Masthead

What's New

One of the first things I did after I bought a new house was drive around looking for estate sale furniture and came across this RCA 225, which needed a home. (September 2023)

The big purge: I sold my home and relocated 2,000 miles away. A huge amount of my radio and test-equipment collection was liquidated. I am going to keep the pages at least for awhile, but be advised that a good many are going to be no longer in my collection. (August 2023)

Because I've just acquired a new Webcor, I have separated my various reel-to-reel recorders as individual pages rather than having one page per maker. Webcors are found on the Webcor title page, Wollensaks on the Wollensak title page. They're also linked in the big model directories. (March 2022)

Philco Model 90 highboy cabinet radio (November 2021). First and likely the only radio acquired this calendar year.

Added the owner's manual for four Revere tape recorders: models T-100, TR-200, T-500 and TR-600. They're all the same base machine except the 200 and 600 had radios built-in. This is the first Revere manual I've acquired—I don't even have any of their recorders. (October 2021)

Thank you to Dan Haley for a great photo of his Webcor 1096 radio/phono combination set. You don't see many of these. (March 2021)

Hickok 203 VTVM, but I don't collect meters. (January 2021)

Sparton 1040XX AM/FM Radio/Phono combination (November 2020)

RCA WV-98C Senior VoltOhmyst VTVM (June 2020)

B&K Model 1077B TV Analyst (August 2019)

Du Mont Type 245 Oscillograph. (July 2019)

Westinghouse Aeriola Sr., early version. (July 2019)

Sparton 55 variant, because if it has its own model number, I haven't been able to find it. (July 2019)

A Stromberg-Carlson 325-H, with a good cabinet. That's a first. (June 2019)

A Magnavox speaker table, picked up at a radio swap meet. (April 2019)

I bought a Stromberg-Carlson 130-U, which is the same as my 130-J except for the cabinet style. I paid a mint (for me) for it, but I love these old S-Cs and I haven't put the money into getting the Treasure Box cabinet restored. Some day. Plus this one has good knobs, which may come in handy when the Treasure Box is being re-done. (Except that it was smashed in-transit.) (March 2019)

I wrote a FAQ list for the Facebook group Vintage Tube Radios. They may change it, but my version is here. (January 2019)

I found another box in storage with three more radios I'd forgotten about: a Wards 94-HA-1528 and a JC Penney something or other. Also another wire-recorder. (January 2019)

My Christmas present to me: an AVO Universal meter. (December 2018)

Picked up a digital oscilloscope module that runs off a PC. No software for it yet. (December 2018)

Just in time for Xmas, my Charlie-Brown-Christmas-Tree radio, aka a pathetic Aetna 502. (December 2018)

I bought an old case for 10-inch 78 RPM records, and inside there was an operator's manual for Webcor Musical Fonografs; so I have PDF'd it and added it to my manuals page. There's also a 2-page sheet about the phono cartridge and needle used on the Musicale and Ravinia models. (Halloween 2018)

I've updated the Electronics Stores in Southern California page. No new listings, purged the closures. The future is mail-order or eBay. (October 2018)

I bought a Wollensak 5740 reel-to-reel tape recorder. Just what I needed! (September 2018)

Teardown Tuesday II: Electric Boogaloo now includes a look inside a Zenith tabletop radio/phonograph. (August 2018)

Thank you to Gary Davis, who provided photos and some info on the Revere T-2200 and Companion units. (June 2018)

Two new Zenith T-Os, both solid-state: the Royals 3000 and 7000. This is likely the end of my T-O collection, as I doubt I'll find a good R-7000 for a price I'm willing to pay. (June 2018)

I am changing the HTML code to be HTML5 compliant (from XHTML). I am hoping to have it be friendly for non-computer displays, like iPhones and tablets, someday.. (May 2018)

I'm in the process of cataloging and describing as many Radio City Products as I can reasonably find. Radio City made test equipment from the 1930s through the 1950s. They appear to me, based solely on advertising, to be about on-part with Accurte, Precision, Supreme, Superior, and so on. They made a ton of stuff from simple VOMs to Oscilloscopes, but they're forgotten today. (March 2018)

It's not radio related, but the Before They Were Vinyl series on my blog is kind of interesting, if you like old records. And bad news for people who don't like the series: I just got another big stack of records and sleeves to scan. (February 2018)

The RCA 56X finally has a new dial glass, x-number of years after the cat knocked it off a table and broke the glass and cabinet. (January 2018)

