Tube Battery Homebrew Radio and Beach Rental Personal Radios Analysis

[@batterymakermarkii2654]

That blue set is a Practical Wireless "Mini-Four" from March and April 1952. Uses a combined A/B battery called a B114, 1.5 volts and 69 volts. I have one myself that someone made years ago.

[@Ben-says-you-are-AWESOME]

That magazine is available on the "worldradiohistory" website.

[@onefootinthegroove39]

Had a feeling I’d see you in here

[@Ben-says-you-are-AWESOME]

That magazine is freely available on the interwebs.

[@harleytwincam2]

The articles and full schematic are available on the worldradiohistory web site.

[@error52]

I found the magazine. IF should be 465. The article also makes no mention of a ferrite rod antenna, just a wire antenna, so that must have been added later. Also the frequencies originally included 3 MW stations, and 1 LW station, so that was modified as well. One fascinating detail is that the author says the station selector turret with its coils was one complete unit "supplied by Stern Radio". Apparently that was a company specializing in electronic kits, including TVs. They could furnish you with all the necessary parts for building this radio, including tubes, for about £10. Another interesting detail is that the authors insist on is that the set isn't meant to play for extended periods of time, giving an example of using it for 20 minutes per day, which would give a battery life of about 30 hours.

[@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21]

It's from UK magazine Practical wireless. In two parts, March & April 1952. Available to download for free. It's three Medium wave (what you call Broadcast band) & one Long Wave preset. Long Wave at the time was 1500 Metres, which was 198khz. These days the same huge 1930's BBC transmitter carries BBC radio 4 & is 200KHz. Richar, G0OJF, UK

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

" These days the same huge 1930's BBC transmitter carries BBC radio 4 & is 200KHz. " Sadly the BBC are closing Droitwich down a big loss especially as if forms a secure and robust way to reach the nation when the digital kit gets hacked. Please sign the petition on Change o r g.. Droitwhich has spare valves more in the US so that excuse is lame

[@NickB]

And a Radiospares branded transformer too.

[@ukfmcbradioservicingTango21]

@@NickB Doesn't get better than that! Note the loudspeaker is a Whiteley Brothers (Mansfield). They were as good as it got. Some big firm bough them eventually & of course it all folded as usual. Richard

[@jonathaneastwood2927]

Was 200khz now 198khz since the late 80s

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

@@jonathaneastwood2927 True but whats 2kHz to an old valves set.....

[@KeyboardBuster]

I'm glad this treasure didn't go to 1800-junk. Somebody obviously spent a lot of loving effort building it and probably enjoyed the fruits of his labor for years feeling proud of himself.

[@OldSonyMan]

radio spares is now called RS components and is a large company in the UK, I used to work in a factory that was a Mullard tube plant after WW2 (when it was a munitions factory !)

[@janedoe6350]

RS are still going, email them

[@stephnieukjones7052]

i was just going to post exactly the same RS components i use in the UK .

[@DrWatts-bi1jv]

Definitely British. The valves were used in all of the valve portables just before tranny radios popped up. The transformers are British as is the output transformer. Radio Spares were huge back in the day and are still going as RS Components as previously mentioned. Not sure about those frequencies though...

[@FlatBroke612]

Let’s goooooooo Shango time

[@kevvywevvywoo]

The speaker maker as others have said, Whiteley Brothers (WB) from Nottinghamshire eventually got into making PA systems for trains and airplanes, and were taken over by their biggest customer, the canadian company Bombardier. The IF coils are made by Wearite, another famous uk radio parts maker. No silver mica disease, very rare thing in uk coils. The paper capacitors are TCC which is 'Telegraph Condenser Company'. RS Radiospares is the parent company of Allied Electronics in the US aka RS Americas. Kind of the uk version of Mouser or Digikey.

[@andygozzo72]

very nicely made, that cabinet covering is commonly known as 'rexine' over here in the UK,.. i picked up a home built 'compact' mains MW only radio, similar 'style' but opposite, knobs at the bottom, and a normal variable capacitor for tuning, volume by a 'reaction' capacitor, but very different internally, uses a single ECC81/12AT7 as regenerative detector and output ...ht/b+ by small selenium rectifier straight off the mains, heater by small 6v transformer

[@ArlenMoulton2]

First radio looks like it's from Practical Wireless here in the UK, it'll have a 1.5v and 70v battery. It'll be a set designed for preset stations which are tuned using those coils inside. They were designed to be as cheap and easy as possible for hobbyists to produce, so the components are all jellybean values. As such, these sort of radios often don't perform too well, but they can be respectable. As for the AM antenna, looks like the second coil with the red and green wires may have been connected to some kind of external antenna, and they're using the ferrite bar as a coupling transformer rather than an actual antenna, so you might get more stations if you connect it up to an external long wire or loop antenna. Good luck!

