Masthead

Westinghouse H-122A

This appears to be a detachable front-end of a radio/phono combination. That W emblem on the top is actually a little screw that, I believe, goes into a bracket on the phono unit to hold it in place. It also makes that knob in the lower left corner very useful. I've seen it for sale with the phono, but I've got the radio.

It functions stand-alone, but it's a bit weird because very shallow compared to its height and width. You don't get a sense of scale here, but it's large for a table radio. If you used it that way, it would be good on a shallow shelf where you just don't have that much room.

The cabinet's in nice shape (I'll try and get a better photo sometime). It's dark brown with the marbleized swirl—could be catalin.

I also like how the little W on the top is backlit by the dial lamp, though the room has to be pretty dark to see it.

Electrically, it's an All-American 5 + 1. The tubes:

6SA7 - Converter
6SF7 - IF Amp/AVC
6SG7 - 2nd detector and 1st audio
Two 25L6s - push-pull audio out
25Z6 - rectifier

The lamp is, mercifully, a #47 (still easy to get)

The service docs appear in Rider's PTM Volume 15, pages 15-5 through -7, so that dates it from 1946. The same service docs cover the H-130, which has a differently styled cabinet.

I would have sworn this thing had an RF amp up front because it's the hottest (most sensitive) set I've had on the bench in some time, and that's just with the built-in loop antenna. I didn't even bother to open it up; there's little hum and I doubt I could do much by screwing with the alignment. My only complaint is that the volume pot acts like it's linear rather than tapered; it's extremely touchy at the low end and only the weakest stations require more than a small turn to make it loud. There might be more play in the volume knob using a phono source, but I don't have one. If I end having to work on it for some reason, I may try and do something about that pot.

Current status: plays fine.