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Radio Daze: Collectors host fascinating auction of antique radios
Metro West Daily News ^ | 12 February 2006 | Chris Bergeron

Posted on 02/12/2006 5:42:12 PM PST by Denver Ditdat

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1 posted on 02/12/2006 5:42:15 PM PST by Denver Ditdat
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To: 1066AD; 1ofmanyfree; AlexW; ASOC; bigbob; Calamari; CenTex; CharlotteVRWC; Chemist_Geek; clee1; ...
Ham Radio Ping List

Please Freepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.

2 posted on 02/12/2006 5:43:02 PM PST by Denver Ditdat (No Islam, Know Peace.)
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To: Denver Ditdat
Wow, sounds like a really cool show. Thanks for the ping.

L

3 posted on 02/12/2006 5:45:41 PM PST by Lurker (In God I trust. Everybody else shows me their hands.)
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To: Denver Ditdat
Atwater Kent made some of the best radios in those days.
He paid his people very well, a union moved in on his company so he locked his factory doors and retired.
4 posted on 02/12/2006 5:46:20 PM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (“Don't approach a Bull from the front, a Horse from the rear, or a Fool from any side.”)
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To: Denver Ditdat
Look here for an interesting browse through broadcasting history. My married name is Pavek, but I don't think we are related.
5 posted on 02/12/2006 5:50:48 PM PST by redhead (Alaska: Step out of the bus and into the food chain...)
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To: Denver Ditdat

I still have my Hallicrafters SX-122. :-)


6 posted on 02/12/2006 5:51:13 PM PST by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: Denver Ditdat

I would love to check out this auction. If I bought any more old radios, I would have to build a bigger house. I restore and collect old Hallicrafters receivers, WWII and earlier.


7 posted on 02/12/2006 5:52:14 PM PST by USN40VET
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To: Denver Ditdat
2 old radios right here in the computer room :-) Image hosting by TinyPic Image hosting by TinyPic
8 posted on 02/12/2006 5:52:42 PM PST by Bobalu (This is not the tag line you are looking for.....move along (waves hand))
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To: Denver Ditdat

I fooled around with radio and radio repair when I was growing up (b: 1954) and enjoyed it quite a bit. I especially enjoyed the "Sherlock Holmes" aspect of researching electronic faults that stumped me. I also accumulated many dozens of old radios and TVs (found in the trash) that I had either repaired or given up on; all of which formed a large wall in my folk's basement back in NJ. Yes, I had a "radiowall" LOL. Plus boxes and boxes of tubes and parts. I have to confess a soft spot for those old radios and the way they look, but to accumulate them now seems totally absurd, other than a rambling hankering for "the way things used to be". "Enjoy at a distance."


9 posted on 02/12/2006 5:55:59 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Funny taglines are value plays.)
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To: Denver Ditdat

It's sad that they don't make them like they used to. Cheapness has taken the place of quality construction and good RF engineering.


10 posted on 02/12/2006 5:58:00 PM PST by PCBMan (I aim to misbehave.)
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To: Denver Ditdat

Sounds like a great show. When I get a job and a place with a family room, I want to fill it with old radios. It would be great to listen to classic radio (see http://www.radiospirits.com) on an old wooden radio like my grandmother had.

For those who like radio entertainment, BBC 7 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/) offers dramas, sci fi, comedy and children's shows. I enjoy listening to Sherlock Holmes or radio versions of the Outer Limits over the computer. It's too bad that, as far as I know, American radio no longer puts out this type of entertainment.


11 posted on 02/12/2006 5:58:12 PM PST by radiohead (Hey Kerry, I'm still here; still hating your lying, stinking guts, you coward.)
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To: Denver Ditdat

Thanks for the post.
After reading I went up to the attic and pulled out an old Zenith Trans Oceanic probly 1952
Plugged it in to see if it still works, it does

I have tons and tons of 50's and 60's stuff up there.
Collins KWM, a Gates 1000W Broadcast transmitter, at least 5 Hallicrafters receivers, thousands of tubes most in their original boxes.