[@anthonyjones5711]

Radio Spares is now RS Components and is a supplier of high quality electronic and other equipment in the UK

[@VintageWorkbench]

Hello from Maine. I think a British bloke built this. Nice job too! I think BBC had only a few frequencies so handy to have them pre-tuned. I think the speaker is a Wharfdale, probably sounds nice with that big output transformer. With wider AM bandwidth, I think this has high potential for nice sound. Thanks!

[@user-mv5bu2kk8b]

Pre wireless license era

[@robturner3065]

Speaker is a Whiteley Bros tweeter

[@VintageWorkbench]

@@robturner3065 Yeah, You're right. Still nice quality. It should sound nice. This guy didn't spare any expense or time. Thanks!

[@Jayoldstuff1]

I'm pretty sure that 1st radio is a Practical Wireless (British radio magazine) design from the 1950's I have most issues and remember seeing designs like that with preset tuning. Ps the speaker and transformer are from Radio Spares RS a British company supplying exactly that!

[@frankowalker4662]

The aerial in the black radio looks like it's for Long Wave. We still have Long Wave radio stations here in the U.K.

[@tommyk.6084]

Yes, 198 kHz. Greetings from Germany

[@frankowalker4662]

@@tommyk.6084 Thought so. Greetings back. 👍

[@rosewhite2135]

You mean, one station on Long Wave! Rumour has it that even that is under threat of closure.😢

[@frankowalker4662]

@@rosewhite2135 Shutting it down ? Oh. I know Radio 4 is still on LW, but isn't BBC World Service still broadcasting on LW too ?

[@jonathanhughes380]

Its aways cool to learn from you old guys. Pass your knowledge on to a new generation.

[@brianbloom1799]

I have to give it to you Shango you’re a great tech

[@bobbyk6585]

Shango, you are blowing my mind with that British radio. Very cool!

[@edwardallan197]

Shango is right about the 4 channels. It was to make them more durable, anchored to the area, and more easily kept track of all around. The black one may be an experimental prototype for a rental radio. Great show of fresh adventure! ❤

[@jpkellyburbank]

Very interesting, Thanks!

[@MrCrystalcranium]

The Rental Radio is such a cool and fantastic piece of history. Yes it’s cheap junk but imagine going to the beach with your girlfriend in 1960 and chilling out to the waves and the breeze with Mack the Knife playing on this. What a great throwback to an innocent time 😊

[@JerryEricsson]

Here in the Dakota's we don't have many beaches but I do recall making love to the lady who would become my wife on the shore of the Flat Creek Lake back in 1969, my pocket JADE transistor playing the rock and roll tunes of the day. God how I miss that wonderful woman.

[@tarstarkusz]

Must have been a pretty expensive rental. A/B batteries were not inexpensive.

[@binarybox.binarybox]

1.442MHz was 208 metres Radio Luxemburg a great source of top 20 material . There were a lot of battery portables around in the 1950s using those valves made by Mullard in Blackburn, UK. I had a school trip to the factory and I chose an EZ81 as a reminder of the visit.

[@batterymakermarkii2654]

The second set, Hollywood Symphony...about as a cheap a set you could build back then. Two D cells and a 467 67.5 volt battery. And I do have one of these, picked up from an auction five years ago, haven't touched it yet.

[@shango066]

Cool I check the data as soon as I get to a computer. I had a feeling you would know exactly what they were

[@obelixzh]

In Switzerland we used to have radios with 6 channels to listen radio over the phone line. Those channels were in the long wave band. In the alps it was difficult to receive terrestrial radio waves. Hence the Swiss Post & Telephone company offered a kind of Radio service and the six main radio stations in the country could be received over the phone line. There was a whole ecosystem around that with radio brands producing radios only for this kind of reception through the phone line (like the brand „Biennophone“). Maybe that blue device is for a similar purpose?

[@rkmklz7562]

I have the Dial Glass... with 1 2 3 4 5 6....Draftfunk....7 8 9 10 11 12 SWITZ Tele ...in the 300 to 450kc Long Wave...

[@mikemoyercell]

that homebrew radio was really cool and it def was made across the pond probably by someone who immigrated here and brought it with them.

[@ThejasonJaw5442]

Its the analysis that's most important, I like the radios

[@davepike6170]

Im looking forward to seeing the follow up video on these neat radios!

