OT vintage house radios

Are there anyone else who still listens to a vintage radio in the house,I have a Zenith am/fm from the late 50s or early 60s and I listen to it every weekend. I seen pics of it in the apartment my mom and dad lived in before they bought the house so it dates it from august 58 to late 61 or early 62.it was in the living room untill 74 when we got a console stereo and then it went to the garage where it stayed untill a couple years ago when I pcked up a cheap stereo at a garage sale and brought the Zenith back into the living room. The stay in the garage was hard on the wooden case but its still presentable but this winter I will hit the antique malls to find a identicle non working radio to put the working guts into,I have seen them but the color was different so I passed on them but I will look again. Jeff

 

How about this 1939 Motorola, it's in my office and still picks up the local am stations.

 

I have a stewart warner I think its a late 50's

 

I dig early Hi-Fi gear. I have a Stromberg Carllson clock radio in the shop. Somehow AM radio just sounds better through valves. 78 RPM shellac does as well.

I also have a couple of vintage portables from the early 50's I'm planning on putting MP3 internals in. I hate to gut em, but you can't get germanium semiconductors any more.

 

I also have a Zenith floor model radio from the late 30s or early 40s that came from grandmas attic that still works but since there is not much on am and I dont have the room for it in the livingroom it stays in a upstairs bedroom. Jeff

 

Mebbe I am too old but anything with FM is not vintage to me.... also clock radios....

 

You hit a nerve, haha. I collect old radios... german tube consoles and tabletops are my favorite. (They have the best sound)

 

We have a 30's Philco that a bored friend just restored perfectly... it's gorgeous. Looks exactly like this, maybe a little better:



My barn has a vintage Marantz receiver and a pair of early 70s KLH Speakers I [picked up at a garage sale for $10/pr...

My dad collect, the first reel to reel Wallensak stereo, the first Ampex cassette recorder, those gianourmous Sonys "portable" reel to reels from the 70s...

 

Here's my unrestored 1939 Zenith Model 1103

 

soon there will be no radios. everything will attach directly to your ear.

then the planet will implode.

 

Suit yourself. I'm happy with my 1951 Stromberg clock radio and thats all that counts

 

Holy Shit Jonny those are badass....i have a crappy little late fifty's Zenith that i listen my i pod through via fm transmitter...sounds pretty cool

 

i like this thread. i gotta get a picture of mine on here. it was just a cabinet when i found it on the sidewalk, no electronics, so i converted it to a guitar amp. soon ill put a new record player, and a CD player in it. i wish it had been complete, but it still looks cool

 

Here's my 1941 Zenith 8-S-563. I wound up building a new sound board and installing an automotive CD stereo. I figured why restore the original equipment when in the end it won't play old music? I even installed EL wire around the inside of the dial to give it a faint glow. Zenith dials did not light up, but most people expect them to, so I did not disappoint. With the wood cabinet the sound is phenomenal and deep, not like the garbage they put out today. You can read a blog on it here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=52815215&blogID=216251531

 

so does it still have tubes in it?

The zenith stratosphere lights up. Coolest radio ever. 25 tubes, and most were 45 triodes. INSANE SOUND.

 

there's a winery in Escondido CA (North San Diego) that has a big collection of convertible cars and old TV's and Radios.
Deer Park Winery & Museum. It's very cool!

 

Ahh yes old radios another of my favorites. This one is a Minerva, don't know if it's worth anything but it still works. My grandmother gave this to me when I was 8 years old and I know it was old as hell then. So I've had it for 41 years so that makes it really ass old. If you look at the pic of the dial to the left of the 90 I scratched a spot off the dial for WLS Chicago as that was one of my favorites along with KOMA >>>>.

 

I have a pretty good sized collection of 50's era plastic and Bakelite tabletop radios, probably 50 or more. I'll have to snap a couple pictures. I have no idea why I collect them, I just think they're cool looking. I only collect the tabletop ones though, has to be small enough to sit on a shelf.

 

Everything is still in it but is non-operational. I'll get around to rebuilding it eventually, but for now I can use and enjoy it with the cd player. The 40s wiring had a really crude insulator jacket that has certainly not made it 65+ years, so the whole thing needs to be rewired before it can be powered up.

 

Probably not strictly vintage, but if I see a radio I like the look of and the price is right....

