Regulars will know that a lot of my time is spent working on electronics, and I like to pick up old radio equipment to refurbish.

By way of something different, I thought I'd post some pics of my latest project. This is a mid-1950's tabletop Regentone radio & phonograph, or "radiogram" as they were called in England at the time.


This one is somewhat unusual in that the record deck hides behind the flip-down tuning scale:


For the radio enthusiasts among you, the chassis is a fairly conventional 5-tube line-up: ECH42 (converter), EAF42 (I.F.), EBC41 (detector & 1st audio), EL41 (audio output) plus EZ40 (rectifier). (They're called "valves" over here, by the way!)


The tuner section is 3-band, conventional MW broadcast, SW (6 - 18MHz), and LW (150-300kHz) which is also a broadcast allocation in this part of the world. The turntable is one of the early BSR Monarch 3-speed changers.

This one came from a local auction; it needs some work, but at least it's in good shape and complete, and it looks as though it's been stored in a dry place.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-30-2002).]

Paul, a long shot — is that the [3rd pic, 2-deck maybe?] tuning capacitor left side above the chassis? Is it mechanically connected to the flipdown scale? …with that woven ‘fishline’ string?

Quite a find. {A lot of people never understand.}




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 08-30-2002).]

Paul:
Nice cabinet and a nice radio.
Just dropped in to see what's happening outside of the US
HotLine1
John

Have a good weekend, & "Labor Day" Monday, if you guys have it as a holiday.

Just one minute after reading your post I found something in my room that's related to this post.
I found a box with 5 valves, all "Made in England". 3 Mazda ones (ECC83, ECL82, EL84) and 2 Brimar (EZ 80 and something that looks like EM84, the labeling is very hard to read).
They come from a reel tape recorder I took apart years ago. It was a strange thing, made by a company called "Modern Techniques, England), wooden case covered with red Plastic. I'm curious about that. Have you ever heard of this Company? Are those common in England?
I'd love to get one.

BJ,
Yes, that's the multi-gang tuning capacitor/condenser fitted with the usual large pulley on its spindle around which is wound the dial cord. This model is fairly intricate in that department due to the flipdown lid. The tuning knob is located on the right-hand side of the cabinet (as viewed from the front).

John,
Nope, no holiday on Monday here. We had a "bank holiday" a couple of weeks ago. (You can tell it was a holiday -- It rained!)

Tex,
The plastic covered wooden cases were very popular here on radio equipment in the 1960s. One trade name was "Rexine." The best way I can describe it is that it's a sort of plasticized textile covering. Some old radios, tape recorders, etc. turn up on e-Bay from time to time, although in varying conditions.

I'm not familiar with the Modern Techniques name; I've had a quick look at some of my old reference books just in case, but I can't find anything listed under that name. My guess would be that it was a small independent manufacturer, possibly even just using somebody else's chassis.

The valve line-up you listed was a very common one for British tape recorders of the era. The ECC83 is an audio amplifier, the ECL82 and EL84 were used as audio output and bias oscillator (for recording) in various combinations. Some models used only one of these. The EZ80 is the rectifier.

The EM84 is a cathode-ray display, commonly called a "magic eye" indicator. These were used as tuning indicators on some radios and as level indicators on many domestic tape recorders. Some types were round displays, but the EM84 is just a small horizontal bar. If you look closely you'll see the section which would have been placed so that it was visible through the panel. Love that green glow!

A name I'm sure you'll be familiar with is Telefunken. I was given one of these old tape machines when I was a kid in the 1970s. It weighed a ton (or so it seemed to me at the time), but I spent many happy hours cleaning it up and using it.

Paul,
I have a large box of valves at home,
here, there are various types and
3 of them are the "Magic-Eye", it is like
a big green neon,not sure what voltage,
(filament,anode,etc) they work on, can
anyone tell me?
What I do know, is that they came out of
various Reel to Reel tape recorders,
that I fixed in the very early years of
my life as a trainee technician, bits
like this scare me, as it shows my true age.
But if anyone is looking for an odd valve
(tube), let me know, chances are I have it.

They're actually a miniature cathode-ray tube rather than neon, and work in much the same way as a TV or oscilloscope tube, on a more simplified basis.

Another common use was as a null or balance indicator. I have one used as such in an old resistance/capacitance bridge.

Operating voltages are pretty much the same as for the other valves they were used with, generally anything from about 150V upward on the anode (plate), although some will operate right down to 90V or so. The same goes for the other valves, generally 150 to 300V for mains types, but the valves designed for battery portables were made to run on a 90V HT battery. (I'm speaking of domestic radios here; TV sweep stages, high-power transmitting valves, etc. could run into the kilovolt range.)

Filament voltages in the 1950s/1960s era are most often 5, 6.3 and 12.6 volts, although others were used, mainly on power tetrodes/pentodes and C.R. tubes. (5V filaments were most common in rectifiers.)

In the British/European valve coding of that time, the first letter indicates the filament characteristics. The "E" in all the above examples means 6.3 volts. The American tube coding also uses the first number to give the filament voltage, e.g. 6SN7 is a 6.3V filament, 5V4 is a 5V type.

