Valve Radios

[threebikesmcginty]

Found this in the garage today, forgot I had it, unfortunately the best channel pick up so far is Five Live. Must try and find the aerial now.

 

[Flying Dodo]

Superhetrodyne fabulous!

 

[Crackle]

Can you still get Caroline on it or are most of the presenters in jail now?

 

[Aperitif]

Kalundborg - the MW transmitter from Denmark! I used to populate my Mum and dad's with radios like that, full of romantic place names (well, that was my idea of romance then, honey) Hilversum, as mentioned..and all the mystery places like Budapest and Prague - listening in the vain hope that one could eavesdrop an invasion by the red-starred hordes. Mostly got a lot of morse code down one end though. Around the back there usedd to be a low-voltage output terminal...3v DC? something like that. Once, I 'wired' my friend Nick up to it and switched on. He wasn't best pleased - nor was his Dad.
I loved all the components glowing too (not just my mates) - and the finesse of the variable capacitors used for tuning, their often powdery and dusty blades interlocking as Eireaan gobbledegook was being transmitted...

 

[Glow worm]

Found this in the garage today, forgot I had it, unfortunately the best channel pick up so far is Five Live. Must try and find the aerial now.

View attachment 33909

An aerial will probably only work for VHF (fm) as the long and medium wave signals will be received through the set's internal ferrite rod. Just rotate the set 180 degrees to find optimum reception.

I love these old sets and good to see some of the old long wave places marked like Kalundborg in Denmark which was on 243khz. The frequency is now largely vacated, but the Danes occasionally fire up the old beast for shipping forecasts. I caught one the other morning. I really do need to get out more.

' BBC Light' became Radio 2 and transferred to medium wave (now on fm of course) - the BBC Light Programme frequency, 198 kHz, is now radio 4 from Droitwich, Worcs, and Westerglen Scotland. Allouis is still in use by France (162khz) and is now France Inter. The French shove 2,000,000 watts up that stick- you can probably get the station on your toaster if you live close by!

 

[accountantpete]

Nice - they give a great deep warm sound don't they.

Ours are under lock and key as they have some tasty valves that would go nicely with my headphone tube amps

Keep it warm and dry.

here's our latest addition - Grundig trannie out of a skip ( the owner lets us take what we want).

 

[GM]

Nice bush!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Nice bush!

I wondered if we'd get any Carry On replies, I'm surprised it's you TGM!

 

[PeteXXX]

My old 1952 Austin A40 Devon had a valve radio.
It was just warming up by the time I got to work

 

[Glow worm]

I'd love to have one of these beauties with 'Caroline' clearly marked on the dial.

 

[MarkF]

That is a very nice Bush radio, I have lot of old portables, Hitachis, Panasonics etc Stuff from the '60's & '70's, I love all the swtiches and chrome plus the world cities on the dials fire my imagination like I am a kid again. I have an Etronic too, bought fully refurbed from the guy in the link.

Radio Workshop

 

[GM]

I wondered if we'd get any Carry On replies, I'm surprised it's you TGM!

Just warming up for the Pantomime season

 

[Globalti]

What none of you has mentioned is the SMELL of those old radios! Especially as they warm up.

 

[Aperitif]

The other memory of the Athlone Era was the fragrant aroma of burning dust and settled fag ash as the heaters in the valves did their job, and glowed into electric action, warming the wooden or bakelite casing.

 

[asterix]

Got one of these (Ekco M23) from a jumble sale and used it to listen to Caroline, London and Luxemburg among others (No radio one, the beeb didn't approve). Rather ugly case, it's true, but lovely tone. My brother blew it up. He claims it was an accident.