1956 Westinghouse H742T4 Turquoise Radio

[Robb]

Bought this 1956 Westinghouse H742T4 Radio on ebay.
Nice little aqua blue colored radio. Only paid $15.00 for it.
Needs a good cleaning and cap replacement.

[mstaton]

Intersting that it's only a 4 tuber

[Kamakiri]

Neat little radio. I used to have the white version of the exact set

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Neat little radio. I used to have the white version of the exact set

It's a little newer than 1956. The back shows the newer Westinghouse logo. IIRC, they started using it in the early 1960's. Your basic 4 tube autodyne short superhet. Westinghouse, Admiral and GE made millions of them, for many years running.
Not much of a DX receiver. Intended for local reception.

[WISCOJIM]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

It's a little newer than 1956. The back shows the newer Westinghouse logo. IIRC, they started using it in the early 1960's.

It's in Photofact 301 which came out in March of 1956.

Very cute and stylish radio!

.

[davet753]

I have one of those (in a different color). They work pretty well for a 4-tube set, but they will not bring in much except for local stations.

[Robb]

Originally Posted by WISCOJIM

It's in Photofact 301 which came out in March of 1956.

Very cute and stylish radio!

.

Yes, 1956. I dont know if they made this radio later ?

[Dave A]

I would have loved to be in the designers meetings for all of these styles. Who were they channeling or copying like in this unique for the day style? What were they thinking? Then again, all days have their styles...for their 15 minutes or so.

Should we design for rockets? Olds Rocket 88 comes to mind. Bombs that will incinerate us but be a good form for a radio? Hey GE did that with the Atomic knob and we all lived and collect them now. Maybe just a multi-angular design that is not rectangular and owes its design to modern art of the day.

All if these are the original "mid-century", "atomic", "Eames", etc. that we all wince at when listed.

What sent them down this trail?

[old_coot88]

Dunno about the derivation of the trendy monikers, but the little 4-tubers were sometimes known generically as "metro" radios since they were only good for local reception. Some were superhet with no IF stage, and some were TRFs.

[Robb]

Posted a video of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHjeGhwYPZc

[DavGoodlin]

That logo inconsistency is too interesting to ignore.

The back cover has the post 1960 logo, yet the front has the 1953-60 logo.

IIRC the light bulb plant in Bloomfield, NJ used the post-1960 logo earlier as well.

[Robb]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

That logo inconsistency is too interesting to ignore.

The back cover has the post 1960 logo, yet the front has the 1953-60 logo.

IIRC the light bulb plant in Bloomfield, NJ used the post-1960 logo earlier as well.

No idea why. This one is the same as mine, mismatched logo.

[boora2]

Had a lurid green version of that,made for Britain with a big multitap mains dropper thingy in side,guy had drilled holes inside to let the heat out,and mice in,naturally.Made a nice nest,warm and cosy,until our cat came along,just tore the back off and gave them to his kittens to learn to be assassins.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by boora2

Had a lurid green version of that,made for Britain with a big multitap mains dropper thingy in side,guy had drilled holes inside to let the heat out,and mice in,naturally.Made a nice nest,warm and cosy,until our cat came along,just tore the back off and gave them to his kittens to learn to be assassins.

I had read somewhere that the U.S. manufacturers were building radios for export to Britain, in the earlier 50's, but not that late.
BTW, did yours have long wave, as well.

[wa2ise]

A cold chassis version of that set (using the 12AU6 and the 12AV6) would make a fairly decent AM tuner for local stations. Only 1 IF transformer would make for a fairly wide IF response (more audio high frequencies), and no AVC circuit would make for better AM demodulation.