Help identify radio
 

Does anyone recognize this old tombstone radio ?

Thanks.

I have been searching every where for a pic of a crosley 03cq looks like a crosley i came
across. This set 03cq seem to elude me .

Is it yours, or just hopefully, "Could be" ? Kinda rough, perhaps, but still a likely candidate for a resto job...Winter's just around the corner, after all.

It could be for $25. I figure if it's got some nice old globe tubes and a good speaker it's worth it.

It might be a little early for a magic eye: I wonder if somebody added that later. Should be able to tell pretty easily. At any rate, it's a nice looking radio and wants some TLC. I like it.

Yeah, that what I was thinking. It's on the southside of the city so can't be too long of a drive. Outside of radio swapmeets, tombstones rarely show up around here. Lots of consoles though.

Aw nuts! Someone just beat me to it :tears: I guess the mystery may never be solved.

The initial buyer backed out when he realized he'd need to drive all the way from Rockford, IL to the south side of Chicago. I just picked it up this evening :)
It's a C.A. Earl.

Awrite !! Maybe there'll be some markings or something on the inside that'll give us another clue...

If that magic eye is an st coke bottle shape, it likely came from a conversion kit, as I think they only produced those for a couple of years early in magic eye tube production. It is a pretty, and pretty obscure set as well. Can't wait to see your post on it...

I'll stick with this thread because I'm still not sure what I've got. According to the seller, the radio was in the basement when she bought the house. That's the same story as for all the best stuff I've gotten in the heart of the city. Wealthy neighborhoods went into decline as owners moved to the suburbs. Stuff was left behind and sat in basements for decades. A new owner buys the place and clears it all out. That's how I also got my RCA 630TS, Sparton 931 and Philco 15DX.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took. Maybe you guys can solve the puzzle ?

Here's the front of the radio. The escutcheon says C.A. Earl radio, but they only made a few '20s console TRF radios as far as I know :scratch2:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/...0b36963b_z.jpg

Here's a closeup.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/...d51d3a60_z.jpg

It sure looks like the eye tube is after market.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4075/...b9a92cf6d3.jpg

Here's a closeup of the finish. The wood is in very condition under that flaking finish.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4115/...330e7191_z.jpg

I know I've seen this cloth pattern before somewhere.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/...a284b776_z.jpg

Here's the backside where it gets more confusing. Rola speaker with what looks like an RCA chassis to me. The old rubber power cord is in excellent condition.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/...cb88abdb_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/...dba0cf88_z.jpg

All the 2.5 volt (57, 58, 55, 2A5) tubes have been replaced with 6.3 volt ones (6C6, 6D6, 78, 42). They're also all RCA tubes. Maybe the power transformer is a replacement ?
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4119/...e94d7fe5_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/...79766397_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4099/...0172c780_z.jpg

I'll pull the chassis and take a closer look.

Here's the chassis after a quick cleaning.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/...50eee4d3_b.jpg

Someone probably swapped out a 2.5 VAC tranny for a 6.3 VAC so had to change the tube lineup.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4140/...8fdaecb2_z.jpg

I wonder what those two huge coils are for on the left ? I figured one for the antenna maybe. They do seem to go to a switch so maybe two bands? The dial only has AM on it though.
I think this will be a pain to try to restore without a schematic given all the modifications. Perhaps it'd be best to just replace whatever is there with exactly the same value capacitor.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4093/...010c5d56_b.jpg

I think the clincher is only two of the chassis holes line up. The two towards the front and center don't line up with anything.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/...c73e33f2_b.jpg

Whoever cobbled this set together did a good job I must say. Every thing lines up quite nicely with no hacks, shims extra holes etc. The accessory power plug is a nice touch too.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4118/...638a8251e4.jpg

Curioser 'n' curioser...If only these old sets could "talk"...I bet THAT one has a REAL story to tell...The 2 I've always wondered about are my R-389, & my 1955 contract Collins R-390A...389s are rare in any case, this one had taken a helluva whack on the back, sometime early in its life, & apparently spent most of its life as a "Hangar Queen" someplace...The 390A, genuine Collins-built sets are scarce, you only see them in the 1st early contract numbers, they actually made very few...I bought this one-Stole it, actually- from Phil Sellati, the big dawg at Fair Radio. Sent it to Rick Mish, he told me I had a REAL honey-We figured it might have belonged to some big-shot at Wright-Pat AFB, 'cause Fair got it locally, they told me. It bore no signs of ever having been depot-repaired, all the modules were Collins made, & it has some sort of super-precise VFO-Rick said I didn't have a radio as much as I had a frequency counter. He offered me $5K for it, or 2 of his "Museum-Grade" restorations..I politely demurred. But yeah, if only these old things could talk...