There are a few anomolies, e.g. the ECC83 actually has a center-tapped filament which can be wired parallel for 6.3V or series for 12.6V. It is a direct equivalent of the American 12AX7.

By the way, Tex mentioned the Brimar name. The name originated as a contraction of BRItish Made American Range, as the company was set up originally to manufacture American specification tubes here.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-31-2002).]

Paul,
Good find. At our hamfests here Zenith transatlantics have been popping up a lot, very similar (without the turntable though), a lot of my friends have rebuilding/restoring old radios as a hobby. Over my head right now I have a Collins 51J receiver. It, fortunately, does not need restoring and is in beautiful condition and still works very well.

The big problem with it is that it is just a receiver, and it only can tune within the ham bands. I do listen to shortwave and commercial radio a good bit, but I use either my Ten-Tec Jupiter, or my Kenwood TS 570, they are both extended coverage. In the bands it can tune, the Collins puts out the rich old sound I know you are familiar with, of course all filters are mechanical.

Sorry to hear you don't have labor day on the other side of the pond........slow down and think about us, I'll hoist a burger for you.

Paul— Off topic slightly, but one memory has surfaced. A couple of decades ago, I worked on an accelerator that used a lot of custom English Electric Valve thyratrons. One day I was talking with a power-supply designer on the project, {he was almost stupefied that anyone would have an interest in what he did} and got to discussing specs that only EEV could meet, and partway through his fond recounting, his eyballs glazed over describing the trip he took to visit the factory. I remember well his comment, "Now, those folks know how to entertain visitors." His knees seemed to almost buckle at his recollection of the tour. I won't forget that conversation.

Thanks for the explanationb of all the valves!
I took that machine apart when I was about 7 years old and this is the only thing I kept (except for the name plate and the power cord, very very thin wires, nearly looked like low Voltage, old British color coding, no plug attached, wires just ripped off)
These cases were pretty common here also, but this one was such a particularly awful red I've never seen before or after. Top was some kind of grey-green wirecloth , the control bar beige plastic. I guess the machine must have been rather hogh-class as it was a 3 motor direct drive setup (all other machines I've seen were 1 motor belt driven),3 speed (4.75, 9.5 and 19 cmps), built to be used vertically as the reels could be secured with screws.
I really regret having taken it apart as I'll probably never get anything like that. Probably it would even have worked if I hadn't mistaken the green wire for the phase and the red one for the ground.
Sure I know Telefunken, but it has never been really common in Austria. Phillips, Grundig and Hornyphon (Austrian Philips license) were most common here, along with Revox in the high-end section. I collect those things but pitifully never managed to get one with a magic eye instead of the common magic band.
One of the nicest things in my collection is a portable Telefunken 302 (battery powered, reels up to 13 cm)

Scott,
I studied thyratrons many years ago (the Van Valkenburgh "Basic Electronics", originally written for the U.S. Services if you've ever seen them), but I've had little to do with them. I think they had some in the positioning control gear for the #1 antenna at Goonhilly when I started work there in 1982, but it was due for refurbishment then and of course the modern replacements are SCR or thyristor. (Goonhilly #1 is the original dish erected for Telstar in 1962.)

Tex,
That sounds an interesting machine, as most of the domestic variety of the time were designed only for horizontal use. The inclusion of the 7-1/2 ips speed (19cm/s) does also suggest a higher-spec machine, as many of the cheaper units were 1-7/8 and 3-3/4 ips only (4.75 & 9.5cm/s -- I can't get used to those cm figures!)

I have a Brenell tape recorder that I picked up at a junk shop for £10 ($15) a couple of years ago. That will take 7" spools whereas most of the domestic models would only go to 5-3/4". It also has a 15 ips (38cm/s) speed for real high-quality work, and as you mentioned above it has 3 separate motors.

Phillips and Grundig were also popular models here. I remember playing around with a Grundig (TK14 if I recall correctly) about the same time as I had that old Telefunken.

Vice versa with me- It's hard to get used to work with both inches and cm. I always have to calculate around.
This tape machine sure was a strange animal.
If i remember it correctly it would only take 5-3/4" spools. There was a tape on it, Soundcraft brand, with mostly german, some french songs and some recordings of a crying baby and probably his/her parents talking and singing. It was pretty funny. The mother was talking to the baby, the father was only mumbling about the rec level getting too high.
Grundig TK 14 must be pretty old. My Mom got a TK 147 christmas 1967.
I have a TK 46 stereo 3 speed set up ready for use.

I think the TK14 was an early 1960s model; I probably have the date of release somewhere. I also acquired quite a few old tapes with the machines that were given me. Several were Sunday afternoon recordings of a show here that was called "Pick of The Pops," and from the hits they were mostly recorded 1962 and 1963. (By the way, collecting old records is another hobby of mine!). I think I still have a couple of tapes of old school plays and things like that.

Paul,

Your Forum is really doing well!!! Need to post here more.

