Some of my tube sets...
 

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Reece

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

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...

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

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