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Vintage Radio
By RODNEY CHAMPNESS, VK3UG
Cataloging & disposing of your
vintage radio collection
Keeping records and other information is an
important part of vintage radio collecting. It’s
also important to sort and store spare parts in
an orderly manner, otherwise you’ll never be
able to find anything when you want it!
From time to time, individual collectors and groups (such as the Historical Radio Society of Australia and the
New Zealand Vintage Radio Society)
organise special functions for displaying vintage radio collections and other
artefacts associated with vintage radio.
This equipment now forms a valuable
part of our radio history, the more so
when additional information from the
era is included.
Literature and signs and any other
artefacts pertaining to the hobby all
help to enhance any collection in an
historical sense.
Why keep records?
Keeping records and other informa-
Plastic bags can be used to protect vintage radio sets when they are not in use or
on display. Be sure to store them in a cool dry place, away from direct sunlight.
siliconchip.com.au
tion about our vintage collections is an
important part of the hobby. However,
some collectors find that their interests
change after a number of years and
may therefore wish to dispose of their
collection. Another likely scenario is
that the collector may wish to move
to a retirement village and may no
longer have the necessary space to
store vintage radios.
Obviously, all the hard work involved in putting a vintage radio collection together will come to nothing if
it is just carted to the local rubbish tip
when you can no longer accommodate
it. And that would be a great shame.
An article in the NZVRS Bulletin
for February 2002 by George Newlands titled “Some Ideas and Advice
On The Disposal of a Collection” got
me thinking about what will happen
to my collection when I eventually
move to a retirement village (or die).
What would my kids do when I can
no longer take an interest in my collection? They certainly don’t share my
interest in vintage radio and I would
hate to think that my collection would
be taken to the tip because it is “just
so much old junk”!
Recently, I saw the collection
amassed by a (now deceased) hobbyist
in South Australia and was asked to
give an indication as to its value. Unfortunately, his wife had no idea where
to turn for assistance in disposing of
the collection. Her husband had died
some time back and in the meantime,
some so-called “helpers” had helped
themselves to quite a few pieces of
equipment, which left a nasty taste in
the lady’s mouth.
Going from what is left, there must
have been some quite valuable pieces
in the collection which are now gone.
May 2004 73
A spreadsheet program is ideal for keeping details of your vintage radio
collection. Don’t have Excel? – try the spreadsheet that’s included in OpenOffice
(it’s free).
And in some cases, the prices paid
were so low as to be considered an
insult. She has been offered $3000 for
what’s left, which fills a shed around
15 metres square. However, just five
items that I recognise are worth almost $3000 – never mind the rest of
the gear!
That said, there are a couple of good
reasons why the collection is worth
much less than it should be. First, the
collector had dismantled many sets in
the course of his restoration work and
they are still in bits. Second, he had no
record of the items in his collection.
With sets in bits, it would take weeks
to find out which pieces belonged
together. Even then, with such a large
collection, it may not be possible to be
sure what belonged with what.
Identifying makes and models is
not easy when they are in pieces and
spread around the storage area. Unfortunately, the restorer had been struck
down with a stroke in the middle of
his work, hence the chaos.
as a chore to be avoided.
However, keeping accurate records
doesn’t have to be a chore, as even
quite simple systems can be quite
effective. For example, one of the
members of our local vintage radio
club does keep very good records
and these are a good example of just
how useful they can be to the hobby.
Every set in his collection is given a
number and a label is attached to each
set with that number. The number is
then recorded in a book and on a file
folder.
The file folder includes all the
information he has on the set and
the work done to bring the set up to
standard. He also knows where each
set is located in his collection. Can I
do this? Well, not really, although I do
know where the important (to me) sets
What do we do?
Most of us who start out in this
hobby are initially so enthusiastic
that we rarely organise our collections properly. Instead, when we come
across all those “beaut” vintage radios
out there, we tend to grab them and
hoard them but we generally have no
idea which way our hobby is going.
The result is a garage or room full of
equipment that we’ve collected and
stored in all sorts of odd places.
To make matters worse, if you are
like me, you tend to forget what you
have and where you have put it. Keeping accurate records of what we have,
where the items are and the spares that
we have for restoration is usually not
done – mainly because we think of it
74 Silicon Chip
An old chest of drawers makes a
handy storage cabinet for vintage
radio parts. Self-adhesive labels make
the parts easy to find.
are located. I also know if they have
been restored and I keep circuits and
other information in various folders.
However, I am like most other collectors, where record-keeping takes a
back-seat compared to other activities
of the hobby.