Apols for the blurry pics, too much Stuka Juice

 

Minervas & Strombergs & Zeniths, oh my! I've got perhaps a dozen or more old radios & record players of varying brands & generations. All are tube-type, plastic, bakelite or wood cases, mostly tabletops - and most are USA made I betcha. I picked up most of them at estate/garage/moving sales for ten bucks or less. Best one is - I think - a WWII era Zenith tabletop model that has shortwave & "broadcast" bands. Also takes a battery - no idea what kind. The case is great art-deco wood style so I'll probly rebuild or replace the internals (like some do with cars of same vintage, eh?). And a nice old Philco (wasn't that Ford owned?) tabletop record player, art deco-ish wood case in nice shape. Most are packed away but will post some pics when I get some of them out. Great thread! Most interesting to relate these old soundboxes with cars of same vintage!

 

Oh wow... Who'd a thought we'd strike up this thread...

I have a Stromburg Carlson 345M unit... works good

Where do you find values & places to sell these things. It was a gift from my wifes sister (I think she overpaid for it). So I hate to sell it too cheap.

 

I'm into metel case shortwaves. Hallicrafters ,National, R.E.M.,Hammarlund,Viking, Drake, ect. Also a ham operator.

 

I love the sound quality that comes out of tube radio,it sounds so much criisper then what comes out of a solid state radio. I enjoy listening to a old tube car radio too but they were just AM and its mostly talk or sports now and I want to hear music while driving,the original radio that was in a 53 olds I had sounded great and had a amplified speaker and would of loved to have FM going through it but I had to go with a modern system. Jeff

 

Whats gonna happen to all these working radios in feb. when everything gose digital? HRP

 

only tv is going digital, radio will not change

 

I have an old phonocord out in the garage, am,shortwave receiver, record player and as the name implies it also records vinyl. bought it out of the thrifties years ago just gathering dust these days. Have never seen another one like it.

Radio dial is marked for local radio stations.

 

Here is my 1942 Philco...

here is my 1936 (I think) Sears Silvertone...

We have a local am station here that plays Old Time Radio on Sunday nights, so we listen to these every Sunday night. Here's a link to the website. You can listen online. Good wholesome family fun! The shortwave is neat to listen to late at night. You can still get some interesting stuff from out there somewhere.

 

my house is full of stereos from the 50s-80s i used to collect them, then i found hot rods

 

It's going to happen,,just not real soon,, HRP


Radio is going digital
But dueling standards complicate transition

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0 itxtvisited="1"><TBODY itxtvisited="1"><TR itxtvisited="1"><TD style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 20px" itxtvisited="1"></TD><TD width="100%" itxtvisited="1"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>By Gary Krakow

MSNBC

KULPSVILLE, PA, Mar. 12 - If you’re sick of all-talk AM radio, scratchy static or shortwave signals that sound like they’re being sent from Mars, take heart. Just like television, radio is going digital. But lines are being drawn in a battle between the U.S. choice and the standard set for the rest of the world.
InsertArt(1819171)FOR THE MOST PART, AM radio has remained unchanged from the early days of broadcasting. In the United States, AM radio, once our main music medium, is now mostly relegated to talk, sports and all-news formats — because voice sounds good on AM and music sounds not so good,,,But what if AM transmissions could be improved to the point where the quality was equal to, or slightly better than, FM transmissions today? And what about CD-quality FM broadcasts?
Last October, the Federal Communications Commission approved digital broadcasting for U.S. radio stations using a system from a company named iBiquity. Within the next few years, AM and FM radio stations across the country will begin broadcasting a digital signal alongside their current analog signals on the same frequency. Of course, you’ll need new radios to hear the new iBiquity “HD” radio signal; they should be available for sale to the public later this year.
A small but growing number of stations, in places as varied as New York and Birmingham, Ala., have already begun broadcasting digital signals. Currently, 130 stations are licensed to do so, according to iBiquity.
It will take up to ten years to convert all 13,000 AM and FM stations in the United States, said Jeff Jury, a senior vice president at iBiquity.

