About my Radios ...
I have been collecting radios for just a couple of years ...and am amazed at what is still out there if you look in the right corners!Most of my radios I have picked up and tried to restore when they probably should have been left to return to the 'dust from whence they came'...that is, they were in pretty awful shape!
Electrical restoration is usually the easiest part of the process... unless they have been scrounged for parts or modified heavily. (The RCA Radiola I just got has suffered both indignities!) Recently, I have become aware of a particularly helpful series of pages called Nostalgia Air, and find I have little excuse for not having all my projects in perfect electrical shape.
I am learning to repair the wood as I go.
The collection has no particular focus on time or style, and is influenced by how ambitious I feel when I see something I like. Although there are some radios I would certainly like to come across someday, I don't actively search for particular models.
Here in northern Minnesota, mail order was the way many people got their radios, and since electrical service was very late getting here I find many battery operated Philco's and Airline's.
I guess I probably enjoy restoring the wood radios of the 30's and 40's, just because the final product is usually so pretty. I enjoy the older electronics - like TRF's, because each one seems to be unique, and...although I may be a romantic...I feel like they were built with special care by some individual, rather than on some huge production line.
I have nearly 30 radios restored right now,(by 'restored' I mean in working condition and cosmetically presentable) and half a garage full of parts and basket cases that I'll get to eventually.
The radios in these pages are just some of my favorites I have pictures of. (See why I don't have photography as a hobby...?)
Atwater Kent Model 35 Metal cabinet table w/Speaker 1926 BC/Batt.
Airline 62-2704 console 1946? BC/SW/AC
Airline 62-372 table 1948 BC/PB/SW/AC
Airline 93-BR715A table 1948 BC/PB/SW/AC
Airline 04WG-731B table 1946? BC/SW/AC
Clarion AC-94 lowboy console w/doors 1930 BC/AC
Coronado 962-A Table late 1940's? BC/SW/Batt.
Coronado console 1946? BC/SW/AC
Crosley D-25 plastic 1953 BC/Clock /AC
Crosley table portable w/handle BC/SW/AC
Delco table radio 1949 BC/AC/PB
Electronic Labs 2701 Table 1946 BC/AC
Firestone console 1949 ? BC/PB/SW/AC
General Electric F-70 1937 Table BC/SW/AC
Grunow 450 tombstone 1934 BC/SW/AC
Hallicrafters table 1950? BC/SW/AC
Musicaire 38-B tombstone 1938? BC/Batt.
Musicaire 721-T table BC/SW/Batt.
Philco 38-23 table deco 1938 BC/SW/AC
Philco 42-1008 console 1942 BC/SW/PH/AC
Philco 48-360 portable 1948 BC/SW/AC-Batt
Philco 39-40 console 1939 BC/SW/AC
RCA Radiola 22 console lowboy early 1929 BC/Batt.
RCA Victor K-105 console 1940 BC/SW/AC
Silvertone 6230A 1947 BC/SW/Batt.
Stewart-Warner 01-9A7 console 1939? BC/SW/AC
Tellefunken 'Concerto' table late1950's? Hi-Fi BC/SW/FM/AC
Westinghouse 6-T-104 Table 1951? BC/SW/AC
Zenith 4B-131 Tombstone 1931? BC/Batt.(6. V.)
Zenith H-725 portable table 1951 BC/AC
BC=Broadcast Band / SW=Shortwave / PH=Phonograph / PB=Pushbutton tuning
A note to 'Hard-core Collectors'
Yep...I have refinished the cabinets on many of these, and also used modern replacement parts in the original electrical circuits. Although the restoration may not be 'complete' - I have halted their deterioration. :)Electrical and physical restorations are kept as close as possible without going to, well...extremes.
Please forgive any gross errors in either restoration, or their place in the timeline, as do not have reference materials on several of the members of the collection. Many of them are missing any identification at all, and do not fit any descriptions I have come across. Dates and models listed with a '?' indicate a lack of information on the particular item. Any suggestions would be welcome via E-mail!
The Bavarian Radio Orchestra
from Wallace Tripp's "Wurst Seller"A VERY strange book
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