[@JCWise-sf9ww]

Everything about the parts in that home made radio screams UK and European origin. I think it was meant for use in England for limited AM and/or Long Wave radio reception. A few of the other commenters about it being Practical Wireless "Mini-Four", most likely right!

[@patprop74]

I remember seeing something on Mr Carlson channel about students having to make a simple radio for school or something. this might be a similar thing.

[@shaunsiz.itsbetterbytube2858]

Radio spares is a electronic components outlet they changed just to RS in 1970 they are a high end supplier to the Electronic and construction industry.

[@badeadrian]

When i spotted that vinyl on the radio...I was 100% sure it was made in England... Looks like an early Roberts radio...

[@voltare2amstereo]

9khz spacing, all frequencies add up to 9 when you add the numbers together. Uk also broadcast on both mw and lw Likely for BBC channels agreement

[@ricardosalesdemello4130]

Ohh! yeahh! shango adorei ver o funcionamento do Radio Kleinempfänger ah! gostei

[@williamsquires3070]

The first set could also be an “emergency” radio designed to pick up the two stations (in the USA, they were marked on the dial, don’t know about the U.K.) as well as weather and police. It also could have been designed to pick up aircraft-band signals (ATIS, ATC), or maybe channels used by British Rail.

[@raysmancave1]

This looks as you say, a home made possibly experimental radio. All of the parts were bought from RadioSpares, at the time in Ealing London. Here is a link to a youtube video all about Radiospares. Our workshops bought our spares, components from RadioSpares, it was similar to an early Tandys, but you bought by telephone giving the catalogue numbers

[@maurasmith-mitsky762]

Thanks!

[@WECB640]

Shango006.....My vote, is that the black box you have a MW / LW receiver. The frequencies are fixed and are at 9KHz steps that they have in the UK. The audio, detector, IF and OSC are working. What appears to be missing is the switching to select each coil for the band. Perhaps the matrix shorts out the unused coil while the other is in resonance. Each coil is center tapped, so it's really two windings, one for the antenna and the other is the OSC. The larger one (white) should be for LW, the smaller (tan) one should be MW. That's my best guess. 73 OM

[@scottlangille9900]

Awesome find Shango, I'm sure you will make it work. Best regards

[@olradguy]

The English radio is a project in Practical wireless magazine March & April 1952 it's online

[@olradguy]

It's called the Mini-four

[@olradguy]

There seems that no schematic is in the article

[@graemezimmer604]

@@olradguy There definitely is, plus a constructional blue print.

[@audubon5425]

Those coil frequencies are very close to UK AM frequencies.

[@MrDoneboy]

Two great repairs, coming up!

[@barrymayson2492]

I thought I recognized it as a magazine design but could not remember, but it felt like the 1950s. So some great minds here to work out what and when.

[@andygozzo72]

that speaker, i see W and B on it, so likely Whitely Electrical , aka 'Stentorian' , quite well known and loved in UK

[@tedcowart3647]

Wow what great finds! Hopefully you can get the english set working. Great video! Thanks Ted

[@MikeDeJager-ex4wm]

Interesting home, bult unit. Thanks for putting in hours for the 30 min video. Thanks also for having a Saturday video every Saturday! For you, i always let the commercials play, one way i can help.

[@bitrot42]

The shango beach episode! Great stuff.

[@sondrayork6317]

Fm does not use a ferrite core antenna. Those are used primarily for medium wave and long wave radio frequencies. They wouldn’t perform well at the frequencies in the VHF spectrum let alone the hf bands.

[@6275886]

UK components, built in UK etc But the question is how did it find its way to California?

[@FranksPlace-jk7pj]

The radio moved to California because it wanted to dry out its capacitors and once it experienced dry capacitors for once, it stayed.

[@KennethScharf]

Filaments in parallel for a battery only set isn't weird at all. If the filaments are in series then you need several bypass resistors to ground to keep the plate current out of the filament string. You usually only find series string heaters in sets that can also run off of a line supply. Parallel filaments would draw 1/4A so parallel D cells would probably be used for the A battery. The antenna coil looks homebrew, Bank wound coils are not really weird, but those must have been wound on a coil winding machine, too neat for hand winding. It might be a combo BCB and Longwave receiver, I don't remember what the BCB assignment is in the UK. I suspect that the 1R5 would be rather anemic at 45v, and that those sets were probably using 67.5 volt batteries. I've run TO's with 67.5 volts (and they were designed for 90v) so you should be OK at 67.5. Over current would indicate a leaky cap in the B+ to ground or a coupling cap over volting the grid of a tube. I have seen battery sets running at 45 volts, but those would have the submini tubes in them.

