Oldest working radio

madmaggie

I was wondering who has an old working radio. I have my grandparents late 1950's Pye radio, with wood effect bakelite cabinet, and a little green light that comes on when it is warming up. It buzzes and crackles, but can still pick up BBC Radio 4 long wave no bother.

neris

Theres a radio musuem out in Howth, guess theyd have some very old sets

Ger Roe

I have a few valve radio's still working.. only this week I was given a PYE radio from 1956 and a Murphy from 1959. The PYE (made in Dundrum) is a MW LW SW receiver and it still works. The Murphy is an A252 model that included VHF - the VHF section doesn't work, but some research has suggested that a faulty capacitor might be the cause.

My earliest working model is an RCA AR77 communications receiver from the early 1940's - it still powers up and glows away. Last year I hooked up a longwire around the garden and used it to listen to Radio Caroline broadcasting from the Ross Revenge via the MW transmitter at Manx Radio on the isle of man. Very sad,I know.... but it had to be done

I also have most of an Ediswan crystal set from 1927 - stamped with the BBC licence to listen logo. It is missing a crystal headset and the cats whisker element, but since there are no active components in it (just a rough piece of germanium crystal), it should still work - if you can still find a MW signal strong enough to produce the required voltage to make the crystal vibrate.

I tend to attract these items as people find them, it's usually a case of 'you hold onto them or else they are going in the skip'.

Most people are very surprised at how little money they are worth, but it in terms of cultural and technical interest, they are priceless. I saw a report of a restoration project online where the poster said that a restore/repair had cost him over €150 in parts and over 50 hrs labour.... 'But look at what I got in the end...a working radio that's worth €35 on Ebay'

madmaggie

Ger Roe, you beat me hands down! Your Pye radio sounds very like the one I own. I had it overhauled recently. The man in the shop nearly danced for joy when he saw it. I love that radio, it was a big part of my childhood. I will attempt to upload a photo.

Declan A Walsh

Ger Roe wrote: »

I have a few valve radio's still working.. only this week I was given a PYE radio from 1956 and a Murphy from 1959. The PYE (made in Dundrum) is a MW LW SW receiver and it still works. The Murphy is an A252 model that included VHF - the VHF section doesn't work, but some research has suggested that a faulty capacitor might be the cause.

My earliest working model is an RCA AR77 communications receiver from the early 1940's - it still powers up and glows away. Last year I hooked up a longwire around the garden and used it to listen to Radio Caroline broadcasting from the Ross Revenge via the MW transmitter at Manx Radio on the isle of man. Very sad,I know.... but it had to be done

I also have most of an Ediswan crystal set from 1927 - stamped with the BBC licence to listen logo. It is missing a crystal headset and the cats whisker element, but since there are no active components in it (just a rough piece of germanium crystal), it should still work - if you can still find a MW signal strong enough to produce the required voltage to make the crystal vibrate.

I tend to attract these items as people find them, it's usually a case of 'you hold onto them or else they are going in the skip'.

Most people are very surprised at how little money they are worth, but it in terms of cultural and technical interest, they are priceless. I saw a report of a restoration project online where the poster said that a restore/repair had cost him over €150 in parts and over 50 hrs labour.... 'But look at what I got in the end...a working radio that's worth €35 on Ebay'

Wow Ger! i am so impressed with all of the above, including the efforts you went to and your understanding of the whole process. I am not very technically minded and I was also quite young when my family had one of the bigger radios - could well have been Pye. I know the reception on Medium Wave was good, Long Wave was superb and, of course, VHF only had RTE Radio - no 2FM then! We must have had Short Wave too but I can't really recall listening to it. That old technology is nearly lost, I fear. You will have to pass on your knowledge to others before it is truly lost!

desbrook

Guys - my dad had a 1936 Philips set working fantastically. We posed the same question on the John Creedon show a few years back. A set from 1932 beat us within a few minutes!

Our set is this model :

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_796a796.html

Dan Jaman

I have an ex-Admiralty ship-board set, a Murphy 52B, which is a variant of the better-known B40. It was made in the mid-50s and built like a tank, to withstand all the clanks, bangs and vibrations of life aboard ships, so weighs something like a small motorcycle.
It was working well at last use (ten years ago), but got immersed in a flood last year and whether it will ever work again, I don't know.
When it was working, it was fantastically sensitive and reasonably selective, with a really nice tone when tuned to any broadcast SW station. It came into its own as a comms set, which it was built to do.

Ger Roe

Nice to see the interest on keeping the old sets alive and glowing. It seems that there is quite a bit of love about for them.

