I have two 1941 radios: a Philco and a Zenith. Both are complete and appear to be in about the same condition. I am ***uming that they do not work. Before I have one of them restored for my car which brand is the better radio to start with? It would be nice to know if one has an advantage over the other. Or plan B would be to just sell them and forget about having a radio.
Yep, this. Restoring either of those radios won't be particularly cheap; prices for quality tubes if even available are outrageous these days. You will lose that 'tube sound' though.
Not true. Believe it or not for the most part vacuum tubes are both plentiful and cheap. At least the small signal tubes used in radios. Now - Vintage Guitar and Stereo Amplifier output tubes - yes - stratosphere for boxed NOS from the good old days. The cork sniffers have really driven the price of those way up. EL34, 12AX7, GZ34, etc. Old radio and battery set "space charge" tubes etc are only $2 or $3, and they can't even give old TV tubes away. Except, I'd bet a set of spark plugs all the tubes in both those radios are just fine anyway. Tubes are often replaced unnecessarily. Tubes are actually pretty tough and long lived. It's the coupling and byp*** capacitors and power supply electrolytics, that cause trouble. That's what roasts tubes in the first place. They were made with waxed paper and foil, and absorb moisture over the years, and short out. By the 1960s mylar film dipped epoxy capacitors replaced the older style and that ended the problem. Anyone with an iron and a spool of rosin core solder can most likely bring the radio back to life and good service by replacing the capacitors and power supply electrolytics. As to what particular radio is better - usually the one with more tubes - though not always. Some manufacturers had an inflated tube count for advertising purposes.
But at the end of the day, you'll still have just an AM radio. I don't know how it is in other parts of the country, but around here AM is pretty much just talk radio, or 'specialty' broadcasters (weather, religious, foreign language). Not much to listen to....
During the day, that's sort of correct. At night, the AM band opens up. Bigtime. Here in Ioway I can listen to 650 WSM, in Nashville, or WBZ in Boston, or KDKA in PA, or KOA in Colorado, stations in Louisiana, KSL in Salt Lake... I just like the old radios, the work really well when they are tuned up. If I want modern tuneage I just plug in an iPod or smartphone or whatever. It's FM radio that's the wasteland near as I can tell.
Don't forget about that 6 volt ********. Not sure how they like being hooked up to a voltage reducer. (***uming you're running 12 volts). They're also polarity sensitive.
I ***ume the car it's going in is still 6V positive ground? If it's not how are you planning to make it work once refurbished?
That works if you live somewhere that's flat... not here (west coast). With all our mountains, local stations are it....
Or, get on top of the mountain. One time I got out on some of those mesas out in Utah and Arizona and could pick up everything, it was strange listening to Iowa stations from so far away. Those old car radios are actually favored by DX (long distance) enthusiasts. Some of them even have a tuned RF stage in the front end and are very sensitive and selective for what they are.
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