On the other hand, the article by
George Newlands and my recent
experience of seeing a potentially
wonderful collection in disarray has
really got me thinking. Most collectors,
including me, really need to look at
cataloging their collections. We also
need to better protect restored receivers and become more methodical in
our methods of storing and accessing
spare parts.
This column has covered the restoration of many fine radios from the
early 1900s to the 1970s. But once
we’ve restored them, what do we do
with them? Do we store them in the
damp and dusty garage with junk in
boxes put on top of them or do they
have pride of place in the lounge room
as they did many years ago? It really
is a shame if we leave the elements to
once again wreak havoc on a set that
required so much effort to restore to
working order.
Cataloging your equipment
Keeping a record of the equipment
you have can be done in a couple of
ways and need not be arduous. I simply use a large exercise book, suitably
ruled up to keep track of my equipment
and what has been done to it. Alternatively, computer-literate restorers
could use a spreadsheet program to
record equipment information and, in
fact, I’ve recently started transferring
some of my own records to a computerbased system.
What sort of data should be in such
a catalog? The information can be as
simple or as complex as will satisfy
your own needs. Here are a few column
headings that you could use.
(1). Set Number: this is needed so that
individual sets can be easily identified. This number can be attached to
the set with a removable label in an
inconspicuous location.
(2). Date Acquired: this is often handy
to know.
(3). Make: this helps identify and catalog brand names.
(4). Model Number: so that you can
quickly check what you already
have.
(5). Year of Manufacture: so that you
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(6). Restored – Yes/No: let’s you check
whether or not the set has been restored to working order.
(7). Date Restored: so that you know
how long ago the set was restored.
If the set hasn’t been given a run for
some time, it should be “fired up” to
make sure nothing has deteriorated
since restoration.
(8) Condition When Acquired: this is
purely so that you can look back and
remember how much work was put
into the restoration task.
(9). Brief Details On The Set: this
information can include whether it is
dual-wave, 4-valve or 5-valve, battery
or AC operated, etc.
(10). Cabinet: wooden, Bakelite, plastic or other.
(11). Cabinet Type: console, table,
mantel, portable, other.
(12). Work Done on Set: briefly indicates the work that was necessary to
restore the set to working order.
(13). Where Located: in the garage, in
the lounge room, etc, or loaned out to
someone.
(14). Approximate Unit Value: this
can be filled in when the prices of
sets at auction and elsewhere become
known.
(15). General: a column to record other
bits and pieces of information about
the set. Reference can also be made to
suitable spares that may be stored in
your workshop (wrecked chassis are
a good source of parts).
Of course, you may need more or
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less columns than this but that’s up
to you.
Cataloging other items
Having cataloged your complete
equipment, it is also desirable to have
a catalog of wrecked chassis, new and
used components, and any literature
and circuits that you have. Although I
don’t have a catalog as such for my new
components, I do have them sorted in
a logical manner.
For example, capacitors are sorted
into values and voltages, and the physically smaller ones stored in small,
re-sealable plastic bags (available from
supermarkets, etc). A black marker
pen is used to record the capacitor
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A ring-back binder is used to keep the
author’s vintage radio catalog neat
and tidy. It lists all the sets in the my
collection and their location, along
with other relevant details.
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May 2004 75
Photo Gallery: 1934 Eclipse
Radio “Endeavour Midget”
This collection has proven to be very
useful, as restoration is much easier
if you have the relevant information
(particularly circuits). Additionally,
these sources are invaluable for crosschecking the accuracy of the information in my vintage radio articles.
The storage of books and other
printed matter is an art in itself and
large libraries go to quite a bit of
trouble to preserve their collections.
Many will have noticed that some editions of their Australian Official Radio
Service Manuals have paper that has
discoloured and is very easy to tear. I
understand that this is due to the type
of paper used, which had quite a high
acid content.
I’m no expert on how to look after
printed material but I usually store
valuable books in re-sealable plastic
bags. If you’re really keen, any really
useful information can be scanned
into a computer and stored on a disc
to give fast access.
Protecting vintage radios
Manufactured by Eclipse Radio,
Melbourne, in 1934, the Endeavour Midget was
housed in a small, ornate wooden cabinet. It employed a 5-valve
superhet circuit and tuned the medium-wave band. Its valve line-up was as follows: 77 (autodyne mixer), 6D6 (IF amplifier), 77 (anode bend detector), 89 (audio
output stage) and a 280 (rectifier). Photo: Historical Radio Society of Australia, Inc.
values on the outside of each bag and
the bags are all then placed in order
in a suitably marked box.
