Radio Heaven Antique & Vintage Electronics Museum

03/25/2024

Mya latest addition to the collection found last Friday at the cc-awa meet. I spotted it when I first entered the flea market, it's a Grebe CR-9 with the matching 2 stage amp. He wanted $350 for them which was a heck of a deal, I had only brought $30t0 with me. Since the meet had just started he wasn't willing to haggle yet so I moved on, a little way down the row I came across my old friend Brian who was selling a grebe cr-8, I told him about the cr-9 I had just passed on, he rushed right up there and bought it. He told me later that if I ever wanted it he'd sell it to me.
Mya latest addition to the collection found last Friday at the cc-awa meet. I spotted it when I first entered the flea market, it's a Grebe CR-9 with the matching 2 stage amp. He wanted $350 for them which was a heck of a deal, I had only brought $30t0 with me. Since the meet had just started he wasn't willing to haggle yet so I moved on, a little way deown the row I came across my old friend Brian who was selling a grebe cr-8, I told him about the cr-9 I had just passed on, he rushed right up there and bought it. He told me later that if I ever wanted it he'd sell it to me.
A few hours later as the xyl and I were leaving I told about the great find I had missed, she said why didn't I tell her, she would have written him a check for. I said let's go see if Brian will sell it. We got to Brian's car just as he was getting ready to leave. I ask him if he'd take a check for it, he said sure and proceded to dig it out for me.
It is in nearly prefect condition, it has all 5 tubes that are all brass bass tip topped short pins.
Below is a photo I took of it.

12/25/2019

I took some photos tonight when I happened to have my camera with me in my display room. The first one shows my Metrodyne Super Sever with the Metrodyne cone speaker on top. One close up shows the detailed gold screen printing design on the front panel. Other photos show some of my speaker collection, etc...

12/25/2019

Here's a fairly unusual camera from WW2. I was used in what was the first flying "smart" bomb. They built a bomb with wings and control surfaces so it could be flown via remote control, they mounted one of these cameras in the nose of it and a radio transmitted the video image to a remote control pilot riding in a bomber watching the video on a TV screen so he could "f;y" the bomb to it's target. They also mounted them in older worn out B-17 bombers that had reached their useful life. They would pack the bomber full of explosives and after the pilot had jumped out they would try to fly it to a desired target. You might have heard of JFK's older brother who died when the plane he was flying blew up, he was flying on of these remote controled bomber that blew up before he could jump out.

In the photos below you can see the camera itself, with the video tube iconoscope laying on top of it. I have removed the tube so I can display it in my vantage tube collection. Getting this tube was the main reason I wanted the camera. Now I don't know what to do with the big camera...

08/31/2019

Here's one of my favorite 20s sets. It's a custom built Radiola AR-812 which was originally a battery powered super-het. The set was rebuilt as a AC powered portable with a very special speaker.

I know no history of this set, the first time I saw it was when I received photos of an estate collection that was submitted to be auctioned at a Charlotte antique radio meet. I fell in love with it the instant I saw it.

I think it was built in the RCA engineering shop, either as a personal project or a custom build for some big shot in RCA so they could have a AC powered super-het that could be carried around. Understand that this was several years before RCA produced their first AC powered super-het the Radiola 60.

The wooden front panel is made from the exact same wood as the AR-812.

It has a A/B power supply that was originally one piece and has now been cut in tow so it would fit in the top corners of the cabinet. There's a loop antenna in the front door.

In the photo showing the catacomb you'll see that the final tube has been removed and am adapter plugged in to allow it to use a 71A output tube to drive the unusual speaker. This is the first use of this type speaker which is very much like modern speakers and not lot like most other cone speakers of about 1925. It uses a Magnavox driver from a horn speaker.

A very unusual radio for sure.

04/01/2019

I finally found my can of black shoe polish and got to work
on the Crosley 51P.
It really turned out great I think.
Below are before and after pics.

If you notice a round dark spot on the lower front panel,
it's not in the radio, it's in my camera...
I see I forgot to do something about that white spot on the
inside of the cover, oh well, I'll get it.

