Montgomery Ward Radio from 1936 for $50.00

[OMI]

Thanks….

That may be why the write up says:
“This is a Montgomery Ward Radio from 1936. It is a model 62-229. There is no back panel, so the inner workings are visible. There are two wires which are connected on one end, but not on the other. We have no way of testing whether or not it works. The front is in good condition with only a few scratches, and it has a floral print fabric covering the speaker grill. The radio is 14.5” by 17” and 10” deep.

Hmmmm I may have snagged a rather unusual radio… One of the pics was of the data sheet still glued in the cabinet and it did clearly state 6 tube 32V D.C., 40 Watts in big letters…

Does this mean that I need to get a windmill to go with the radio now

[blue_lateral]

Originally Posted by OMI

Does this mean that I need to get a windmill to go with the radio now

Yes. Thats exactly what it means.

You will need to scare up or build a 32v DC power supply. Look around in the archives on the antiqueradios.com forums. It isn't that hard to build.

Congratulations, thats a cool looking set!

John

[Jeffhs]

I thought that radio looked a bit familiar. I have a small AM/FM replica cathedral radio that looks something like the MW, except for the grille cloth and the shape of the cabinet (the MW set looks like a tombstone; my little set is a replica of a 1934 cathedral).

Tom Bavis's warning against indiscriminately plugging the MW radio into a 117-volt AC wall socket should be heeded, as he is correct. This type of radio is not designed to be powered directly from the AC line; if such is attempted, it will likely burn out not only a tube filament or two, but the rest of the radio will almost certainly be severely damaged if not destroyed as well. These radios, as Tom mentioned, were originally designed to be powered from windmill chargers such as the Zenith Wincharger, but could be operated in a pinch (I would think, anyway) from five six-volt car batteries connected in series (for 30 volts). They could also be powered, as was mentioned, by an external 32-volt supply. Personally, I'd go the external PS route, since using five 6-volt storage batteries is messy and unsightly, not necessarily in that order. Such a lashup is fine for testing, but I wouldn't want this radio in my living room with five car batteries underneath, unless I could somehow hide the batteries--and then there's the acid problem. I wouldn't want to have to worry about electrolyte spilling out of one or more batteries and burning a hole in the carpet, or worse. I wonder how people handled these problems (acid spillage and the looks of the battery) with farm-battery radios that used a single 6-volt tractor battery.

[OMI]

Received the radio today. The cab is in great shape. Someone had started to work on it and had replaced the grill cloth. They had removed the speaker also It also looks like the radio had a base??? Had one more pic to UL. but that function is acting up