RADIO TYPES - Small Radio Repair 1918 - 1980 Zenith Philco Arvin Catalin Admiral GE RCA

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TYPES OF RADIOS I REPAIR....

We fix or restore any radio manufactured between 1927 and about 1965. We specialize in all tube type radios and very early discrete transistor radios. This includes all the "home" radios such as Zenith, Emerson, Silvertone, Admiral, Magnavox, Philco, GE, Crosley, RCA, Motorola, and many others. We may have serviced your model recently - See - CASE STUDY. All amateur or "Ham" general coverage receivers such as Hallicrafters, Hammarlund, Echophone, National, etc.[With some reservations]

Note: If you have not plugged in the radio, and it has been unused for many years - do not plug it into the power outlet. You can do a lot of damage. It has to be carefully brought up on a VARIAC, or, the electrolytics have to be replaced and a few simple tests done before it is powered up. An example of what can happen is illustrated by this email message we recently received -

QUESTION:

I have a Zenith 6S367 radio. I bought it at a yard sale and it played well before I bought it. At home it played well for about 10 minutes then quit with some smoke near the power transformer. The speaker does'nt seem to be the permanent magnet type

If it is a "radio" and it was manufactured between 1927 and 1965, we will electrically restore (and if requested), do a light cosmetic restoration.

The only exception to the above, is that there were a number of radios manufactured between 1927 and about 1935 that simply are unknown as to manufacturer. Without being able to discern the manufacturer, we cannot obtain the proper schematics (diagrams) that allow us to align these receivers properly. We almost always can fix them to be operational, but they will not be tuned to maximum performance.

I HAVE A RADIO - WHAT SHOULD I DO TO GET IT REPAIRED? (Just sends us an email with the radio you have, what you want done, and we respond with how to get it repaired)

The above pictures were taken from Ebay for purposes of illustration. Interestingly, we have had clients who bought similar radios on Ebay, and had them shipped directly to us for "tune up" or repair if necessary. Ebay is a great source of a large variety of old radios for not much money.

HOW TO GET A GREAT RADIO

One of the easiest ways to end up with a great sounding radio is to buy one with certain characteristics on Ebay, and have it shipped directly to me for possible repair. After all, you are going to have to pay the shipping charges to get the radio in the first place. My guidelines for buying a great sounding radio on Ebay that (after I service it, probably replacing the electrolytics and bad or weak tubes) will give you years of trouble free service are as follows:

Only select radios that look "good" as to cosmetics. It must be acceptable in your home.

Select a radio that the seller represents "works". Of course that can mean everything from good static to great reception, but it is better to not buy one that is represented as "dead"

Buy radios that were manufactured from 1938 to about 1958. These will all be tube radios and the cost cutting in terms of the circuits and chassis probably has not happened on these models. (In other words, they are still pretty good design and serviceable.)

Select a radio that is manufactured by a name that you recognize. That would be Zenith, Admiral, Emerson, RCA, etc. There were some really off-brands that are sold on the market, some of which are quite collectible. But, you are buying a radio to USE it, not to increase your investment portfolio.

The radio should have between 5 and 7 tubes. Any less and it is marginal. More than 7 and you will be paying for features you do not use or extra shipping weight.

It should weigh no more than 15lbs. This is a general guideline with some exceptions. In the very old radios, particularly the console and cathedral models, there is a lot of extra weight for the cabinet and possibly a power transformer. If the cabinet appeals to you then go ahead and buy it keeping in mind that large cabinet radios usually weigh a lot and will cost you money in shipping. The older radios with power transformers, even in a small cabinet (relatively) can weigh a lot, and the power transformers don't necessarily mean better performance.

If you can discern it from the listing, always buy radios that have PM or Permanent Magnet speakers. That makes speaker replacement fairly inexpensive. Both PM and electrically powered speakers sound the same.

Once you have bought the radio on Ebay, use our "GET ESTIMATES link on the left to establish communication about your radio.

You can find a great selection on Ebay by using the following link -

Tube Radios - Ebay

Don't fall for the BOSE hype. In older small radios, tiny means a lousy sounding radio. Given the above weight considerations, you should buy the largest enclosure radio that you feel comfortable with. When the world went to tiny radios (from Taiwan, etc.) with little bitty knobs - BOSE made a giant killing bringing back good sounding radios with tuning knobs that normal humans could use. The irony is that up until the early 50's a good table radio sounded great and filled a room with acceptable sound. The rush to "If its small it must be good" concept destroyed the utility of your basic radio.

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