As to the Audio System mentioned in this thread, I was wondering if the Cartridge is a Ceramic type [hot signal] or Magnetic type [low signal].
I would imagine it to be a Ceramic type Cartridge with a large Stylus, so the Preamp gets a nice hot signal [Voltage in the 35 - 50 mV range at least].

Haven't seen a Tone Arm like that one since the 70's!

Scott S.E.T.

I was wondering if the Cartridge is a Ceramic type [hot signal] or Magnetic type [low signal].

for a really low signal you had to carve the needle from Bamboo

Chris

Scott,
The magnetic cartridge was mostly confined to high-quality equipment in the 1950s (real audio enthusiasts, broadcast, etc.).

Almost all of the regular domestic units were fitted with a crystal or ceramic cartridge (also called a "pick-up" over here). This one contains a BSR "ful-fi" type, and like most of those around at the time is the turn-over type with 78 and microgroove stylii (generally sapphire rather than diamond on these cheaper types). The full turn-over types with two separate stylus/cantilever assemblies were gradually replaced with the fixed body type and the stylii mounted on opposite sides of a single cantilever, so that only the stylus assembly was turned.

The output of these crystal types is actually up in the 300mV range. This was high enough that some of the really low-cost portable players (the valise-size units) just fed the signal straight into a single pentode amplifier stage (often an EL84) which drove the speaker directly. These portable players then often had opnly two tubes, the second being a rectifier (often an EZ80).

Thought I would post this link ,I would not like to see a fire happen because of misuse of Extension cords http://www3.telus.net/radiomuseum/

I happened to know someone that is in the same building so I updated the link

Doug,
Great link -- Thank you!

This place alone looks like a good enough reason for getting a plane ticket to Vancouver!

For Sven and all you other vintage radio enthusiasts.
Here is a link:
http://www.nzvrs.pl.net/
There are all sorts of links and other things on this site, Enjoy!.

[Edited to remove bad URL]

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 09-20-2003).]

Paul,
Just a small aside,
There is a concerted effort over here and in Australia, to try and salvage as many old B&W TV sets, as they believe that these are as much a part of our heritage as the radio, as without these sets, we would not have the HDTV sets that we have today, they are a part of our technological progression through the years.
To quote Rod Champness:
This is why there is a drive on to gather together as many Astor's, AWA and Zenith sets as is possible.
What do you think of this idea, Paul?.

I own three Aussie sets. Two are solid-state table sets (Kingsley and Astor).

The last is a valve table-top set made by Kriesler. They're all pretty plane Jane ordinary MW only radios. Basic boxes.

I bought them through Ebay and while searching for something affordable and yet semi interesting looking that a Aussie sets seem to go for a lot of money. And there are very few that have survived in entirely intact condition.

Many are cracked, chipped, have missing chunks, seem like they've spent time in the sun, etc.

The two transistor radios I have have slight dings and one has a crack on the side (I've mostly repaired it). But they're still in pretty rough shape.

The Kriesler is in physically pristine condition, although the plastic shell does seem tobe sun-faded.

Wonder why Australians are so hard on their radios?

This isn't to say that you don't also find radios here in the states that loook like someone played football with them.....

Sven,
Because when the Aussies are beating the English in a 5 day Cricket test and the(Oz) wicket-keeper misses an important catch, this is when the radio bears the brunt of the loss.
You should see some of the radio's over here from the last cricket season, the Black Caps(our national side), just weren't good enough!.

If I had a quarter for every time someone in America asked me to explain the rules of cricket.... Well, I'd probably have about $5 , but I don't understand it myself beyond the basic principle of "whack the ball and run back and forth."

I applaud every effort to preserve our old radio and TV equipment for future generations to see. The thing that probably deters many people from collecting old TVs in the amount of space they take up.

For anyone who finds himself in northern England, I can thoroughly recommend a visit to the National Museum of Photography, Film, & Television in Bradford. I went there a few years ago, and they have an excellent collection of TV equipment, ranging from domestic TVs right up to original studio Ampex video tape machines. They have quite a few demonstrations set up -- Great for kids (both real kids and those of us who are "old kids" ).

In the early 1900s, windmills certainly had their place for providing water to many residents moving to the western US. But they also had another purpose. Excerpt from "Windmills That Won the West", Invention & Technology magazine, Fall 2003…

One of the machines displayed at American Wind Power Center is a 1920s model that was developed specifically to generate electricity. A letter from the man who donated it, also on display, explains that it used to provide electricity for his family’s farmhouse, including the radio. One fall he and his brother, fanatical baseball fans, were dismayed to discover that the wind wasn’t blowing on the day of the final game of the World Series. They agreed that one of them would climb up and spin the blades each inning while the other listened to the game in the house, Then they’d change places. The writer complained that he was stuck up on the windmill in the last inning, when a home run decided the game.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 09-21-2003).]

I fixed the link for the Vintage Radio museum in Vancouver BC

I have a couple Aussie sets myself.

And they are quite happy with American 240V@60Hz, from this outlet
I had to repair the bakelite cabinet of the Healing, the shipper didn't pack it well enough (you have to pack things so you feel comfortable rolling it down a flight of stairs)
No, they do not convert American accents to Aussie accents.