Radio wish-list.

[PYE625]

As I have posted a "Television wish-list", I thought it a good idea to do the same with radio sets.
It will be nice to see people's most desired radios.
I do not have any I especially desire, but it would be a great pleasure if I am able to help anyone out with a particular set.

[crustytv]

When I was interested in radios one I always wanted to find was again something I remember from my childhood. In fact its the first and only radio I remember, since my interests shifted to TV I gave up looking years ago.

Nothing fancy and I suspect most would say boring and I wouldn't disagree, its a 1961 Ultra TR70. Ours had a purple cabinet and purple buttons, I believe they came in Salmon and Grey too. All had a bright silver speaker grill with white surround.

1961 Ultra TR70

[Stitch]

Another Ultra, see recently on eBay, not see one before and I like any radio that's a little different. I did think about just collecting Ultras but can't bare to part with anything.

I'd also like another McCarthy just because I've never seen one.

But what I really need is more room

John

PS
Can anyone identify the model in my avatar?

[colly0410]

I'd want another Murphy U130 that I managed to lose in a house move. Kicked myself many times for losing it..

[marc]

Hi all,

Although radios are not my main ideal in collecting I do have a few sets but one radio has always alluded me for years (and it's nothing exciting and it's quite common) is the Murphy U198H.
I guess I've just been unlucky, usually I've been outbid or missed the end of sale and the one I did bag was smashed during delivery

So there you have it the all exciting (not) Murphy U198H, well it is cute, isn't it ?

Ooo, nearly forgot....I would like a Bush VHF90 in white too....easily pleased aren't I

Marc.

Murphy U198H

Bush VHF90

[crackle]

I am still looking for a KB TRP31 "Dancetime" , our first record player.
Also a Regentone BT23 "Regenteener" our first transistor radio.
And a RGD RR214 "International" our first VHF FM radio, I used to record pick of the pops every Sunday. Yet another radio I managed to wear out, by fiddling too much. I have just bought the KB equivalent for my KB collection.
All these items were bought by dad from the STC staff shop.

When I worked at STC for a short while in the 70's I bought an ITT Stereo Recorder 82 as my first stereo cassette recorder.
All these items from my past seem to have worn out, I have no recollection of where they finally went, they just seem to have disappeared.

I wonder why I collect KB, ITT, RGD and Regentone radios. Is it so I can fix them all up again and so be forgiven for my previous rough treatment of my old radios.

Mike

[Katie Bush]

Ooh, Marc,

That Murphy looks a lot like my first attempt at fixing a radio.. At a very tender age when we used to have a proper Sunday lunch, and listened to the radio as we did.. Our old Murphy was a bit sickly and would often cut out - a modest tap would usually restore normal working for a while...

Well, as a mere nipper, I didn't have the "knack of the knock" so I gave it a tap with the hammer that used to live next to our fireplace - the one that was there to break up the large lumps of coal.......

Read below...... Oh dear!
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=6690&p=68889&hilit=murphy+radio#p68889

[kalee99]

Hi all,
Being of an age to remember Coronation Street in B&W 405 lines I always remember the Ogden's sitting room had a large tall radio on the sideboard. It had a half moon dial with push buttons underneath. Stan Ogden blew it up in one episode when he modified it by connecting it to an alarm clock to wake him up
I never found out what make or model that radio was and most of the pre 625 B&W episodes seem to be lost? Never seen anything similar in all my years of collecting sets.
Any suggestions?

[Duke Nukem]

I have very few radios on the wishlist. First I guess is perhaps rather boring - a round Ekco. Specifically, the one with the tiny little tuning scale. No idea the model number - AD75? Ad76? , but as seen in Alf Garnett's living room, the one with the three vertical bars on the speaker grill.

My favorite radio is the Addison A2B (http://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/addison/a2b/a2b.htm) and I guess I rather fancy a coloured one, though the black and white version would still be my favorite.

Also on the list is a German wartime radio - perhaps their equivalent of our Civilian Receiver though not as good. In fact there was a good selection of them at the last NVCF but that's when I realised I don't know enough about them - seemed to be so many variants - so need to find out a bit more about them first.

TTFN,
Jon

[Cathovisor]

I have very few radios on the wishlist. First I guess is perhaps rather boring - a round Ekco. Specifically, the one with the tiny little tuning scale. No idea the model number - AD75? Ad76? , but as seen in Alf Garnett's living room, the one with the three vertical bars on the speaker grill.

My favorite radio is the Addison A2B (http://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/addison/a2b/a2b.htm) and I guess I rather fancy a coloured one, though the black and white version would still be my favorite.