THE STANDARDS MUDDLE

The HD standard is also available to AM and FM stations worldwide, but faces an uphill battle against competing standards that have already gained approval in Europe and elsewhere. Digital FM radio already has a big foothold in Europe, thanks to Digital Audio Broadcasting, a free, over-the-air digital service that requires only a special receiver attachment on the listener’s end. While DAB is approved in Canada as well, the FCC opted for iBiquity instead of DAB.
Digital radio goes beyond AM and FM, however. In many parts of the world, long wave and shortwave radio are the main sources for news and music. That’s where yet another standard, DRM, comes in. Digital Radio Mondiale was formed in 1998 to create a universal, digital system for shortwave, medium-wave and long-wave bands.
(Time for a brief radio jargon lesson: “AM,” which stands for amplitude modulated transmissions, is actually used in three major bands of transmissions: long wave, for short-distances; medium wave, which is what we think of as AM radio; and shortwave for around-the-world coverage such as the BBC World Service.)
Both HD and DRM are free to the listener, in contrast with the only form of digital radio most in the United States are now familiar with: satellite radio.
Satellite radio services such as XM and Sirius are more analogous to cable TV, with a far wider variety of channels available than what you can tune in locally — and many of the channels are commercial-free. But like cable TV, there’s a monthly service charge for programming.
In the last five years, the DRM group has expanded into an international consortium of more than 70 broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators, research institutions, broadcasting unions and regulatory bodies. Just last week, the International Telecommunication Union cleared the way for broadcasters in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Australia/New Zealand to switch to the DRM system for broadcasting.
IBiquity says that the ITU has also approved their system for AM and FM stations worldwide.

THE BENEFITS

The reasons to switch to digital are numerous.
For the listener, AM radio will now sound like FM, with bandwidth somewhere similar to current FM monaural signals in the United States, improved reception quality, receiving stations on the same frequencies, new, low-cost, energy-efficient receivers and easy tuning by frequency, station name or programming format. You will also be able to get text information from the station that could include things like the title of the song you’re currently listening to and the name of the singer.
Broadcasters using the DRM system get the additional benefit of much lower broadcasting costs. DRM estimates its system uses about 20 percent of the total energy needed to produce an old-fashioned AM signal — in other words, they can now reach the same number of people at one-fifth the cost.
Radio manufacturers will benefit from people purchasing new radios in order to receive the upgraded signals. One estimate says that 2.5 billion radio receivers may need to be replaced.
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This is what the DRM software looks like on your computer screen. In addition to all the graphical and text signal information - note the playlist on the right.
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THE SOUND

I traveled last week to the Northeast SWL Fest (a conference of shortwave listeners) to hear DRM in action.
For now, listening to the DRM test transmissions requires a lot of effort. You need a PC with Windows 98 or better, a 16-bit soundcard that supports full duplex at 48 KHz sampling rate, LAN or dial-up network installed, a unique software program (available for 60 euros at http://www.drmrx.org/purchase) and a specially modified shortwave receiver with 12 KHz IF output.
James Briggs of DRM and Jan Peter Werkman of Radio Netherlands set up the display and also brought with them a very, very, very early beta of a stand alone DRM-enabled radio, which had all of the above built inside. When it worked (I’m being kind) it showed what could be available in the next five to ten years.
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A prototype of a self-contained, stand-alone DRM receiver.
<HR color=#c0c0c0 noShade SIZE=1 itxtvisited="1"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>What did work were the three setups using PCs and the special software. Briggs and Werkman got a number of shortwave broadcasters to send test signals to the gathering and the results were very impressive.
Gone was the the fading in and out of the signal. Gone was the very narrow bandwidth, with no treble or bass to speak of. Instead, we heard music that actually sounded like music. People speaking sounded like they were nearby, not thousands of miles away like they do on today’s shortwave broadcasts.
In short, DRM sounded terrific. It will give AM stations a new lease on life and could give FM and even the satellite radio channels a run for their money. Briggs told me that he’s heard the iBiquity system and sound-wise the two systems are very similar. I’m hoping to hear FCC-approved digital in the next few weeks to see if that’s true.

THE FUTURE IS COMING

Back to the SWL Fest. Briggs and Werkman told the gathered crowd that all the stuff that now requires a PC, special software and a modified radio will be shrunk-down to one integrated chip. With radio manufacturers like Sony, Sanegan, Bosch, JVC and Telefunken on board the DRM bandwagon I’m sure we’ll start seeing receivers very soon. Kenwood and Harmon-Kardon are among the manufacturers working on U.S. radios for the iBiquity standard.
Within five to 10 years the price of digital radios should be low enough for people in remote areas and third-world countries, where reliance on shortwave is particularly strong, to afford new receivers.
The big rollout of DRM is coming this spring at the World Radio Conference in Geneva, when a number of the world’s largest broadcasters will announce a permanent schedule for DRM digital transmissions.
Back in the States, local shortwave fans are hoping that the start of digital transmissions will mean the resumption of BBC World Service to North America, which ended a short while ago. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle also plans to end their North American services in the next few weeks. For now, BBC World is available via their Web site and on satellite provider XM.
For now, it looks like we in the United States will have one digital AM and FM radio standard and most of the rest of the world will be using another one (or two if you count DAB). It won’t be the first time this has happened: television, HDTV, cell phones, etc.