Anyone have vintage radios?

[HorrorRetro]

Since we're all into radio, I was wondering if anyone else is into vintage radios?

With the exception of the internet, I get all my radio through vintage tube radios around my house.  My oldest is a 1949, and the newest is approx. late '60s.

My three main radios are:

1949 Sears Silvertone.  This is used daily in my kitchen.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/P7182835.jpg

This one, I'm not positive on the year.  I'm guessing late '60s.  It's the "newest" of the bunch.  This is down in the family room.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/P8062984.jpg

My all-time favorite radio is my '61 Blaupunkt Arkansas console.  It's AM/FM/shortwave, etc.  It really covers the world.  And it has a built-in bar.  Doesn't get much better than this, in my opinion.  There's also a turntable tucked in under the station tuning area.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/DSC_0053-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/DSC_0054-2.jpg

[999]

Zenith Transoceanic H500
a couple Heathkit HW 101's
late 1950s pink all-american 5-tube
this kind of transistor radio that is also a game

[ShayP]

My all-time favorite radio is my '61 Blaupunkt Arkansas console.  It's AM/FM/shortwave, etc.  It really covers the world.  And it has a built-in bar.  Doesn't get much better than this, in my opinion.  There's also a turntable tucked in under the station tuning area.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/DSC_0053-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/DSC_0054-2.jpg

WOW.    That is total badass and I would looove to have that. 

[HorrorRetro]

WOW.    That is total badass and I would looove to have that. 

Thanks!  I actually got it for free.  We were looking at this house to buy, and we asked the owners if they would include it in the purchase.  They agreed.  The house was actually their parents' home, but both parents were deceased, and the house with all the mid-century furniture sat here unoccupied for 2 years.  I also got a beautiful Danish hutch and coffee table in the deal.   I didn't even realize it was a Blaupunkt until after we bought the house and started to move in.  When I realized it was, I let out a scream that scared my husband to death.     The lady that owned it was from Germany, and she brought it over here with her.  It works great.

[The General]

Nice thread. Nice Radios.  I love and collect and restore plastic and bakelite table radios from the 40's-50's-60's.  My favorites are Zeniths.

[ShayP]

I didn't even realize it was a Blaupunkt until after we bought the house and started to move in.  When I realized it was, I let out a scream that scared my husband to death.

I honestly thought Blaupunkt was a newer thing.  Never would I expect them to be an older company who made standard consol model radios.  I still think that is sweet.  You are lucky for sure.  Don't ever sell it.....unless I offer to buy it. LOL

[McPhallus]

I'm guessing my late 80s Tandy Sony Walkman clone cassette player doesn't count.

[b_dubb]

Since we're all into radio, I was wondering if anyone else is into vintage radios?

With the exception of the internet, I get all my radio through vintage tube radios around my house.  My oldest is a 1949, and the newest is approx. late '60s.

My three main radios are:

1949 Sears Silvertone.  This is used daily in my kitchen.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/P7182835.jpg

This one, I'm not positive on the year.  I'm guessing late '60s.  It's the "newest" of the bunch.  This is down in the family room.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/P8062984.jpg

My all-time favorite radio is my '61 Blaupunkt Arkansas console.  It's AM/FM/shortwave, etc.  It really covers the world.  And it has a built-in bar.  Doesn't get much better than this, in my opinion.  There's also a turntable tucked in under the station tuning area.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/DSC_0053-3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/DSC_0054-2.jpg

/envy

[coaster]

I love the late 60's one.

[BobGrau]

I have an antenna implanted in my ear, but it only picks up space frequencies.

[999]

yeah I would have bought the house for that Blaupunkt haha.

[HorrorRetro]

yeah I would have bought the house for that Blaupunkt haha.

Part of me did, I think.  It made the sewer line backup our very first night in the house and the $2,000 bill the next day a little more tolerable. 

[The General]

I'm a thrift store/garage sale junkie, and I scored what is probably the greatest junk find of my life yesterday.  It's a 1950's coin-operated 'Radiotel' end table with a built in radio, presumably from some seedy hotel out on Highway 99.  25cents gets you two hours of George Noory.  Sigh, if only it could pick up radio broadcasts from a different time.


