The AM Forum

This is the rig I was talking about in a couple other posts.  Thanks to some help from the guys here I've got her playing on all three bands, just need a couple parts to finish off the restoration (glass and steering wheel band change knob). I may permanently add an isolation/bucking transformer and fuze holder discretely of course.  The sound is very nice, a pair of 6V6s in push pull through a 12 or 14 inch speaker.

Tell me what you think of the dial pointer and I'll tell you what it really is.

Ed that's a beautiful receiver; I bet it sounds fantastic on the broadcast band or when getting a strapping ham signal.  It has the floor cabinet similar to the one on the cover of ER this month.  Plenty of room inside for a buck transformer.   There were a number of receivers similar in appearance at the hamfest I went to yeterday, which was a hamfest, antique radio, and the Classic Radio Hamboree all rolled into one.  I have some photos I took at it that I want to post, but I shot them at the wrong file size so I have to re-size them to upload them.

Rob

A 39 Zenith, 9, 10 or 12 tubes.

Not just a machine, it's a beautiful piece of furniture!

The dial looks great too.  Is it the speedometer from a Pierce Arrow?  :)

Gorgeous. It's a lot like a friend's Zenith I finished a couple of months ago.  On that one much of the insulation was shot, shot, shot.  Did you have to deal with that?

I imagine you know the source for the replacement knobs.  If not, I can look it up for you.

Congratulations

Jon

You can't beat that Zenith sound. The bass response and the audio output is usually top notch.

I made a bad decision to buy a pretty cabinet nicely restored RCA model 880(?) floor model and the bass is not as good as the Zenith.

It seems during those dayz that there was always a loudness war for the audio output and how many speakers the radio could have like this one!!!!

http://www.oldradiozone.com/strat_1000Z.html

25 pubes and HUGE sound
Steve has a beautiful GE floor model;;;;;;;

Fred

10 tube 1941 model 10-S-566, very nice!

Larry

i got a crosley 25ay, it was also made in 1941. that thing sounded nice too, used a pair of 6k6gt's for audio output. big speaker, probably about 10". couple months back it developed a hum so soemday i'm gonna have to tear the chassis out of it and take a look at the filter cap, something tells me it may have gone bad. funny thing is, it is intermittent, every now and then it will run normal then start humming then it will go back to not humming. while i have it apart i should probably clean up the volume and tone controls, they're a little scratchy. lastest project is an old echophone ec-1, need a speaker for it and to fix the power cord the right way, at the moment i just cut the old one off all but just a little stump then attached the new one with wire nuts, didnt come with a speaker so i took a speaker i had that was originally for use with a stereo and used wire nuts to hook it into the wires that originally went to the speaker. it probably could use a new filter cap too and probably should replace the little rubber ashers that isolate the chassis from the metal cabinet.

It's true that these older BC receivers have excellent fidelity, especially in the bass region, but where are you gonna find a BC station broadcasting the kind of music that this excellent fidelity deserves?

I can't even find it in the FM band, well, perhaps a PBS station or two.

It's probably my age showing, but I'm hearing mostly noise. I guess it's my perception from being a professional jazz and big-band musician.

Walt

Fantastic workmanship Ed!  I know it sounds as good as it looks.  Do you have any pictures of it before you started the restoration?  It would be nice to see them as well.
Enjoy...
Joe, W3GMS

So what do you play Walt?  I'm guessing trombone!

I love any sort of jazz, and really get a kick from Bix Biederbeck stuff.

AM740 out of Toronto has excellent big band era and later popular music programming.  Good station to listen to with vintage receivers. Comes in nicely in the evening on our AC powered 1928 Kolster TRF BC set.

a type of shutter dial where the pointers turn color to indicate the band?

Nothing like bring dormant stuff back to service.

Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the fine comments!
I've had it so long I've misplaced the 'before' photos.  But it was found in a barn, water damage to the top of the cabinet, and it looked like every implement in the barn had hit the front at one time. 
The rubber insulation on the wiring was crumbling to dust, so it had to be rewired.  The cloth covered wire was fine. I recapped and replaced a few badly out of spec resistors.

The dial pointer had been broken off and all that was left was the bit that fits over the shaft.  They are simply not around anymore. Occasionally there are some that pop up on e-pay or whatever.  So I manufactured a look-alike replacement from brass, epoxy and plastic.  It doesn't look very good close up and the color is off but it works.  Of course after I made up this one, I did find one online ah well.

It works FB, adding a short length of wire really improves the reception and it does sound marvelous.  WFEA plays the oldies still on AM BC band. The difference between this receiver and any modern job is impressive.

The shutter dial was 1938, I often use a 12S265 that I restored.

A problem with most of those old sets is they are barn door wide with 1 IF stage and built before the BCB license explosion after WW2.

The high end 36-39 Philcos had 2 IF's and variable selectivity which really helps. My favorite station is WXEX 1540 out of Exeter which is fine during the day but then drops to flea power and I lose it. It can also be Internet streamed. I use a 38-690 for the selectivity and great audio.

Another nice listener is the RCA 811K.  Crosley, Stromberg Carlson, GE and others made a few good lookers and performing sets also before the war.

If you want a nice tabletop allwave set for just general listening dont overlook a Hallicrafters SX-62A with the R-42 bass reflex speaker.

Carl

Yes, Stromberg-Carlson is a great performer. 1940 model 535M, 15 tuber with the acoustical labyrinth sound system. It pulls in Toronto 740AM better than my Zenith 8-S-463. By the way, the cabinet is stock original, never been refinished. The chassis, however, I have completely refurbed.

(http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab191/rocketeer_2010/Radios/IMG_1283a.jpg)

(http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab191/rocketeer_2010/Radios/IMG_1287a.jpg)

Larry

Yes, noise.  It's almost embarrassing to see the performances that pass as music being broadcast to the whirl from our "Teen Idol" and super bowl-type events. It's like we have all lost our frickin minds to consider this the best music we can come up with.

Like you, I'm a jazz and big band nut. The music of that era (and it continues) took tremendous skill and composing ability.  Gershwin and Mancini and all the others were the Mozarts of our century.

I suppose that every generation says the same thing about the present day music. Even Elvis was outlawed in some places in the 50's... :-)


Ed:  That is a FB looking radio. You restored the wood very nicely and it has an oiled look.  I was amazed to view the specs of that other 25 tube Zenith Stratosphere with the 50 watt amplifier and huge speakers. It must have sounded superb to the 1930's users with the big band in its day.

T

WTIC had the best audio in the area. I remember my Grandmother tuning into Bob Steel every morning with her old floor model that I kept in operation. He had a 3-BA vioce. Today WTIC has the worst audio on MF only equal to WBZ. I can't listen to their crappy audio, worse than ssb. 

A few days ago I was telling someone that another problem is that these receivers were made before tx audio processing.  they are beautiful to listen to if you can get a station with 10 kc of audio but the modern NRSC preemphasis to compensate for modern rx rolloff at ~ 5 kc, comes through on the old rx.  You can hear it in the consonant hiss sibilance.   they are still far better than most modern s.s. receivers that give about half the frequency response.

Kudos, Ed.  FB.

73DG

Another nice listener is the RCA 811K.  Crosley, Stromberg Carlson, GE and others made a few good lookers and performing sets also before the war.
Thanks for the refresher Carl..............

I meant to say that it was the RCA 811K that I have. Very loud radio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XiyGS-cOao

Kinda listen and look at a Zenith Stratosphere radio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDXDG-uoCrA

Tom, my instruments were trumpet and string bass, depending on the gig. I had my own big band in college. I'll attach a pic of it. After being retired from RCA in 1980 I played mostly string bass, both in big bands and in small jazz groups.