A friend asked me why do I collect and hang on to this?
Answer:
It might be worth something someday.


12 posted on 02/12/2006 5:59:14 PM PST by 76834 (There's nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.)
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To: Denver Ditdat

Used to have a neighbor who was *really* into collecting Art Deco-style radios. He had a TON of 'em.


13 posted on 02/12/2006 5:59:17 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: Bobalu; Denver Ditdat

Sitting here next to this computer is a:

Pro-2006 scanner
Heathkit Packkit 232
Kenwood TS-520
Kenwood TS-820
RS 10 meter tranciever
ICOM IC-2AT
Shure Model 444 Mic
(And a Midland CB) :-)


14 posted on 02/12/2006 5:59:37 PM PST by RadioAstronomer (Senior member of Darwin Central)
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To: Lurker

When I was five years old we had an RCA consol radio.

I used to spend afternoons listening to Hank Williams, Hank Snow and Elvis. I had to stand on tip toes to turn it on and dial in stations. If was one of the first radios with a cathode ray tube to dial in the tuning.

That machine was magic to five year old kid in 1957.


15 posted on 02/12/2006 6:01:07 PM PST by beaver fever
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To: Denver Ditdat
Some of the old floor radios were beautiful pieces of furniture. My Dad was an antique radio collector and I can remember quite a few of them.

Several had a "magic eye" that was a tube whose top was visible on the front of the set above the tuning dial. As you approached a station it would close its "eye" to let you know when you'd reached the best reception possible.

As a young boy I learned how to take the tubes out and test them on a tube tester my Dad had and how to read the schematics from Howard W. Sams. And we'd order parts from Allied, Burstein-Applebee, and Lafayette.

I used to go to sleep at night listening to a crystal radio I'd built - with unbelievably heavy headphones.

Part of the lore was knowing not only the station call letters but that many had meanings -

WLS, Chicago, Illinois - Sears Roebuck (World's largest store)
WOWO, Fort Wayne, Indiana - Westinghouse (Think of a W with a circle around it)
WPTF, Raleigh, North Carolina - Durham Life (We protect the family)

Even Asheville, North Carolina, (the Land of the Sky) where I grew up, had a few stations that reflected the region - WWNC (wonderful western North Carolina), WLOS (wonderful land of sky), and WSKY (wonderful sky).

It was amazing that from Asheville I could hear as far away as KDKA Pittsburgh and WWL New Orleans on a radio powered only by a germanium diode!

16 posted on 02/12/2006 6:02:23 PM PST by NCjim (The more I use Windows, the more I love UNIX)
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To: Denver Ditdat
I don't know if I qualify for the ping list. I'm an internet broadcaster. My station is WTHR WarTime Homefront Radio. I broadcast all old time radio shows from WWII. Comedy, drama, soaps, PSAs, ArmedForcesRadio and more.

Listen to WTHR here

17 posted on 02/12/2006 6:10:18 PM PST by freedomson (Tagline comment removed by moderator)
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To: 76834

I would not want to be the one who has to get a Gates 1000W transmitter out of an attic! Even worse would be putting it up there.


18 posted on 02/12/2006 6:17:09 PM PST by USN40VET
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To: USN40VET

LOL
It was rough.
Took two big healthy sons and a couple of neighbors to get the monster up there.
It's been there for well over 20 years now.


19 posted on 02/12/2006 6:21:24 PM PST by 76834 (There's nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.)
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To: Denver Ditdat
This is an Atwater-Kent model 20C that I rebuilt in 1975, and sold to a collector for the Toronto science center. It is now owned by UTA (Texas).

I found it in it's original box with a model 4F speaker, both covered in pigeon poop, in a garage attic. The restoration took 2 years.

I just wish I had kept all of them, the best (the most rare) was a Spiltdorf model 3Z with hand wound spider coils.

20 posted on 02/12/2006 6:22:22 PM PST by xcamel (One should hope Global Dumbing is reversible.)
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