Small and Cute Radios

[jr_tech]

In a recent thread about a tiny metal 4 tube Silvertone 6002 it was mentioned that the radio was purchased because it was small and cute. It would seem that a number of radios might fit that description. If you have a nomination for a "small & cute" radio please post it up here.
I will start off with what I think might be the smallest 5 tube set, the tiny tombstone Emerson 706 (about 5" x 6" x 5" deep) in white Bakelite:


Emerson 706, 5 Tube "Mini" by jr_tech, on Flickr

Wrong "volume" knob, but IMHO, quite cute... any challengers?
jr

[dieseljeep]

Didn't Admiral build a real small 5 tube set around 1953. Never saw one.

[PaulOF]

I long for an RCA 54B3.
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/rca_rc589_54b3.html

[radiotvnut]

Don't forget these little 5 tube Japanese sets from the '60's. These were sold in many case colors and designs and under a million different brands. They were made towards the end of the tube radio era and usually sold for under $10.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Don't forget these little 5 tube Japanese sets from the '60's. These were sold in many case colors and designs and under a million different brands. They were made towards the end of the tube radio era and usually sold for under $10.

Nice! We might have a new leader in the 5 mini tube category! do you have the approx dimensions of these sets?
jr

[Jeffhs]

Those small tube-type Emersons, et al. may have been cute, but I don't think they lasted very long, as crowded as the chassis is. Five tubes in such a cramped space gave off a lot of heat, which could well have buckled or melted the cabinet -- to say nothing of cooking the underchassis components, many if not most of which in these small radios were underrated anyway. In a house with teenagers hooked on the local radio station, I bet these radios didn't last much longer than a year or so, if that long.

Don't forget that the crowded chassis made these sets very difficult to work on, if underchassis repairs were required. I wouldn't be surprised if these small sets were sold at dirt-cheap prices when they were new, which means few if any of them ever saw time on a repair shop service bench; if anything more serious than a bad tube went wrong with one of these sets, the chances are good the repair shop's technician told the owner the set wasn't worth fixing, and he would have been right. These little sets, as others have noted, were built cheaply to sell cheaply -- meaning, of course, that they were not worth even the charge most repair shops used to make (in the vacuum tube days) just to take the back off or to test the tubes.

[dieseljeep]

A lot of those small American made radios survived. It was those Japanese ones that didn't. How many of those small Arvins and clones survived? Lots of them!

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

A lot of those small American made radios survived. It was those Japanese ones that didn't. How many of those small Arvins and clones survived? Lots of them!

That's right. As I look over ebay, the flea market, ARF classifieds, etc; I find a lot more Arvins, and other small American made sets, than I find the later Japanese cheapies from the '60's. And, those older 4 and 5 tube metal cased Arvins were still better performers than those Japanese '60's sets.

Back in the late '60's, a radio/TV repairman, who I knew and is now no longer with us, bought a truckload of those Japanese 5 tube radios from a local discount store. Solid state sets had already taken over and the store owner made my friend a real good deal (something like $2/radio) on the whole lot. My friend said the only reason he bought them was to rob the tubes because the cost of tubes from the parts house was greater than what he paid for the radios. He added that he never plugged in the first radio. He yanked the tubes and tossed the rest of the radio in the trash.

[Hemingray]

IIRC, (And this is from Phil Nelson's page), Doesn't that little emerson use a 50B5 rather than a 50C5 for the output?

[jr_tech]

The layout sticker on the bottom of my white one says "50C5"... Phil says that the Emerson 706 could have either... he did a nice write up ! :
http://antiqueradio.org/emer706.htm
jr
Update: I just checked my brown 706 (no chart) and the output tube that it has is also a 50C5... guess that I got lucky!

[jr_tech]

Another "small and cute" radio, also an Emerson (model 747) is shown below. It is a battery-only portable about 6" x 3.75" x 1.5". It uses flat sub-mini tubes, similar in size to those used in tube hearing aids. ca.1953.


Emerson 747, Sub-Min Tubes on Flickr

Tube lineup was 1V6 converter, 1AH4 if amp, 1AJ5 detector & 1st audio, and 1AJ4 audio output (about 45 mili watts). In a later version, the audio output tube was replaced by 2 transistors, in push-pull.
jr

[Robb]

Hi guys,
Anyone have any small radios for sale ?

thanks

[wa2ise]

Those Emersons breed like rabbits here:

[Sandy G]

I have a 2-tube Arvin metal-cased set from '38, & its bigger 3-tubed brother from about the same time. No, they WON'T make me wanna kick my EK-07 or R-390As to the kerb,but they DO pick up the local Angel Modulation station pretty good..

[Robb]

Just got this Marconi radio at a radio swap meet a few weeks back.
Looks like an Emerson.







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