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OT: Any antique radio parts collectors here?

I

IA Leo

Member
I ask here first without searching. I pulled a fairly complete chassis out of the scrap pile, changing my mind about junking it. A 6-tube (one missing) Philco, sticker on back has #85250. Dirty, dial string gone, appears to maybe a battery only set. Can have it for paying for shipping and a dollar or two for me to make a box and go to the post office. Leonard
 
when i bought my 52 chevy pu in 96 it came with an outlandish modern radio in the dash. passing an old service station i spotted an old gmc pu sitting outside, stopped to look and it had an intact radio original to the truck, paid 20 bucks for it, when i removed it from the dash the owner asked if i wanted the other part with it. was a 2 piece radio with the radio mounted on the steering column under the dash and the portion in the dash only showed the selected station and the knobs operated the radio via flexible wire lines. brought the radio home connected it to a battery and antenna and it worked. although it is a gmc it fit perfectly in the chevrolet. only problem is the chevy is a negative grd. while the gmc is postive grd. good luck selling it, it just brought things to my mind.
 
(quoted from post at 23:30:52 12/06/09) when i bought my 52 chevy pu in 96 it came with an outlandish modern radio in the dash. passing an old service station i spotted an old gmc pu sitting outside, stopped to look and it had an intact radio original to the truck, paid 20 bucks for it, when i removed it from the dash the owner asked if i wanted the other part with it. was a 2 piece radio with the radio mounted on the steering column under the dash and the portion in the dash only showed the selected station and the knobs operated the radio via flexible wire lines. brought the radio home connected it to a battery and antenna and it worked. although it is a gmc it fit perfectly in the chevrolet. only problem is the chevy is a negative grd. while the gmc is postive grd. good luck selling it, it just brought things to my mind.
Click to expand...
Kinda weird isn't it? 1946 to 1955 Chevy & GMC were different grounding polarity. For a period GMC had Pontiac V8s & at one time their own V6....now days only the badges are different.
 
I remember the 48-49 Chev PU had about a 2" X 5" dial, knobs and maybe 5 pushbuttons fairly high and centered in the metal dash. One was really living if you had a PU with a radio to get Minnesota stations playing polkas. :) I think Oldsmobile had a station changing head and volume control either in the steering wheel or on the "three on the tree" shifter so you could operate the radio without taking your hands off the wheel--circa 1940's
 
That particular 52 GM/Chevy radio will work with either negative or positive ground. The old vibrator changes the battery DC voltage to AC and internal radio power supply provides suitable voltage for the tubes. Do not try this with solid state or transistor radios. Trick is to look for the non-synchronous 4 pin vibrator.
 
That explanation is close. Tube-type electronics requires two different types of electric power, one to heat the tube filaments and one to power the electronic functions. On vehicles, the battery voltage powered the tube filaments directly. The filaments took a little while to get up to temperature, thus the delay in producing sound when turned on. The operating voltage is known as "B+" and is typically in the range of 90-120 volts DC. The vibrator converted the vehicle DC to AC which was then fed to the transformer and increased to 120 volts (AC), then rectified back to 120 volts DC for the B+. The rectifier was frequently an OZ4 tube, a gas rectifier with no filament. They were the most frequent tube to fail. I used to use an old TV transformer to stepdown the 120 volt house voltage to 6 volts for the tube filaments, eliminating the vibrator, and play the radio on household power. Those radios filtered out static much better than the cheaper "All-American 5" household radio circuits that became so popular because of low cost.
 
My neighbor is looking for a radio for a 51 dodge 2-door sedan, in case anyone has one. Also chrome for fender and doors both sides. Email is open. Thanks!
 
This is a pre WW2Philco chassis that was in an old floor model with big speaker. Speaker removed and cabinet with tilt out front (for turntable?) was used for something else. Son dumped the thing in the barn. Battered wood cabinet couldn't stand the cold and the wood delaminated, so I pulled the chassis out and burned the cabinet. Give me a few days and I will send it. This is not a car radio as others and I have reminisced about on the thread. Email is open Leonard
 
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