This set is a 1939 Murphy A72 we used to have at home in the 40s and 50s.
They're not valuable or collectable but I'd like to have one again!
Has anyone got one lurking in an attic?
It has only three valves and as you can see the minimum of controls. It has a multi-tapped mains input and was therefore universal, at least as AC mains was concerned.
Made
in the days when progress in wireless sets was accelerating. The new tetrode
valve was new and hence many sets used this fact in their name
as a selling point. The screen grid valve, as everyone knew meant
more and louder stations.
This
is my first Portadyne set. It dates from 1932 although it was
sold as "possibly Edwardian".
Portadyne Radio Ltd of London NW10, made radios in the 30s and were still in business in the mid-50s.
This 4-valve battery operated, walnut veneered set cost £12:17:0d, which was pretty expensive, representing several weeks wages for a working man. It covers medium and long waves and has an internal frame aerial and a turntable built into the base. It must be one of the earliest radios carrying station names on it dial.
These heavy "transportable" sets appeared in 1927, with Pye and Rees-Mace models. Two varieties of portable set were popular, heavy wooden sets like the Portadyne, and lighter "suitcase" models, which continued in vogue until around 1935. After WWII, smaller lightweight sets using B7G valves in cases with hinged lids but still using relatively heavy batteries, were popular until the introduction of the transistor and the ferrite rod aerial, when sets were able to reflect trendy design instead of being dependent on the physical constraints imposed by the frame aerial, an accumulator (in pre-war sets) and the HT battery.
MkIICompact little communications receiver with the usual high quality tuning arrangements always found on Eddystone sets.
It covers the following bands:
550-1500KHz; 1.5-3.5MHz; 3.5-8.5MHz; 8.5-18MHz and 18-30MHz
with Filter, BFO and AGC switch to aid reception
This little
receiver probably gave hours of pleasure to it's owner more than
70 years ago.
For some reason if a set has a maker's label it can fetch anything up to £200 or more but if it's home-made then it attracts little interest. This one attracted little interest so is it home-made or was it a commercially built set? Physically there's virtually no difference except a maker's name which may be nailed on the side or engraved on the ebonite panel. Now where's that engraving machine I bought for a couple of quid........
This nicely
made, but battered wooden box, probably dates from the mid-30s
to late-40s and is a magneto for ringing a telephone. It was used
by the coastguard according to it's label and came from the West
Country.
1920s home-built radio chassis
More 1920s radio components
Heathkit Grid Dip Meter
Bush AC34
Variable high voltage power supply
Vintage variometer
Morse reader
Another HP VHF Oscillator
HRO; "much modified"
The HRO was available in large numbers after WWII and was used as the basis for pepping-up using modern valves by many radio amateurs. The awkward tuning arrangement wasn't important when looking over an amateur band. All you needed to know was the band edge settings on the dial. Actual frequency was relatively unimportant. The resetting accuracy using the dial's vernier reading was very useful.
The design of the HRO must have been good as both the Japanese and the Germans copied it during WWII.
