Early French radio
Early radio from the 1920's, brand unknown - made in France by a small factory in mid France - this is a very rare disign because the radio employs no capacitors, it takes advantage of the capacity between the coils in the radio and has more coils than other radios in those days, it also has 3 flat tuning coils that can be moved by the 3 knobs at the front, the distance between the tuningcoils define the tuning frequency - it can also be switched between something like long wave and medium wave reception - 4 x 4V ff / 80V plate, triode tubes. Radios like these are not “high tech” by today's standards. But, they were made with tears, sweat, and blood testing the limits of the technology of the day.
Unknown brand (Matsusita?)
Made in Japan in the 1950s - 4 tubes with ff in series, also in series with ff a capacitor to bring down the voltage - small table top radio - plastic case - supply 220 V AC/DC - MW / SW / LW - plays very well. (do you know the brandname?)
Admiral 4L25
Made in USA in the 1950s - 4 tubes - small table top radio - 110 V AC/DC - beautiful red plastic case with gold characters on front - MW- one pcb 4L2 chassis with all parts on it -
This radio did not play, the rectifier tube a 35W4 was defect and the output tube 50C5 also,
Gidi Verheijen PA0EJM had one 35W4 for me and Herm Willems had a 50C5 spare, now the radio is complete again and plays wonderfully.Thanks Gidi and Herm!
Philco
Scanantenna radio made in USA in the 1950's - radio employs 1,5V tubes, but has mains supply also - in the carrying handle is the ferrit rod placed, now you can turn it to a broadcasting station for best reception. This radio has exceptional performance.
Philips 461 A Ouverture
picture soon available
Bakelite radio made in Holland in 1937 - has 5 tubes:
AK 2, AF 3, ABC 1, AL 4, AZ 1.
This radio has 3 chassis: 1 HF, 1 MF, 1 LF.
This radio playes well but these radios can suffer from specific problems, similar to the Philips V6A: the tubes are goldpainted (exept AZ1), as the paint deteriorates, the reception consequently deteriorates too.
Novak 551-ZM Pontiacpicture soon available
Made in Belgium 1954 - LW, MW, SW (16-51m) - Bakelite ivory painted cabinet - tubes: UCH42, UF41, UBC41, UL41, UY41 - it is a so called 'universeel radio', this means that it can be supplied by AC/DC 110/220V - The 551ZM is a very nicely built radio and Novak used good components in this one, it is almost in original condition. In the year 1999 one supply 50uF 300V Swiss made capacitor lost its capacity but did not leak or worse, I repaced it by a Nichicon Japan capacitor of 82 uF taken from a switched pc power supply. Because it is situated next to the power amp. tube UL41 it gets a lot of heat, this almost certainly caused the death of the Swiss capacitor, so I placed a small metal screen on the chassis to prevent overheating of the capacitor. Also one coupling capacitor of 0.05 uF 300V made by ERO Germany lost its capacity and was replaced by a NCC Japan capacitor taken from an old unrepairable Philips radio. The 551ZM plays unprecedentedly fine. It is a joy to operate it and listen to this radio. This must be a slightly different version than the below radio of Gerard, my 551 has a golden dial and "ZM" in the type #.
Murphy 188
Twin dial radio of 1948 made in England (GB)- 11 tubes of special GB type & brand - with seperate reciever and amplifier chassis in one cabinet, receiver in the top and power-amp in the bottom of cabinet - push pull balanced twin output tube power amp. that gives 20 W RMS - big 25 W 12' Celestion high quality speaker for great sound - this radio was designed for big rooms and corner positioning.
In my radio the rectitier tube is not an original one, it was broken, (a selected GZ32 I have placed in the radio), Asaf Shlomo told me that the original valve is a UU6 made by Mazda, do you have this original tube for my radio?
The dials of this remarkable radio.
Sonolor
Small table top radio, made in France in the 1950s - 5 tubes with ff in series: 35W4, 12BE6, 12BA6, 12AV6 en 50B5 - 110 V AC/DC - plastic case with metal - MW / LW - plays very well. This radio is property of Herm Willems.
The inside of the Sonolor radio.
Philips Plano
The end of the tube era.
Antennas
click on the painting
Do you have more info on one of these items? Please let me know.
©Hans Hilberink 1996 Radio museum PE1MMK ® 15-03-2012 *.