03/29/2019

I did some work on the Atwater Kent model 545 I was given by a good friend last Friday at the Charlotte antique radio meet,
I used what I call "The Treatment", where I clean the dirty cabinet using Goop cream hand cleaner, I then recolor the finish using Old english scratch cover. The edge trim that had originally been painted black had badly faded so I used Minwax black stain to recolor this trin since I felt that black paint would make it too dark for what I was trying to do.
After letting it dry for a day I buffed the finish and then applied two coats of Johnson's Paste Wax and buffed it off.
Below are before and after photos

03/25/2019

03/25/2019

Here's some pics of the 20s sets I picked up at the Charlotte meet this past weekend.
First is a Crosley 51P portable, and a Transcontinental ZR-4.
And an Atwater Kent 545.

03/25/2019

Here are my tube finds from the Charlotte meet this past Thursday morning during
the Tube Forum.
There are a pair of WW1 Kenotron TB-1s in their original boxes, one of which is
still sealed, a Morehead tube with nice etching in the glass and 2 early WW2
Magnetron radar tubes.
These now make it four NT98 variants in my collection.

07/19/2017

I did an antique radio friend in Maryland a favor by picking up a AK 10 breadboard, it's original shipping crate and a model M horn and packing and shipping it for him.
He first asked if I knew of anyone in Charlotte who I could recommend
to him to do this, the answer was NO, I couldn't imagine trusting
anyone I didn't know to pack a AK 10 and have any hope of it
not being destroyed, so I finally gave in and offered to do
it myself. I knew I could pack so it would survive a trip to
the moon if necessary...
This was a case of extreme packing for sure.
First I wanted to protect the radio, I took the very fragile
battery cable and put it in a big zip lock bag.
I then bought several rolls of Glad cling wrap and used it
to wrap the breadboard in several layers of plastic wrap.
I was wrapped so good I could likely have tossed it in our
fish pond and it would have been just fine.
After some hunting around I found nice heavy duty doublewall
corrugated cardboard boxes that when taken apart were just
the right size, they also had heavy duty large bubble bubble
wrap.
Since I had the original AK shipping crate I thought why not
use it to protect the breadboard. I put 2 layers of the large
bubble warp in the bottom of the AK crate, around the breadboard
I packed rolls of bubblewrap to hold it in place.
I rolled the 4 tubes that were in the set and packed them in
and around the radio I then filled the remaining space with
bubblewrap. I bought a small piece if 1/4" luan plywood
and had it cut to the exact size of the top of the crate. I
figured that since the crate had already had a lid nailed to
it a couple more tiny nails wouldn't hurt anything.
After the crate was closed up I took some more cling wrap
and wrapped the crate completly to protect it as much as
possible.
I then used the heavy duty cardboard and wrapped the crate
sealing it to itself using lots of hot glue. I then cut and
fit 3/4" foam insulation board to the outside of the cardboard
covering and the wrapped this with another layer of the
double wall cardboard again sealing it to itself with lots
of hot glue and then wrapping it with heavy duty packing tape.
After all this the model 10 and crate weighs 40 pounds, is solid
as it can be with no rattles at all.
The model M horn is about the easiest horn to ship because
it comes apart into 3 pieces. The bell was only connected
to the neck by one loose screw and the neck is only held
to the base by one set screw. It's awkward shapes makes it
fun to pack, I used another of the heavy duty boxes for
the horn, I wrapped the parts in more of the big bubblewrap
and used several small/midsize boxes I'd been saving to fill
the excess space around the horn parts and then packed the
rest of the empty space with more wadded up bubblewrap,paper/
plastic bags and about anything I had handy. Once it was done
the box was tight, no movement, no rattles.
I'm looking forward to hearing about how much trouble he
has just into the breadboard... :)
Below are some photos I took of the packing process.

I wish we in the radio hobby could get more of our members
interested in doing proper packing and shipping to help
others out with getting radios across the country.
I personally have turned down chances to get radios because
they would have to be shipped and I didn't trust anyone else
to pack them,
By the way, I shipped them via FedEx Ground, I has a C-B
transmitter shipped to me by them and they handled it just fine.
I just heard from the AK 10 owner and he said the boxes
survived the shipment just fine.