Author Topic: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!  (Read 8168 times)

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Offline Dazzler111

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #50 on: November 19, 2022, 10:50:07 pm »
 

Offline Dave Wise

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #51 on: November 21, 2022, 08:14:08 pm »
The resistors are marked with the Body-End-Band system, an intermediate stage between Body-End-Dot and the modern striped system.  They're probably somewhat off but the radio barely cares.  The IF transformers are shielded, while the oscillator can go naked.

Except where proven good, those molded paper capacitors should be shot on sight.  Be slightly suspicious of the molded mica caps.

The only difference between the 1S4 and 3S4 Power Pentodes is that the former has its two filaments paralleled inside the envelope, while 3S4 needs an external jumper.  (3S4 was also used in a 50mA series string in "three-way" AC/DC/Battery radios.)
 

Offline Connecteur

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #52 on: November 23, 2022, 03:26:59 pm »
I've seen radio restorers insert new capacitors inside the shell of an original one.  Does this preserve the originality, or is it going too far?  Do shiny new capacitors ruin the authenticity of a vintage radio?
 

Offline Dave Wise

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #53 on: November 23, 2022, 04:52:58 pm »
When you acquire something old, there's always the question, "Repair or preserve?"  The answer is, "Season to taste."  I like to make things work and I don't have anything a museum would care about, so I always repair.  One time I did re-sleeve capacitors, just for the visual satisfaction.  But even that radio will pass from me with notes describing what I did.  Some will even come with a "trophy bag" of removed parts.
 

Offline Connecteur

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #54 on: November 24, 2022, 03:44:42 pm »
I suppose there is a tiny market opportunity for manufacturing "new old" capacitors; ones that look like the original, but perform as new ones.

I seem to recall a Youtuber who recreated old batteries for vintage radios, but I've not heard of anything from him lately.  Maybe he showed everyone else how easy it was to do it themselves.
« Last Edit: November 24, 2022, 03:47:06 pm by Connecteur »
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #55 on: November 25, 2022, 04:45:29 am »
I've seen radio restorers insert new capacitors inside the shell of an original one.  Does this preserve the originality, or is it going too far?  Do shiny new capacitors ruin the authenticity of a vintage radio?

I don't see it that way---part of the "authenticity" of a vintage radio is its history.

"Shiny new capacitors" have themselves been around for some time, & it is highly likely if the radio was constantly in service for all that time that it would have had the originals replaced.

That is even more the case with test equipment which has been in service, in say, a Radio or TV station, where service lives of equipment are normally quite long.(It is often faster, cheaper, & more simple to repair older stuff than to obtain new replacements of similar specs).
 

Offline unknownparticle

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #56 on: November 26, 2022, 01:13:51 pm »
Moses sandals!!  That has been hit hard with the ugly stick!!  :wtf:  Then again, Australia isn't known for it's design culture!!
DC coupling is the devils work!!
 

Offline unknownparticle

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #57 on: November 26, 2022, 01:17:48 pm »
I've seen radio restorers insert new capacitors inside the shell of an original one.  Does this preserve the originality, or is it going too far?  Do shiny new capacitors ruin the authenticity of a vintage radio?

Guilty as charged!!  Cap re-stuffing is a major part of radio and TV restoration, just look at the underside of a valve chassis that has been re-capped with modern components and compare it with the original to see why.  Not an enjoyable job, particularly with waxies but rewarding in the end. 
DC coupling is the devils work!!
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #58 on: November 27, 2022, 12:27:34 am »
Moses sandals!!  That has been hit hard with the ugly stick!!  :wtf:  Then again, Australia isn't known for it's design culture!!

Great comment coming from the country that produced the Fairey Gannet!
 

Offline unknownparticle

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #59 on: November 27, 2022, 04:13:24 pm »
Moses sandals!!  That has been hit hard with the ugly stick!!  :wtf:  Then again, Australia isn't known for it's design culture!!

Great comment coming from the country that produced the Fairey Gannet!

Form follows function rules in military aviation!!  We also produced the Spitfire, the D type Jag, the E type Jag, Aston Martin DB5, Concorde, Lotus Elan, etc, etc, etc.
DC coupling is the devils work!!
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: WORLD's UGLEST Vintage Valve Radio !!
« Reply #60 on: November 28, 2022, 06:12:40 am »
Moses sandals!!  That has been hit hard with the ugly stick!!  :wtf:  Then again, Australia isn't known for it's design culture!!

Great comment coming from the country that produced the Fairey Gannet!

Form follows function rules in military aviation!!  We also produced the Spitfire, the D type Jag, the E type Jag, Aston Martin DB5, Concorde, Lotus Elan, etc, etc, etc.

Standard Vanguard, Reliant, Triumph Mayflower, Lotus 7, absolutely any truck with "Scammell" on the front, with a "special mention" for the Scarab, & with aircraft, the Nimrod, the Miles Aerovan, & the Bristol freighter, this list avoiding some of the true aircraft horrors of the between-wars era!

As far as radios are concerned, when I visited the UK in 1971, I noticed some of the portable radios still current at the time, looked older & dowdier than first generation Oz "transistor radios" from the late 1950s/early 1960s!

Of course, the Brit manufacturers could argue that they were still "hanging in there", in the early '70s, as the Oz companies had succumbed to the influx of Japanese radios by then.
 


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