I love a mystery! Like the shelf between the chassis and the speaker: just for stiffening the cabinet? Maybe the "bandswitch" is really for local/distant? Three gang tuning condensor but where's the RF tube on a five tube set? 175Kc IF stamped on one of the xfrmrs.

If you wanted to ditch the tuning eye as not being "authentic" (whoa: what IS authentic on this one?) it would take reveneering the front panel. OTOH somebody "updated" this set so it's part of its history.

I think what I would do first is to trace out the wiring and draw the schematic, see if it makes sense, while getting familiar with it.

Someone really built a hot rod radio there. The cabinet is probably a battery farm radio, hence the shelf for the cabinet.

Zenith sometimes used Rola speakers like that (or so I've been told) and that grill cloth is the same as what I've seen on some of my other Zeniths-it's possible this had a reed-type speaker when it was a battery set, which was lost during the AC upgrade.

It's possible this was converted to shortwave operation at some point, and when the maker just decided to log the stations off of the am dial.

The eye tube is also a later addition. Looks like every mod that a kid would make to a table radio circa 1936-8. Looking in depression era magazines, you'll note that almost all of the reader-submitted photographs showing off their dx rigs were almost always lower quality sets that had been modified. This is one such set.

http://www.antiqueradio.com/Jul10_Wi...Two_Names.html

FWIW, the Earl in this article appears to be a similar chassis (the NA schematic shows that it is not electronically close), and definitely shares the same escucheon. It's interesting to note that the radio in this article does not use a field coil speaker...

Good question - maybe the 6D6 served as osc mixer somehow ?

Yeah, I'll have to trace out the circuit. So many modifications! Who knows, many it'll sound great once restored ? Someone seems to have spent a lot of time on it.

They even added a phono jack :) My only doubts about that shelf being for a battery are that that aren't any holes in it or stains :scratch2:

I just noticed two pencil lines through the two chassis mounting holes that do line up. I bet the three unused ones were for the original chassis and the other two were drilled to mount this chassis.

Looks like every control has been replaced or modified. I bet those coils are for shortwave bands.

I think the chassis was always AC. The 80 rectifier socket matches the others and there's a punchout and mounting holes for a transformer of different dimensions under the current one.

Go figure. My only other tombstone is a Philco 643 farm sets that's just as heavily modified!

Here's the thing that gets me about those holes in the bottom-so many of them aren't used that it suggests a second chassis was put in there. But then why do the control switches line up so perfectly with with the cabinet's face? It sure doesn't look like they had to drill new holes in the front of the set...


It's sets like this one that remind me of what you can do when you have very little; it also shows how spoiled we are today-can you imagine telling some 1940's family "Oh, I have 12 televisions, 8 console radios, and 30 table sets..."

That's a good point. Check out this photo of the interior. I see pencil lines just like those two underneath that line up with the chassis. Perhaps that entire center board is a homemade replacement :scratch2:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/...e6e2c9d3_b.jpg

Hey, I only have 5 console radios ;)
They're also a heck of a lot cheaper now too. I paid $25 for this set. That would be about $1.58 in 1934. I'm sure it cost a lot more than that new.

NOW the mystery REALLY deepens....it really is possible that center board is part of this custom package. I see the speaker is mounted to a board with clipped corners-is this part of the center board, or a separate speaker mount? As for the center board itself, can you tell if it is solid wood/veneer?

BTW, I think my count is something like 9 vintage tvs, 3 consoles, and at least 15 table sets....

I torn into the radio cabinet a little more.

Here's the interior with the speaker removed.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4114/...e73ce65f_z.jpg

I believe the center board is plywood with veneer. It's separating a little at the bottom, but not too bad.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4140/...df7d1393_z.jpg

Here's the speaker. I can't believe how clean it is considering how filthy the rest of the set was. Just one minor tear. Some Aleene's tacky glue will take care of that :yes:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/...c3dc7430_z.jpg

I'm itching to refinish this cabinet because I have all the supplies on hand, but I've got to finish the Motorola 19K1 first.

That would mean that in 1934 a penny would buy today's 15 cents worth of something. But maybe that might be too much of something, but you have to take it, as you can't make change on a penny... :scratch2: Like that you can't buy exactly a gallon of gas, as it is always priced $X.XX9 and you can't get change for the 1/10 cent.

