfway decent antenna, & maybe toss a goodly length of said tenny out the window, they might surprise you. All of mine are pressed steel painted cabinets, which leads me to suppose a lot of these guys were "Salesman's Specials",that got tossed in a suitcase, unpacked at a motel, & the sales guy had something to keep him entertained on those long, lonesome nights in some unfamiliar town. The 4 tubes would pull in the local Angel Modulation station adequately, the steel cabinet would take a licking & keep on ticking, &I've seen ads for these things in repro magazines, if somebody "Borrowed" one off our hero on the never payback plan, it wasn't the end of the world-I think they were something like $9-15 for the fanciest one. I would have got sore if one had been "Borrowed" from me, but I would likely have simply left one behind a time or 3, knowing how scatterbrained I tend to be.... Anyhow, I like this l'il fella-Whoever had it took GREAT care of it, 'cause the case is pretty much IMMACULATE...Arvin made 2,3,4,&5 tube models, they ain't big, & a BUNCH of 'em take up hardly any room, & they still tend to be fairly cheap, should anyone else want to start a collection... But mine AIN'T 4 Sale, so Fergit it ! (Grin)

[Electronic M]

I once had one of the pre-war models...The thing was beat up and had been repainted more than once (presumably there was a beat, paint, repeat cycle involved)...The last cycle was chipped fire engine red which looked terrible with the brown airplane dial, so I sanded it, sprayed it dark green oohed and aahed over it for a few months...Then I brought it to a swapmeet and somebody jumped on it like it was the last one on earth...Maybe I did a bit too nice a job painting it.

[Sandy G]

No kiddin', Tom.... Wished I had been one of these l'il guys in a roomful of pretty girls back before I got married.... I've got more Ooohs & Ahhs & Oh, how CUUUUUUUTES over these l'il fellers than any other toys I've bothered to show off to other folks.... And dammittall, they ARE cuter than Bugs' Ears. Funny thing, too-How I think ALL of 'em have worked straight out of the box-And, Lord knows what kind of lives they led B4 I got 'em. Virtually ALL of my more Sophisticated radios have had to have extensive, expensive surgery before any of them would so much as toot. Maybe these guys are kinda like Porta-Potty TVs-Ever know of one of THEM that didn't work ? Nasty, cheap, too full of tubes-But Nobody ever told one of them they were cheap shit junque-so they just soldiered on & on like they had Good Sense... My Dad got one of the 1st Porta-Colors in NE Tennessee in late 1965 or early '66, it was on from then, often 18 hrs a day, 7 days a week, til like 1973 or so when he got a 17" Trinitron.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I got this l'il feller I guess 10-12 yrs back for a song. It is a 1951 Arvin model 540. It has a tan steel case, & uses 4 tubes. I don't think I ever took it to see Terry, but it works dandily, anyway. I have a small collection of these 4 tuber Arvins, & no, they ain't perzactly great DX machines, but if you give 'em a halfway decent antenna, & maybe toss a goodly length of said tenny out the window, they might surprise you. All of mine are pressed steel painted cabinets, which leads me to suppose a lot of these guys were "Salesman's Specials",that got tossed in a suitcase, unpacked at a motel, & the sales guy had something to keep him entertained on those long, lonesome nights in some unfamiliar town. The 4 tubes would pull in the local Angel Modulation station adequately, the steel cabinet would take a licking & keep on ticking, &I've seen ads for these things in repro magazines, if somebody "Borrowed" one off our hero on the never payback plan, it wasn't the end of the world-I think they were something like $9-15 for the fanciest one. I would have got sore if one had been "Borrowed" from me, but I would likely have simply left one behind a time or 3, knowing how scatterbrained I tend to be.... Anyhow, I like this l'il fella-Whoever had it took GREAT care of it, 'cause the case is pretty much IMMACULATE...Arvin made 2,3,4,&5 tube models, they ain't big, & a BUNCH of 'em take up hardly any room, & they still tend to be fairly cheap, should anyone else want to start a collection... But mine AIN'T 4 Sale, so Fergit it ! (Grin)

I have the Sears Silvertone model, around the same age. The little larger model. I even had the Hoppalong Casidy model, but the printed front plaque was missing and also the back. Those models were short Superhet, no IF tube.
The 2&3 tube models were TRF's.

[jr_tech]

Couple of Arvins from my collection:



Sandy, is yours like one of these?

———-

My first childhood radio, a metal Silvertone, still works fine, but I did re-cap it and replace the volume control.



jr

.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Couple of Arvins from my collection:



Sandy, is yours like one of these?

———-

My first childhood radio, a metal Silvertone, still works fine, but I did re-cap it and replace the volume control.



jr

.

The one on the upper left is one of the first post-war models. Mine had miniature tubes and a metal back.
The one on the upper right seemed to be a pre-war styling, but was from the late 40's or early 50's, with the later Arvin logo.
The Silvertone model seemed to be a cabinet style special for Sears.

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

The one on the upper left is one of the first post-war models. Mine had miniature tubes and a metal back.
The one on the upper right seemed to be a pre-war styling, but was from the late 40's or early 50's, with the later Arvin logo.
The Silvertone model seemed to be a cabinet style special for Sears.

Yeah, I have a dark brown one like the white one, & my 2 tuber is like the other one. I think my 2 tuber is from 1938, & has the same vaguely "Toadstool" shape as the tan one. My '38 is the same white as the squarish one. The 2 tube set is basically only good for picking up WRGS, out local AM station, even at night, altho I THINK it got WLAC, 1510 out of Nashville one night...