Walt

Two more pics.

Fantasitc Walt !   Great big band stuff.

You're truly a generation spanner.
-ought to name a Knight kit after you.  ;D

I got a real kick out of seeing you in 40's garb...  and dig those shoes.

Very cool, Walt.

Interesting on playing both the trumpet and string bass.  You looked like a million bux.  I'll bet babes were chasing you guys all over the place.  Big bands were quite the thang back then.

BTW, in the 60's  I played rhythm/lead guitar in a Motown group. Later took up jazz alto and tenor saxes.

Nothing like FB music from a talented group. 

Later -

T

I was pretty much on top of pop music into the 80s, then started to lose interest.  When I was in school in Nashville, I caught Woody Herman gigs a couple times, Dave Brubeck's quartet, and Doc Severinsen with his band.   There were some others but this was 25 years ago so I've forgotten.  There's so much junk music it isn't worth the trouble to pick out the few good tunes so I'm completely out of it with current artists.  I hear names you know, like Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga; I have no idea what they sound like -- radio is more interesting.  Another thing is that getting tickets to anything is a real PITA and a ripoff--there's one or two operations that have a lock on all the performing venues and make you pay what a Bird 43 slug costs to get in.  I'd rather have the wattmeter slug. 

In the first pic observe the violin, which is unusual for a big band. However, if you enlarge the pic you'll see a brass strap attached to the top of the tail piece. That strap supported an Astatic xtal phono pickup, mounted so that the needle of the pickup rested on the edge of the bridge, and held tight with a rubber band, making it a real electric violin. This was in 1936, and well could have been the first electric violin ever. I used the same trick on my bass fiddle.

The violinist was a real virtuoso performer, so he took many solos, and with the phono pickup amplified, he brought down the house.

Walt

It certainly is and its low on the distortion also, RCA was at the top of their game in those days but dont draw the interest of a Zenith or Philco were people will pay stupid prices for a low end model. I get them in here regularly for restoration. Glad to see yours has the sounding board and key. I take it you had no problem rebuilding the tuning motor or was the set bought restored? The motor can be a real PITA and the rubber wire just takes some time and care.

The 1000Z video must be using a lousy pickup or those thumpers in the radio are in poor shape. At around 25-30W it will fill a hall with fine audio but there are constant arguments about who has better....Scott, McMurdo or the 1000Z. I dont own a McM and the only Scott here is a postwar 800B with a slightly modified bass boost circuit and 6L6GC's in place of the original G's with SS regulated bias and screen voltages. The 15" coaxial Jensen will rattle the windows!

Yeah, I like consoles and have a fair selection of them as well as wood table radios.

We appear to like the same music, I was 12 when R&R hit and never had any interest in big band or Jazz. Early R&R, doo wop, R&B, soul, blues, some rockabilly, are the main interest. I often stream audio from Live 365 into a little TX that covers the house and then some and play back in any room Im in or out back on the property at the fire pit and with a ghetto blaster ::)

Carl

Walt,
Your a man of many talents for sure!  I played a Trumpet starting in 4th grade and continued through High School.  My parents said it was good to play an instrument so I picked the trumpet.  I was "ok" at it, but my heart was really into picking up the Weller dual heat soldering iron and building a good radio project!  Looking back I am glad I did take those music lessons.  Maybe it helped me with the CW???  CW was always pretty easy for me and maybe that was due to the music. 

   

Hey Rick, I think your onto something.  I can just see the Ad now! 

Joe, W3GMS     

Nice job.  Dial pointer looks good from where I see it.  Have a GE L-915W and Philco 40-165.  They belonged to my grandparents and are the reason I got interested in radio years ago.  Used to listen to The Lone Ranger and Sky King, etc. on them.

I tried to explain to one of the young guys about using the speaker field coil as the filter choke in the power supply; don't know if he ever understood.  Of course, he has never seen anything but a PM speaker.