16 cents according to the inflation calculator I used. Of course there are many other factors to determine the intrinsic value of something.

One of my consoles sold for $250 in 1932. Somehow, I think I'd have trouble getting $4,000 for it now, but I wouldn't mind :D

I've been pouring over dozens of schematics and can't find one with the original lineup of 57, 58, 55, 2A5, 80, but I did find some that were close. The 57 can be used as an osc / mixer. The 58 an IF amp. The 55 a detector and 1st AF amp.

http://www.grillecloth.com/sylvania/...it=Submit&db=5

I don't know if the page will show up with my search or not, but not a lot of sets match your tube lineup. But note that Knight has a similar chassis-so possibly it was ordered from Allied Radio (Knight was their house brand) along with all of the other parts for this insane conversion...

Thanks - I'd forgotten about that search tool. How do you know that the Knight has a similar chassis ?
I used those search results and dug through Riders. I came up with these 3 schematics. All have the proper tube lineup and 175 KC IF.

Allied Knight 6 although the tube layout looks wrong

Radiolek 5

Simplex Model P

You can see the Knight P AC chassis here Nothing like mine unfortunately.

I did a little more work on the cabinet tonight and discovered that the escutcheon hole was packed with wood filler.
It seems unlikely this escutcheon originally went with this cabinet - or at least this center board.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4137/...7287c07f_z.jpg

It came out easily and the old finish just melted off with CitriStrip.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4075/...303c3163_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/...34ba550f_z.jpg

It should be a piece of cake to refinish. Mohawk Medium Walnut on the center board and Extra Dark Walnut on the rest.

I finished stripping the cabinet. The wood on the sides and top is pretty funky looking. I can see why they used a thick dark finish on it.

I'll be using black acrylic on the grill edges, shellac for a sealer and grain filler, Mohawk toners and Deft clear gloss.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4134/...3a607dca_z.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4133/...89171650_z.jpg

I applied the acrylic with a small brush then the shellac sealer. very important because lacquer doesn't play nice with acrylic or enamel paints.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/...75ab207c_z.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/...fcd3036b_z.jpg

Medium Brown toner on the front. I masked off the sides and sprayed the top with Dark Walnut toner. Then, I masked off the top and sprayed the side with Extra Dark Walnut toner.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4124/...81aacec7_z.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/...d9bd97ce_z.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4086/...de88aaa1_z.jpg

Here's the result. The sides are a little darker than I had intended, but not too bad I think. Next up a few coats of clear gloss and rubbing it out.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4105/...e9292db8_z.jpg http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/...78c33202_z.jpg

Oh my. That's turning into something beautiful :)

Thanks! I've been refinishing projects like crazy the last couple weeks and probably will be for the rest of the month. The weather is perfect for it now, but soon won't be as the temperature drops.

Very nice! I like it.

Amazing what someone with talent can do to an old cabinet. Wow!

Bruce

That's shaping up nicely! I love the two-tone look of those old radios. Hey, you know that old grill cloth looks a lot like the pattern used in my Admiral. I think that Zenith whiskey rayon #31 on grillecloth.com would be a good match for my Admiral. Looking at your pattern, the little "rows" are a lot longer so the Philco #1 or #2 pattern might be closer, perhaps.

I think GRC31 here is pretty close too. Not that it really matters much I think considering what a mismatch this set is!

I've been trying to trace out the schematic for the last couple days. It's deceptively complicated!
The power supply and audio output was fairly easy, but the front end and that mystery switch are giving me a headache...

I've finished the cabinet. Now I need to pick up some grille cloth and, of course, get the radio working.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/...2a7fcdce_b.jpg

After a lot of WD-40 and Caig DeOxIt, I have the controls moving smoothly :)
The switch has two positions and seems to switch some coils in and out of the circuit. One of those coils definitely looks homemade and is probably for shortwave.

Here's the insides of one of the IF cans. Maybe that will give a clue as to this chassis origin.
Seems to say "Hammarlund, New York" and 140 KHz ?
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/...9f4c6e5f_z.jpg

The wiring looks sound and the transformer resistance seems reasonable so I think I'll just recap it and see what happens.

In those days Hammarlund made variable condensors and other RF parts used by many.

Dannnng, for a Frankie radio, that cabinet turned out fantastic.

One of these days, I'll need to pull out my Frankie-set. It was a Crosley with a homebrew cabinet. It was built by one of my wife's ancestors.