[@dontknowbrian]

She sells c cells at the seashore

[@davepike6170]

Pretty much every 4 tube portable battery only radio, that I've seen that size, used a 67.5 volt battery. Eveready # 467, usually. And of course 1.5v for filaments.

[@richardbrobeck2384]

Shango very cool little radio !

[@rkmklz7562]

I remember the old Marine Radiotelephone had channels 1 to 5 in the 2 mc Band....San Pedro Marine and Avalon Marine was on those frequencies...2182khz was the Emergency Channel 😊

[@justsumguy2u]

The second radio likely has shorted paper capacitors, maybe even a bad filter capacitor as well. I'd also touch up the antenna trimmer on the tuning capacitor, that oftentimes makes a big difference

[@byterock]

Well if this was a 'beach' radio make perfect sense to close all the holes where sand could get into it. ;) I think I remember seeing these when I was a kid visiting 'Grand Bend' beach about 1968 or was it 69? All I remember was a guy at a counter who sold ice-cream tickets had a number of similar radios on a shelf behind him and my Dad asking if anyone rents them anymore (seems he spent a good deal of time in the summer there back in the early 50s)

[@andygozzo72]

470 was the most common AM IF frequency in the UK and Europe,

[@LiquidRadio]

15:25 I wonder if there is another device that’s floating around somewhere and that’s supposed to connect to those four wires. Possibly something that detects single sideband and the unit you have generates a local carrier?

[@graemezimmer604]

@LiquidRadio The original article (see above) used a commercial coil turret for the set of coils, with a random wire for the antenna. This set has had a ferrite rod antenna substituted for the antenna coils, but the connections were never finalised, hence the disconnected wires.

[@vegetablepolice1]

that radio is rilly cool man❤❤

[@cfd_novotroitsk]

I had an experience repairing a tube battery radio David-Andersen model 511, it was 100v B+. Despite such low B+ the leaky coupling and tone control capacitors completely killed the audio level, it was barely audible without its replacement.

[@K5HJ]

In the Symphony radio, a leaky coupling cap in the audio chain could be the cause of the high current draw and distorted audio.

[@klafong1]

That Symphony radio is "corodey-doodle!" :)

[@KevinBowen-v5q]

Mullard, Brimar, Radio Spares, TCC. All British makes. The 'home brew' set has a very British look, right down to the speaker grille and the bakelite knobs...

[@noakeswalker]

The homemade 'fixed presets' radio looks like it never had front panel markings added, which is odd considering the effort that went into the innards and the rest of the case... nice to see it though. No surprise that is was a Practical Wireless cct, it's right up their street.

[@andygozzo72]

wearite IF coils, very popular in the UK, Brimar valves, Brimar is a related company of STC and ITT, name means 'BrItish Made American Range' ..they made or imported many USA types, their version of the 35W4(HY90) was 'non standard', 250v input rated for our mains supplies, so you had to be careful with replacements 😉, ...Mullard of course was THE most popular UK brand, aka Philips.. there was a few designs of switch tuned radios in the UK 'Practical Wireless' magazines, most ferrite rod aerials i've seen were 'round' section, not 'flat', flat ones uncommon...., those caps that look like a piece of circuit board are silvered mica

[@mojavepatrol4767]

The RAF ran radios from 2 to 124 Mhz . During the battle of Britain they generally used 4-6 Mhz. and by the end they operated at 100-124 Mhz. someone probably wanted to listen in on Fighter command...Just a thought.. I love radios like this because you can still use them.

[@robturner3065]

Surefire way to get yourself arrested in WW2 lol

[@edmondedwards6729]

I would draw out a schematic of the thing, at least in rudimentary form, just to document it and to help the restoration.

[@stewarthartley7613]

Probably tuned to the old BBC MW Band light, home and third and local programmes.

[@HughTVDX]

There weren't really local stations then, maybe one preset on Luxembourg, 208 metres/1440KHz.

[@sondrayork6317]

I wonder if it might have been some sort of military receiver for receiving aeronautical beacons. You know, like you would if you were flying in order to determine if you were on the correct runway. I do a lot of dxing and I receive a lot of different kinds of radio signals.

[@josepheccles9341]

I heard of some home radio service that was in England, but I don't remember much about it. It was an information service of some sort.

[@adamwheeldon]

shango time!

[@WaylandTwistonDavies]

Have a look at the Roberts RMB for an example of a popular British radio from the 50s that used the same set of valves/tubes.