It may sound like a lot of bother but
it isn’t really – not when compared
to searching for a particular value
among hundreds (or thousands) of
other parts.
Similarly, my resistors are all sorted
into values and wattage ratings and
are housed in a number of multidrawer parts cabinets. These cabinets
are readily available from electronics
stores, some of which advertise in
SILICON CHIP.
I also keep a list of all the valves I
have and whenever I acquire or use
some, I note this down on my valve
list. As a result, I can quickly check
which valves types are in my collection and I also know how many of each
particular type I have.
Once again, all the valves of a particular type are placed in a plastic
resealable bag which is marked on the
outside with a marker pen. A lot of my
valves are “pre-loved” and so I can’t
76 Silicon Chip
identify them by their boxes – because
they don’t have any.
Those items that aren’t really suitable for cataloging can be stored in
boxes that are suitably labelled with
the contents. If you can obtain a
number of boxes of the same size, it
can make storage much easier as they
can be easily stacked. In fact, I have
been able to obtain a number of boxes
that contained six reams of A4 paper,
so I have a relatively uniform storage
system. I also have some of my shelves
labelled to indicate what items are
stored on them.
If possible, try to keep your vintage
radio parts in one area, as it makes
finding things just that bit easier.
And be methodical with your records
as you will not be able to remember
where everything is located.
Books & circuit diagrams
I’ve always been a bit of a magpie
and so I have accumulated many radio/
electronics books, magazines, circuits
and other literature over the years.
The first thing to be aware of here is
that ultraviolet radiation from the Sun
can be quite harmful to the cabinet and
general finish of vintage radios. After
all, when the sets were made, it was
not anticipated that they would still
be around 50-80 years later. Keeping
vintage radios out of direct sunlight
and in a dry room will greatly increase
the longevity of the cabinet finish and
the internal works.
An example of the damage ultraviolet rays can do can be seen in the
way that the red paint on many signs
fades over time. Remember too how
the clear 300-ohm ribbon feeder used
on TV antenna systems many years ago
would disintegrate within about a year
when exposed to the Sun. So keep your
vintage radios out of the Sun.
Dust and household airborne chemicals can be harmful too. I remember
years ago having to service a TV set
in a household of heavy smokers.
The whole of the set was covered in a
brown sticky goo, including the chassis components, the cabinet and the
screen. In that set, simply cleaning the
screen made quite a difference to the
brightness of the picture! In addition,
the tuner contacts needed cleaning,
along with many other things.
Of course, I’m not suggesting that
your vintage sets will suffer like this
TV did. However, they will suffer to
some extent if there are smokers in the
siliconchip.com.au
These cardboard boxes once held reams of paper but are now used to store the
author’s valve collection. Each box is clearly labelled to show contents.
house (as will the smokers).
One thing is certain: the lounge
room will be a cleaner environment
than the kitchen, with its cooking
fumes. If a receiver is going to be used
in the kitchen, a build up of muck
can be expected over a period of time
and this will need to be cleaned off
occasionally.
If the radio is only used rarely in the
home, it can be protected using plastic sheeting or, in the case of console
sets, using a blanket. Ideally, though,
sets should be stored in glass display
cases to exclude dust but this is hardly
practical in 99% of cases.
Disposing of your collection
Several members of our local club
have disposed of either part or all of
their collections in recent years. In
fact, one member decided to auction
his entire collection after losing interest in the hobby. Before doing so, he
advertised his collection widely and,
when auction day rolled around, there
were buyers from interstate.
Another decided to auction his col-
lection as he was terminally ill and
didn’t want to leave the task of disposing of his collection to his wife. He
hadn’t kept a listing of his collection
and several people were involved in
cataloging it as best they could. This
wasn’t complete by auction day but it
was still a successful auction, despite
a few items being left unsold.
A third member decided to rationalise his collection and he arranged
for it to be auctioned at a local hall.
Fortunately, he kept very meticulous
records which made it relatively easy
to compile an accurate catalog. His
collection was also extensively advertised and again there were buyers from
interstate at the auction.
Another way of disposing of individual items is to see if any of your
relatives or friends would like to have
them. Local museums may also be interested in individual items from your
collection, so keep them in mind.
In summary, well kept records will
make your collection much more enjoyable, both for you and anyone visiting who may be interested in vintage
radio. Additionally, it is wise to have
your collection cataloged for insurance
purposes. You may even need proper
valuations to fully insure any really
valuable items.
Finally, regardless of the circumstances, when it comes to disposing of
your vintage radios, try to make sure
that they are passed on to those who
appreciate their historical value. SC
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May 2004 77
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