Here's big early portable Majestic
 

I have a slew of these '39-'41 luggage portables, but this is biggest and heaviest of them all. It's the size of an old projector case. It's a 1939 Majestic model 420. The cabinet is solid as rock with 2 latched doors that can be taken off their hinges. The dial is the size of a typical large wooden tabletop set. This was a heavy duty portable! It's so unique that Radiomuseum has it's photo with "model unknown". My info is being submitted.

That's a nice radio! Is that an AM/SW Radio or is it just AM only?

I wonder what the original price was? Looks like something for the carriage trade to me.

It's AM only and must've been a pricier portable at the time only because it's so overbuilt. Even without batteries in it, it's three times the weight of a typical model and solid as a rock. A very robust radio!

OK so then the bottom bandspread was just the "meters" log that was used on older AM radios like the old Zenith AM Radios from the same time period.

I was wondering about that. can you still get it to work on batteries as well or will it only work on AC now?

The Majestic 420 (love that model number :tongue:) is a battery only set and would need a separate AC supply if not using batteries . For all my old portables I've had great success stringing enough 9 volt batteries together in series to get the required B+ , in this radio's instance 45 volts so 5 in series is the right number and for the A (filament) supply a couple of "D" sized flashlight cells hooked in parallel will last long enough to get some good listening out of it .

It's a battery only set and it is easy to get these going. This one is dead at the moment, but most will play without any repairs. Not as good as they can, but you will usually hear something out of them. Some have a blown set of tubes, or something is open.
Yes, the dial has the second metered strip. I always saw that as a way to make a basic one band dial seem like it has an extra band.

*also, init4fun - Yes, hooking up the batteries is really easy. Some put a small battery eliminator in them, but then you have the cord sticking out of the enclosed rear cover, and you get the AC-line noise. On batteries these sound wonderful. Once you get one, you soon have several more. They're cheap and have a lot of charm. I'm up to 15! All '38-'41 models.
PS - I didn't catch why model number 420 is particularly appealing! (?) :)

:) Hi Joe , the number 420 has come to be very popular slang for smoking pot (marijuana) , and indeed typing just the number 420 into google returns all kinds of "urban legend" history on how that number came to represent it . From what I've read the number 420 doesn't refer to the weed itself , it seems to mean the act of smoking it , as the urban legend goes 4:20 PM was deemed by a bunch of people who smoke it as a great time to smoke some .

Now , aren't ya glad ya asked ? :D

Haha! I had no idea. There is something to certain numbers that brings mystique.
By the way, this Majestic had now been posted on Radiomuseum. They had it listed originally as "model unknown".

That's really great that you were able to help them with the model number , to me that kind of info sharing is pretty much the best use there is for the internet :thmbsp:

Yes. I'm so disappointed when I research a set on the Net and there's little to no info. on it.
Here is the updated Majestic page:
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/majest..._portable.html

Just to update, I had my repairman fix it for me. All tubes blown, open output trans., and in need of a full recap. With 1.5 for the A and 10 9V's for the B, the set plays like it looks - full rich sound and very sensitive. I never saw one of these so big or heard one play this good. I'd recommend to any radio collector to get just one of these '39-'40 tweed-stripes models, but you'll soon have 2 or 3!

My favorite luggable radio is still the Emerson 523 and variants.
It is the one that the tube filaments run off the cathode voltage of the 50B5 when operating on the AC line. Audio output is 1 watt, versus 250mw when operating on battery.
Also, it doesn't use that large voltage dropping for the filaments, when operating on AC.
Look up the schematic in Nostalgia Air. :thmbsp:

Interesting, although I'm not very elec. adept. I'm big with aesthetics with old sets. I like how the '39-'40 models have that vintage-luggage look with the stripes and how the details are very table-radio-like. Very quickly, by about '41, they took on a more modern look and solid Tolex colors. I also like the big clunky chassis' in the early models. You can't believe that they'd play on batteries. This particular Majestic with batteries must weigh 20 lbs. They're just so primitive.