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Post by Richard on Jul 4, 2021 14:43:40 GMT 12
I was in Thames Saturday morning, when I came across a guy selling a trailer load of vintage radios off his trailer. He said they belonged to a friend of his, who had hundreds of them apparently. The friend lived on the Hauraki plains and he was selling on his behalf. I suspect this is the son of a radio collector who died recently? A friend of mine said, that he's there every Saturday morning selling them. Someone just purchased a Stewart Warner R146 for $70, but this one caught my eye, it was a Columbus Spiral dial in a very large "Art Deco" cabinet , it had a 15 inch speaker, he wanted $120 for it, unfortunately it was too big for my house and to transport in my car.  If you're interested? the market is on the main street, he's on the left had side at the very northern of the market (Grahamtown) |
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Jul 5, 2021 10:31:31 GMT 12
How would I get hold of him? I'm driving up to Auckland for the AGM and would definitely take that home (even though I, too, have no room) - or if it sells before I would at least love to get photos of that set because its one I have seen a photo of somewhere - possibly an old Radio Center photo... I've looked at the images I have and can't find it, but I have definitely seen it somewhere.
Cheers, Steve
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Jul 5, 2021 15:24:55 GMT 12
From a 1938 promotional booklet... over on the right. I knew I'd seen it somewhere.
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Post by Richard on Jul 5, 2021 15:26:48 GMT 12
Apparently he is there every saturday morning, I was there about 9:30am. He was at the northern end of the main shopping street outside "Daymos Tyres", 731 pollen street, Thames. I didn't manage to talk to him long as he also sells dog food products and obviously more interested in selling than talking.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Jul 29, 2021 13:11:56 GMT 12
It was a long trip home from Thames with a VERY full vehicle. Its bigger than it looks - which is a bad thing because it looks big! |
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Post by Richard on Jul 30, 2021 7:43:23 GMT 12
Oh wow, You got it, well done  you're certainly dedicated Steve, transporting it from Thames to Canterbury, and yes the size did put me off purchasing it. Did the seller have anything else interesting when you were there? |
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Post by DHockey on Jul 30, 2021 8:14:06 GMT 12
Glad you got it Steve! It’s a real beauty. The cabinet looks quite tidy. What sort of speaker does it have? I’ve never seen a RCNZ speaker bigger than 10 inch.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Jul 30, 2021 8:23:50 GMT 12
Its kind of hard to see, but this was the view from the front seat once it was in and I'd packed in all the other stuff I had with me around it... to the roof. My dog was not amused that he couldn't climb over into his bed for the next couple of days but we managed
I don't know what else he had, as this had been put aside for me by the guy from the market and the owner of the radios was away... I did ask, but it was dark by the time I arrived and he had somewhere else to be. I'll ask again at some point, but I'm not sure I need any more radios really... I'm about to go on a cleansing blitz to try and make a little more space - I'm sure if I sell a couple of Bell Colts that should make enough room to keep this one.
I did actually mention to 'She-who-must-be-obeyed' that I would tidy this one up, research it, and then move it on to greener pastures... but she apparently really likes it - so it is, at least for now, staying. It is a pretty interesting design - it has a (presently unknown brand) non-Radio Corp speaker (they didn't make larger speakers at that time, actually I think they topped out at 10" - my Flotilla has a big Goodmans in it), and those half-round ends are sealed like drums - so I'm wondering if they perhaps form part of the bass response of the cabinet. I brought it up on the dim bulb but its not really running very well so I can't actually tell at present - it needs a service.
Anyway, thank you Richard - it now has a new home and will get some attention at some point - maybe a short video.
Cheers, Steve
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peter
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Post by peter on Aug 1, 2021 0:22:25 GMT 12
This is the trouble Steve - I allways find myself wishing for a bigger house for all the glorious sets out there but there again they do all need looking after so I've tried to limit it to 2-4 from each decade from 1930 up to 1980. Many years ago here in Welly I went to an auction of a huge collection BUT it was all in very poor state due to water and vermin damage - the owner had been unable to care for the large amount/had it in leaky sheds etc. I have 5 good waterproof and vermin proof sheds and 4 are stuffed full of radios and test gear. Cheers.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Aug 2, 2021 9:37:19 GMT 12
I had a similar experience that springboarded me into radio hoarding - I bought a $400 collection from a semi-rural property which, coincidentally, is just down the road from where I now live. It was all in a barn and in varying states of decay and borer infestation. Hundreds of radios which I thought, at the time, I needed to save all of. I've come to the realisation that I can't save them all - so I'm (normally) reasonably selective about what I try to collect - and that is a shifting target as well. I never really held any interest in early battery sets but recently I'm starting to want to get one or two - although I have particularly specific ideas around that. Mostly my radios are in dehumidified and rodent-safe-ish spaces, although there is some overflow in the barn which I know is going to need some love sooner rather than later, or those sets will be firewood and scrap. I recently discovered I have way more Bell Colts than I want or need, and I'm not entirely sure how that happened. My real passion decade is the 30's and so 50's and 60's sets are intruders - taking up time and space I could be filling with nice big sets with proper sized valves in them... so I'll be having a bit of a clear out there. Anyway, back to the Columbus - the speaker is a 12", and looks like a Celestion. But I'm not sure its original. Radio Corp used a lot of Celestion speakers up until their own production kicked in, however this one looks like its too big for the hole in the baffle board - I'll need to take it out and check - the hole almost looks like it was cut for a 10" speaker so perhaps it originally had a Radio Corp speaker. I also don't know what year they started making the 10" speakers - as these were common in model 90's from around 1942 on, but I think may have been in some model 75's as well from memory. I don't recall any sets from before 1939 which had them, but I'll do some research on that - the model 88 might have had a 10" - but thats 1939 as well.
The output transformer is a replacement from Beacon by the looks of things, a 6W multimatch model according to the catalogue I have. Until I remove the speaker I won't know if its likely an original or not. I'll do that when I get a chance, but I actually built a display area for the set in the weekend so spent most of it playing with Gib and batts and power tools...
Cheers, Steve
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Post by DHockey on Aug 2, 2021 11:57:20 GMT 12
I think that 1939 was the first year for the 10” speaker. I have a model 65 with one and both my early 40’s model 75’s have them as well.
It looks like your radio was owned or worked on by a NZVRS member at one stage. The fabric covered cords with moulded plugs were sold by the club for quite a few years.
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Steve
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Post by Steve on Aug 2, 2021 14:32:10 GMT 12
Hi Daniel, I think you could be right about the speakers. I suspect it was around this time they also developed the 5" version used in the likes of the model 6 & 12 (speaking of the model 12 - I just had an alert from NZPost that something exciting had arrived at home... more on that later).
I had noted the power cord - I assumed someone had cut it off an old iron... The audio is weak and distorted, and reception is poor so I'm assuming it might have had a repair at some point in its life, but not a recent full recap. I'd love to dive into it but I have way too many other balls in the air at the moment - more than I can easily juggle... so it will have to wait a little while.
Cheers, Steve
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you're certainly dedicated Steve, transporting it from Thames to Canterbury, and yes the size did put me off purchasing it. Did the seller have anything else interesting when you were there?