Also on the list is a German wartime radio - perhaps their equivalent of our Civilian Receiver though not as good. In fact there was a good selection of them at the last NVCF but that's when I realised I don't know enough about them - seemed to be so many variants - so need to find out a bit more about them first.

TTFN,
Jon

The radio you describe in Alf Garnett's sitting room is indeed an AD75.

Of the German Volksempfänger, the best one technically is the VE301DynW, which has a moving coil speaker and a dial light. Stylistically, the original VE301W in the Walter Kersting cabinet. (The 'W' indicates an AC model)

I wrote an article for the BVWS Bulletin back in 2000 debunking all the myths surrounding these sets.

[Duke Nukem]

Of the German Volksempfänger, the best one technically is the VE301DynW, which has a moving coil speaker and a dial light. Stylistically, the original VE301W in the Walter Kersting cabinet. (The 'W' indicates an AC model)

Which model(s) would best represent what the average German family would have had (AC not battery) ?

I wrote an article for the BVWS Bulletin back in 2000 debunking all the myths surrounding these sets.

I shall dig it out ! Need to be prepared should another nice selection become available.

TTFN,
Jon

[Paul_RK]

My first radio, another Regentone Regenteener, is still with me 53 years later, and there's nothing much I'm seeking for nostalgic reasons. So I've just the odd unrequited perverse fancy - possibly a Fidelity 208A, which has the insides of a Rad 11 but the casing of a 208 - and a taste for the largest, heaviest, most versatile and most impractical "world band" transportable receivers, which would induce me to spring into action if an affordable http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/hitachi_kh_5000.html or http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/panasonic_ ... f8000.html were ever to cross my path. Probably neither of those will, but you never know. Oh, and an Ultra Blue Fox to keep the Tiger III and Panther IV company.

Paul

[Pye Man]

I have all the sets I really want but one and that was the set I pulled apart as a nipper. The only problem is that I don't know what it was - I can't even tell you the make!

All I can say is that it looked like an upright table portable and was a valve set that was always run off the mains. I can't remember when I pulled it apart (I was in short trousers) if there were compartments for batteries but I don't think there would have been space for a typical 90v HT and 1.5 LT battery. I would say it was smaller than a Bush TR82. The chassis was built around an elliptical speaker and the dual gang tuning capacitor had a reduction drive built in - the spindle was hexagonal which located into the dial and the drive action fascinated me which is why I remember this detail. The set had a dark coloured bakelite case which had been broken at some point and had bits glued back together. I remember that it could only get the Light Programme - allegedly because it had been damaged (hence the broken case?) but my mother could never tune a radio so this might have been an excuse. It would have dated from the 1950s - and knowing how things soldiered on in our household that would probably be from the early 50s. I've looked through books and online and have never seen anything that makes me say "that was it".

I await suggestions with much interest!

[Paul_RK]

Nothing so ordinary as an early KB Rhapsody http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/kolsterbr_rhapsody.html or a Regentone Double Two http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/regentone_double_two.html , I suppose? The hexagonal tuning spindle was what started me thinking of something Rhapsody-related. Neither of those, though, has an elliptical 'speaker, and I'm failing at the moment to call to mind any British valve portable that did. (EDIT: I've thought of one now, the Ever Ready Sky Emperor, but that doesn't fit the bill at all in other regards). If you're sure of that element Germany might be a better hunting-ground.

Paul

[Pye Man]

"That was it!"

The KB Rhapsody.

I recognised the tuning knob, and though it looks like the same knob on the Regentone, the styling is familiar and now I remember the switches on the top. The knob and capacitor were kicking around a long time - so I remember its style too.

I recognise the guts, especially the tuning capacitor and ferrite rod with the wax all over the coils. It was the first time I'd seen valves indeed, the first time I'd seen inside a set.

I'm clearly wrong about the speaker but we are talking over 50 years ago now.

You'll wince but what I do remember about the speaker is that I removed the paper. Mind you, you'd wince even more if you knew the other items that I wrecked when I wasn't even a youth...

KB Rhapsody anybody?

Nick

[Cathovisor]

Which model(s) would best represent what the average German family would have had (AC not battery) ?

Depends.

You have to remember that despite claims made by one gentleman to the contrary, the People's Sets were made alongside the 'normal' programmes of models made by all the manufacturers. Not, as has been falsely claimed, to the exclusion of everything else.

The VE301 - the one in the Kersting-designed cabinet - was the longest in production from 1933 to 1938; by which time it looked and indeed was decidedly old-fashioned so it got replaced by the VE301Dyn (the 'Dyn' refers to it having a 'Dynamic' - i.e., moving coil loudspeaker). For you to only be able to afford one of these sets (they were the equivalent of £3.25 in the UK at the time), you'd have been fairly poor but remember, we're dealing with a country that's been ravaged by the recent collapse of the Weimar Republic. A more affluent family would have bought one as a second set alongside their SABA/Blaupunkt/Emud/Mende/Koerting/Lumophon/whatever.