While powering up the previously mentioned Murphy A252 (anyone else immediately think of Atlantic....or just me?), I tuned it into LW 252 and was listening to John Creedon doing his thing while I considered how I might go about cleaning 60 years of completely crusted crud off the valve chassis (verrrry carefully is the answer).

For the laugh, I emailed John to tell him that he was broadcasting to a 1950's receiver and he gave it a good mention on air, talking about the whole mystique of operating the old valve radios.

He then came back after a few tunes to say that another listener had been in touch to say that he was also listening on LW, using the exact same radio. What are the chances.... two of the same 60 year old radio's listening in at the same time.

Do you think that''s a good enough argument to keep the 252 service running? Valve radio owners need something with a bit of power to test their sets on.

madmaggie

Ger Roe, you know what RTE told the expats in the UK, go online. No room for sentimentality there! I have elderly uncles in the UK, they don't even use mobiles, but love hearing the GAA results on LW. Conversely, I hope Droitwich doesn't shut down.

dxhound2005

Dan Jaman wrote: »

I have an ex-Admiralty ship-board set, a Murphy 52B, which is a variant of the better-known B40. It was made in the mid-50s and built like a tank, to withstand all the clanks, bangs and vibrations of life aboard ships, so weighs something like a small motorcycle.
It was working well at last use (ten years ago), but got immersed in a flood last year and whether it will ever work again, I don't know.
When it was working, it was fantastically sensitive and reasonably selective, with a really nice tone when tuned to any broadcast SW station. It came into its own as a comms set, which it was built to do.

I have a B40 sitting in the garage. It used to work but stopped a few years ago. I also have a Redifon R50 which is even bigger, but not quite as heavy. The B40 weighs about a hundredweight in the old money. The Redifon also stopped working a few years ago. I have a box of spare valves for it.

not my B40 obviously.


http://musickpointradio.org/musick-memorial-radio-station-today/vintage-receivers/redifon-r50mfs-receiver/

I would like to offer these receivers to anyone interested for free, if they will go to a good home. Anyone on the thread can express an interest or PM me.

I used to buy old valve domestic sets for while years ago, mostly bog standard jobs. But they all succumbed to the vagaries of woodworm in the garage. The oldest working set from memory was from 1937. Just a word of caution for anyone who owns this type of equipment. Don't open it up to and touch the insides, as this can be dangerous even when they are plugged out.

http://www.geojohn.org/Radios/MyRadios/Safety.html

desbrook

desbrook wrote: »

Guys - my dad had a 1936 Philips set working fantastically. We posed the same question on the John Creedon show a few years back. A set from 1932 beat us within a few minutes!

Our set is this model :

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philips_796a796.html

Have a Telefunken on the way so the above set will be for sale

Pelvis Parsley

Hi DX.

I'd be very interested in these (for the purpose of restoration and shack use.)

I'd be happy to make a donation in lieu to a charity of your choice. If they're still there of course.

dxhound2005

Pelvis Parsley wrote: »

Hi DX.

I'd be very interested in these (for the purpose of restoration and shack use.)

I'd be happy to make a donation in lieu to a charity of your choice. If they're still there of course.

PM sent.

Pelvis Parsley

dxhound2005 wrote: »

PM sent.

And responded, thank you 😀

Pelvis Parsley

The oldest I have is a 1936 HMV 650, rescued from a shed in Dublin some years ago. The big issue these days at least around here is the amount of noise and rfi on the bands.

Dan Jaman

Pelvis Parsley wrote: »

The oldest I have is a 1936 HMV 650, rescued from a shed in Dublin some years ago. The big issue these days at least around here is the amount of noise and rfi on the bands.

Even out in the sticks, it's S9 background some evenings.

Ger Roe

I hadn't tried MW or SW listening in many years, but when doing so again recently I have also noticed that there is a lot more RFI about. A consequence of so much electric and RF technology constantly active about the home these days.

Although, it was also a problem in the early 80's when I sought out the sunday pirates on the 49 meter band. I had to give up around 1pm when everyone started cooking dinner - the switching clicks and hums of electrical interference caused by cookers, grills and microwaves wiped out any hope of low power signal reception. The worst offender was the spark generating electric carving knife .... it seemed like all of the neighbours had them and they screamed across the bands of any AM receiver.

The valve radios didn't have to compete with so much man made interference in their day.

On a brighter note, yesterday I brought the now cleaned up 1956 PYE receiver within range of the MW weekend pirate on 1395Khz - the old radio sounded great with a strong well modulated signal to listen in to.