• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Vintage Radio

Stony

Well-Known Member
I started this thread in the "related gear" section as what self respecting military man didn't sit beside the radio during the war and listen to music or "fireside chats" from FDR.

I've had this Zenith radio for about 20 years. It's a console model and it picks up stations nicely. As you can see by the info, this radio was somewhat pricey for 1941.

fd39ffb5-7154-4628-b2de-50b2eb562461-original.jpg


d21a7526-96b3-4fc1-b0b6-aa77b4c0c42a-original.jpg


160b8483-15c7-409f-a98c-66a9d86b0185-original.jpg
 

Edward

Well-Known Member
wow! beautiful! and I'm amazed at the price.... certainly was considered a top of the line luxury item! I have an old 1930s wood / bakelite General Electric that picked up both short wave and broadcast but sadly it needs to be restored and I doubt I ever will bother. it displays well and it was my great-grandfather's so a family heirloom of sorts.
 

B-Man2

Well-Known Member
That brings back some memories. My grandmother had one almost identical and it worked every time it got turned on.
 

Falcon_52

Active Member
Really nice one there! I still have my grandfather's Zenith cabinet radio with AM/FM/SW and on the other side is a variable-speed phonograph that can play 16, 33, 45, and 78 rpm records. It was working for a long time but has stopped working in recent years. It may be a bad tube or some of the old capacitors may have given up so it needs a little love.

Funny thing: I have never seen a 16 rpm record so I guess that the idea of an EP record didn't really take off. :) Perhaps the audio quality was marginal at that speed.

Noel
 

Silver Surfer

Well-Known Member
man, i had an old grundig table top job that was from the 1940s, some many, many years ago. it worked, looked, and sounded beautiful, always. always, that is until a tube would die. no probs, as there was a everything surplus store on canal st that had tonsa tubes. if they were not in their original box, ya just had to take the burnt tube to the store, and there was a guy there who would look at it and pull a tube from the bin [huge] and say, "this will work". he was always right. over time, the shop-store closed, and it was now a search for "specialty" electronics shops. one by one, they went bye bye. bottom line is that i gave the radio away due to the expense and hassle of try to find tubes for it. i would not be supprised if there are now small companies making tubes for these oldies again, as lps, turn tables, old radios and all manner of anlalog stuff have now become gotta haves for collectors and folk who appreciate the look and sound of the old tech.
 

Stony

Well-Known Member
Mine also picks up SW stations in foreign languages, I just don't remember which ones as I haven't tried a SW one in a few years.

Mine also has preset station buttons on the right that all start with the letter "K", so it would have been a model sold west of the Mississippi River (at least I believe all stations starting with a "K" were west and all stations starting with a "W" were east of the MS River). It also has all the bass, treble, etc. buttons on the left.
 

dmar836

Well-Known Member
I got into tube radios just enough to buy a couple radios, books, and a vintage tube tester. Never grasped too much about electronics though I find it fascinating. I do know to not let the smoke out of the wires! The hobby never took too much of a set but I still find it very interesting.
 

STEVE S.

Well-Known Member
Nice radio Steve with family history to boot.

All of the scratches on the left side are from my mothers shoes. When she was little, she would prop her feet up on it while listening to the radio shows. She was 3 months old when news came across about Pearl Harbor. Story is my grandmother was pinning a diaper on her when the news broke.
 
Top