[@craignehring]

A very interesting video today

[@patsmith7710]

the turns of wire around the ferrite rod may be to couple the wire aerial, very well made set, bet they where proud of it or it would not have survived and traveled so far?

[@rustymotor]

Radiospares now known as RS components sell electronic and industrial components and another similar company known as ELEMENT14 formally Farnell also supply electronic components.

[@scottbrady7499]

0:17:00 nothing iz everything Skyrizzi. 200Mhz and below, in U.S. was often Police and that Radio from U.K. would be around a bunch of Fire Channels here. dedicated Municpal Communications Monitor of four things

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Who is this "JJ Cruise" referenced at 06:15 ? I tried to search for it before, but nothing shows up.

[@PINKBOY1006]

A commenter that used to come up all the time on Shangos videos that would essentially say to "Recap! That's the only issue" He's still around from what I hear, but doesn't comment so much anymore.

[@bobbyk6585]

Jason JJ Cruz is infamous on Shango's channel.

[@matthiasmartin1975]

​@@bobbyk6585 maybe it's his next door neighbor who is obsessed with recapping. Hey it's good if some things remain mysteries. The magic is lost if everything is just a google search away.

[@KeyboardBuster]

It's a radio and we know that it radio radios. Thanks shango, I needed to hear a shango66ism after my tough day.

[@soulrobotics]

vintage tube radio seems British (with a Mullard tube) and lacks a variable capacitor, using a 4-position switch instead. It outputs fixed frequencies: 970, 764, 1417, and 1118 kHz, with a 470 kHz IF. The radio also has a ferrite bar with two small Litz-wire coils. One loop connects to itself, while the other links to the device. There’s microphony when switching positions. I'm wondering if it might be a specialized receiver or even an old bug or metal detector!"

[@jackhreha4907]

Are you sure that is a beach radio and not a device that M made for 007 ? Great radios and great show. I learn so much from you when things are not so straight forward. best regards.

[@drsysop]

Looks like that was made for UK & they use Long Wave band there as well. -73's

[@pauljames5914]

I had a German metz radio phono portable that had the same tubes and the radio dial was the turntable!!

[@StuartDavenall]

Hi, I enjoy your work, I can see that someone else has beat me to the line, the blue set is British. I can't add anymore, so I'll shut up!

[@aerotro]

I am in the UK I have a feeling it might have been a marine radio, used on a boat ? I know a lot of radio hams over here love making their own radio gear, perhaps check the radio bands used for marine stuff just an idea. Also out on the water theirs less need for tight discrimination tolerances in the detector circuit.

[@mikefinn2101]

love to see them working

[@Rock_a_ho]

Would love to see that rental radio fully restored

[@leewyton7975]

GNARLYY DUDE !! KEEP IT UP !!!!

[@gordonwelcher9598]

The reason for the excessive current draw is the higher the current consumption the more batteries are sold along with the rental.

[@PituWillson]

the antenna winding is typical for LW band

[@dancockydan1589]

Same tubes as a vidor battery radio ive got. Even the output transformer is the same, 1.5 volts and 90 volts....

[@bigcatauna]

every time I've tried fixing electronics, I've released the magic smoke, some can do and some cant

[@kokodin5895]

it looks more like guitar amp than a radio but i guess it is a radio :P pretty awesome

[@1956kirk]

Anyone have any info on who made the Symphony, or other names it sold under? I looked it up and came up empty.

[@12345678989814]

Yeah I love the new country station been streaming it online lol unfortunately I don't think there's signal is powerful enough to reach all the way to Georgia

[@n2n8sda]

Commenters have already identified the British radio. Radio Spares (RS components) as it is know know also has an American division. Started off a lot like Radio Shack did except it is still going.

[@DonnyHooterHoot]

I have a cool home-brew 7 tube AM radio. All 1T4's and it can be powered by battery or line. Peace!

[@stuffnobodyaskedfor9910]

is it bad capacitors if my motorola vt-71's vertical height is too big and won't go smaller?

[@johnnytacokleinschmidt515]

Grid dip meter or even a broadcast band radio. Put bc radio on unused station frequency. Run switches. Actually probably better to use GD meter. Where does input to radio tune?

[@TonyButchT]

London Medium Wave : 530-1610 with channel spacing of 9 kHz. Any Help?

[@johnharris6589]

Radio spares is rs electronics supply’s big in uk still

[@danielt.8573]

You don't upload to Odyse anymore?

[@Chems7308]

Very fast view,a good vedio as usual, Shango time!

[@jozefbubez6116]

I would think the IF should be 455kHz rather than 445?