How your passion began?

[Reece]

I was always interested in electrical/mechanical things from an early age. When I was a toddler, to keep me occupied they would give me an unplugged electric fan and I would twirl the blades and watch how the oscillator mechanism worked. My sister and I would listen to "Let's Pretend" on the Emerson...I'm talking about 1945! and little Reecie would look inside the back and see the glowing lights, and smell the wonderful smell, and watch the thing with plates move in and out when the station was changed.

When I was elementary school age in the 50's my Dad and a couple of uncles helped me get started in electricity and soon with a crystal set. Then I got a WHOLE BUNCH of tubes and parts from my uncle who had experimented with it all in the 1930's. Soon I was gathering old radios, stripping them for parts, and building radios of all kinds. I built speakers, turntables, even a clandestine transmitter or two, mostly from scrounged parts. I had antennas strung all over the yard, and a neighborhood telephone system.

Collecting and restoring radios, then, waited a long time until about five years ago when the bug bit me. I have found sets locally and on ebay. I really like basket cases as there is so much to do! I managed to find two models of long-lost childhood radios, including the 1937 Emerson that my sister and I listened to. It brought tears to both of our eyes when we saw it and heard it sing again.

Reece