Radiola 61-2
 

I just purchased one of these off of praybay (Ebay). Frankly, the Radiola name struck me more than the look of the radio. Nobody but me bid on it, so the price wasn't bad. It's the shipping that gets you anyway.

I just wanted to show it and see if anyone here has/had one. Maybe tell me what kind of performer they are known to be. The seller said that he recapped it and it plays like new. We will see I guess. I hope he did a decent soldering job. It would be really cool if he went the whole 9 and restuffed caps and all. I would never do that unless perhaps I had some museum peice and then I would have to think about it.

Anyway, thanks for looking.....:thmbsp:

Probably just a standard AA5 inside.

I like to looks of it.

Thanks for the picture.

Six tuber (not quite an AA6), the oscillator and mixer are separate instead of being combined in one tube :
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByM...1/M0015041.pdf
Hope he packs it well! Bakelite is very brittle.

jr

So, it's liked by one of us at least. LOL! Don't get me wrong. I didn't expect everyone to think it was a stellar find. I just wanted some opinions or facts as oddly enough out of all the radios that I do have; I don't have any RCA Victor or Radiola as standards of performance. Also, for some reason I thought that Radiola was some independent company and not an RCA. I'm still not sure, but I don't think all RCAs were Radiolas.

The name was a selling point though along with supposedly a slick white original paint job, super clean and restored (recapped) six tube chassis, and although on the plain looking side there still is some Art Deco flair about it. As far as packing goes the guy said he packs in that expandable foam, so it should be able to take a beating from the best of our cautious and careful postal employees. I shall soon see what kind of performance comes from RCA during that time period. My experience tells me that Philco is the stuff that just plays forever with little to no work involved and certain Zenith sets. So I needed an RCA for the dust collection. Thanks everyone!

That is a rare circuit, using a 12J5 for an oscillator. Mine is also Radiola-branded, bit cracked but looks similar and is a model 76ZX12, without a tone control in the middle. Im keeping it just for the very unconventional tube complement:yes:

The Radiola line was made for the smaller non-franchised dealers. They were pure RCA in design. IIRC, the chassis numbers were the same.
They were only available in a few models, usually on the lower end. :scratch2:

Interesting! So Radiola was an entity unto it's own meaning my Radiola IS a Radiola radio. Or if I were around then I may opt for I guess a better RCA radio. I never knew they were low end. But I don't know much at all it seems. I simply thought that collectors of really old went for the Radiola, so I thought it was something special. I didn't think that they were still being produced as late as this one is. I always think 20s and 30s....

RCA used to call most their radio products Radiola in the 20's, but it would seem sometime in the early to mid 30's they spun that name off in to it's own brand under RCA's control.

I'm wondering if they actually came off of the same assembly line/plant. Reason being is earlier I was looking through the pages of radios on Ebay and I saw two two RCAs that were identical to my Radiola on the outside except both were plain, brown Bakelite. I didn't get to see the chassis, but I'd bet they were the same too.

Why did they do that, vs just use a 12SA7 pentagrid converter? Can't imagine that that would offer any performance improvement of significance for an AM radio. Avoiding patent infringement? Or they just had a ton of 12SG7s and 12J5s to use up? :scratch2:

Perhaps as a selling point, I suspect that the general public would buy a 6 tube radio over a 5 tube radio expecting better performance. Several manufactures at the time offered "6 tube" radios that departed from the optimum design, to save a few bucks in manufacturing. Remember those "10 transistor" radios that used many of them as diodes? :)

Jr

I'm trying to remember what the advantage was, but I understand there was one.
Most of the hotter radio's of the day, used a separate osc and mixer, especially the multi-band sets, even though, they didn't have an RF stage.
The earlier Hallicrafters receivers used a 6K8 or a 12K8, pre-war. The tube manual shows a separate triode and hexode, with a common cathode.
Anyone, feel free to correct me on this, so we all know! :D

I think the separate oscillator tube would reduce oscillator (and thus tuning) drift as the tube's structure expanded with heat from the heater. It will probably need less re-tuning than the average AA5 each time you turn it on if I'm not mistaken.

The Radiola finally came and I must say that as advertised it is one impeccably clean set. I mean so clean that you could eat off of it! The sound fills the room with plenty of volume and sensitivity. Ebay purchases can be really sketchy, but this one was win win all the way and then some. For sure a collection "keeper."