[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]


It was $30, and after a little tinkering and a spit shine, it works great.

[HorrorRetro]

I'm a thrift store/garage sale junkie, and I scored what is probably the greatest junk find of my life yesterday.  It's a 1950's coin-operated 'Radiotel' end table with a built in radio, presumably from some seedy hotel out on Highway 99.  25cents gets you two hours of George Noory.  Sigh, if only it could pick up radio broadcasts from a different time.


[attachimg=1]
[attachimg=2]


It was $30, and after a little tinkering and a spit shine, it works great.

Awesome find!  I recently found a similar one in an antique store on Broadway in Tacoma.  I didn't get it, since it was quite a bit more than $30.  I'm sad to report I seriously damaged my '49 Silvertone.  I knocked it off the Hoosier cabinet, and it cracked the casing and knocked the tubes out of place.  Got the tubes back in, and it powered up, but it was full of static and not working nearly as good as it was.  Shortly after that, I got a '60s Packard Bell for $10 from a shop in Olympia, but it burned out a few days later.  Tried to cannabalize tubes from other radios around here, but none of them were good matches.  So I'm on the hunt for another one.

[Ruteger]

There are some awesome builds on YouTube involving vacuum tubes, and modern electronics to give the radio a "Brazil" kinda look.

[CampsieNP]

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/grundig_majestic_1088_usa.html

This is my vintage radio. Got it at a garage sale for 20 bucks. Works great.

[HorrorRetro]

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/grundig_majestic_1088_usa.html

This is my vintage radio. Got it at a garage sale for 20 bucks. Works great.

That's a nice one.  I've seen several in various shops.  I haven't picked up anything new lately.

[MV/Liberace!]

This one, I'm not positive on the year.  I'm guessing late '60s.  It's the "newest" of the bunch.  This is down in the family room.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/ILoveKewpies/P8062984.jpg

that's a zenith K731L, manufactured in or close to 1963.


http://www.stevenjohnson.com/photofacts/index-z.htm
http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=39991


edit:  actually, the model number could end in Y, W, ,R M, or L... but they're all made around 1963.

[HorrorRetro]

Thanks for the info.  It's now my most used radio after I broke my old Silvertone.  It's in the kitchen and on most of the day.

[coaster]

Just found a Sears Silvertone 800 transistor at a house I was working at among a few other things I was able to bring home. Not sure of the year but its model 4223. I'm guessing 1950's. Wrapped in "genuine top grain cowhide". The leather unbuttons to show the guts, and everything seems to be intact. A beautiful little radio.

[area51drone]

It's not mine, but my parents have a very cool old old radio that looks like this:



Sadly, I don't think it is currently in working condition.  I told them if they ever want to get rid of it, I'll buy it from them.

[Kelt]

Isn't most American radio vintage?


I thought the only digital broadcasting we had was paid services, whereas the rest of the free world already converted to DAB.


AND they don't have to put up with Howard fucking Stern, so double bonus.

[pate]

I've a vintage radio, I think most just need antennae enough... 

My modern radios have enough 'ears' I actually have a 'modern' that just doesn't have a big enough ear to hear...  'tis funny...  I have a tube set that could problably read, I just question how loud the signal should be before I should 'hear' from that set...

Otherwise, I have a set called "bizz aldrun" that I purchased at Radio Shack a few years ago that sounds suspiciously like the C-Crane thing I hear advertised, which lends credence to that whole "CCradio" thing about China an&...

Grunpunkt and Blaupunkt (green our blue point) arguments nonwithstanding.....

[West of the Rockies]

I inherited my father's Zenith 3000 Transoceanic... I loved furtively playing with that radio as a kid, encountering broadcasts from who-knew-where, faraway baseball games and such.  Hell, I would even listen to that odd clock channel:  "Greenwich mean time: twelve hundred hours...." Tic... Tic... Tic.