I picked up a Silvertone Model 4786 console. Among other things it needs an escutcheon, as the original is badly warped, broken and incomplete. I'm trying to get a replacement 3D-printed. (December 2017)

Two new radios (may or may not have info, photos yet): a 1928 Majestic Model 70B cabinet radio, and a 1973 Yaesu FTdx-560 tabletop transceiver. One has a few more tubes, and is a little heavier, than the other. (October 2017)

Added a review of Evolution of the Radio, Volumes 1 and 2, collector's guides. (June 2017)

The unit formerly known as The Unknown Radio Cabinet has been tentatively identified. (June 2017)

The RCA 128 is finally starting to undergo cabinet destruction refinishing. (May 2017)

Two new radios, a Philco Model 20 Deluxe and an RCA Model 128. There's little actual information so far; I hope to add more soon. (October 2016)

Added the Revere/Wollensak pages to go along with the Webcor site. I suppose I should either do the same for my Roberts machines, or roll them together and make one big Reel-to-Reel section, but at the moment I don't want to do it. Maybe later—especially if I end up with any other tape machines. (October 2016)

I bought another Webcor and that got me to update the whole Webcor sub-site. Now with vintage ads, more models on the comparison table, and whatever else I could find. (October 2016)

I am merging the Radios and Projects sections together, because I got tired of looking for things on my own website and not remembering where they are. It made sense to separate them a few years ago, but now there's too much blur between the radios I own and which ones I "fix" and so forth. This will be done over the next few weeks. (September 2016)

I started the Zenith Royal 7000 Trans-Oceanic page, but it's holding until I get an expanded service manual that I ordered off eBay. (September 2016)

The Zenith 6P448 "Radio Cart" is on the bench. (September 2016)

I recycled an old blog and now it's going to be a catch-all for my hobby and interest websites. Blog entries are a way of teasing new additions (like radios), or talking about things I find interesting but don't really fit well into the website. It's J Ollinger's Sites Blog. (September 2016)

The Clock Section now has its own site, called "Speaking in Wordless Rhymes" unless or until I come up with a better title. (August 2016)

John Smith graciously sent me scans of his rare King-Hinners Model A instruction manual. Thanks! The King-Hinners is very close to my Silvertone Neutrodyne, in fact the Silvertone was also made by King-Hinners. The big difference is that the Silvertone takes UV99 tubes while the Model A is wired for 01A tubes. He also sent an advertising flyer for a Webster B/C battery elminator circa 1926. (May 2016)

I opened up a Zenith portable and inside there was an original owner's manual. Written in only one language; no legal disclaimers; no dire warnings not to hold the bare chassis while standing in a bathtub full of Epsom salts with the unit plugged in. It's available for download on my Manuals page. (January 2016)

That Damned Chanalyst is killing me. As mentioned in Teardown Tuesday, every time I think I've got everything I need, I'm missing something. Also pictures of the EICO 950 capacitor bridge, which wants to electrocute me. (July 2015)

Things are quiet lately because of the Silvertone Midget veneer project is going so slowly you'd think lawyers were involved. Today I took delivery of a Weston 785 for my meter non-collection. It arrived in just in time to bet set on top of the veneer while the glue dries.

Also, I may be the only one but I've recently discovered the fun of the now-defunct 73 Magazine. The entire archive (I'm told) is available for download at The Internet Archive. There are several formats available for each issue, from PDF to Kindle to plain text. Wayne Green (W2NSD)'s baby is informative, interesting and slightly unhinged. (May 2015)

The Silvertone Midget - I'm getting my courage up to try to re-veneer the front cabinet. This is holding everything up because of my policy to have as few projects going concurrently as possible. So until this one gets off my bench (literally), little else is being accomplished. (April 2015)

New Radios - the old man unloaded much of his radio collection on me ("and don't bring them back"), so I should have a number of additions to Radios and Projects coming up through the year. (Jan 2015)

Links - I was sad to see that Bill Turner retired and his business appears to be shuttered. His website now goes to someone else selling reproduction dial faces; but his other stuff: dial cord rosin, tube base converters, documentation, and sundry other things, is gone. (Jan 2015)

Zenith H500 Project - An attempt to recondition one of my Zenith T-Os that's in particularly scruffy shape. (Dec 2015)

Teardown - a look inside the Simpson 211 VOM and meter-movement replacement. (Oct 2014)

Links - HiFi Engine added to manuals. (Oct 2014)