Probably the one to look for is the VE301Wn. (The battery ones are rare as the proverbial - I don't have one, but I do have a battery DKE) The 'n' indicates a modernised model, which used an AF7 as the detector rather than a triode, for additional sensitivity (see what I mean about the 'deliberate lack of sensitivity' being bunkum?). It still has the Kersting cabinet, the reed speaker, no dial light or anything like that, but it works a lot better than people think it should. It may also be slightly more socially acceptable in that there's no Reichsadler on the cabinet, just the striking 'Calling Eagle'.

[turretslug]

I suspect I'm not alone in thinking I could fill a barn.... Maybe a Marconi 561/HMV 650 or the slightly bananas HMV 655 for pre-war solidity and comprehensiveness, if there's still room and the floor will stand it, a Pye 39JH/E or one of its brethren. As the ultimate MW/LW radio, a Marconi Mercury or maybe a Telefunken E51 Leipzig- though it's doubtful that the latter existed in significant numbers. (To be fair, the common Marconi CR100 or Pye CAT619 cover most of the bases and add slightly lacklustre HF capability, too, they just don't have the "dedicated" cachet). I'd like to find a late, good nick Astrad Solar as a (sort of) portable- coming across one of these as a kid I thought, how nice that the accountants let all these features through the production vetting, it also made me sceptical of the prevailing wisdom that everything from the Eastern Bloc was primitive rubbish. Yes, it was different in some ways but it also showed considerable technical competence and desire to make an effective product. I'm sure I could stretch the wish-list by a few reams if I thought about it....

[BriancuffRest In Peace]

the slightly bananas HMV 655 for pre-war solidity and comprehensiveness

I agree with that one. Unfortunately, I sold my 655 a few months ago and I'm still regretting it - a very good looking set and a good performer. Please can I have another one

[Cathovisor]

655s are the great survivors, Brian - one'll be along soon, you'll see...

[Paul_RK]

I'd like to find a late, good nick Astrad Solar as a (sort of) portable- coming across one of these as a kid I thought, how nice that the accountants let all these features through the production vetting, it also made me sceptical of the prevailing wisdom that everything from the Eastern Bloc was primitive rubbish...

And once the Astrad Solar comes your way (they do, they do, though I might still be partial to a really good late one myself) there's always the http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/lenin_radi ... d_002.html to look out for, as evidence that Russia as well as Latvia could produce an advanced and capable radio when they set their minds to it: and maybe a http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/kijevr_meridian_211.html so as not to overlook Ukraine...

[cobaltblue]

I'd like to find a late, good nick Astrad Solar as a (sort of) portable

Might be able to help you out.

Not sure if these are all pictures of the same set as I have 3

Cheers

Mike T

[Paul_RK]

That looks a good middle period Solar, most at least of those that reached the UK are of exactly that pattern. Earlier ones have a different set of knobs and usually, perhaps not always, leathercloth covering instead of veneer, while the very latest drop the creamy-coloured buttons and back panel in favour of charcoal grey. I couldn't say whether there were any internal changes of significance, very possibly not.

Paul

[cobaltblue]

I don't have such a long wish list these days.

A couple of Early Cossors such as the All In (1929) or its metal cabinet version without speaker,

The 732, 1931 a few others whose numbers escape me for the moment.

At the other end of the Cossor age scale I am looking for a better example of transistorised 546 and the Radiogram version of the 544 who's number I don't currently know.

Cheers

Mike T

[peterscott]

I think mine would be a rather obvious choice, a Murphy A40C but my reason is because my father had a wealthy friend who owned a woollen mill and lived in a baronial castle and he had inheritted his father's A40C but needed someone to get it working again. Knowing my interest in radio and TV I got the job. I think I would have been 14 or 15 at the time. The mains transformer was burnt out and a few caps needed replacement. I had the transformer rewound and got the set working well and that led to further commissions for TV and tape recorder repair.

The A40C is certainly an impressive looking beasty, both front and back but despite its enormous loud speaker I didn't think its sound quality was as good as a Philips 653A radiogram that I owned at the time. That said, if I had room for the radiogram or the A40C the latter would win hands down.

Peter

[Audiomagpie]

download/file.php?id=27308

There was one of these Ultra sets down at the recent Punnetts Town swapmeet and although the glass was intact, the station names were mostly rubbed off. I'm sure there's one at the BVW&TV museum also..