[Ron Ramirez]

29CSX (and 28CSX) sets are not very common.

SteveG - PM forthcoming.

[OldRestorer]

Where is my darn finders fee! Ok, Not the finders fee but a.... Forced you to buy it fee,
I should get her on weekends

She looks fantastic...

Me

[SteveG]

Thanks for the push I needed at the time, Kirk. Sometimes caution needs to be ignored!

[radiohenry]

    Steve,
 That chairside is beautiful. I never saw one like it.
                                     Henry

[SteveG]

Thanks Henry. I feel lucky to have found it. It's funny, I asked about a radio in the pictures that were sent to me. It was sitting next to the Rada Chron in the photo, but all I could see was a corner of a cabinet. He told me he thought that whatever radio that was, had been sold. Turns out this was the radio I could only see a sliver of the cabinet on.....musta been fate....

[radiohenry]

I think you should go buy a lottery ticket and see if the luck is still there.
                                                       Henry

[SteveG]

You're right. If Lottery luck follows my radio luck lately, I should be rich real soon!!

[palegreenthumb]

SteveG - is the dial on the 29CSX upside down the way it is on the 630CSX?

What is the point of the upside down dial (on the 630, if the 29 is normal)?

Which way is the radio supposed to be oriented to a chair?  So you can read the dial when sitting in the chair? (Wouldn't the speaker be pointed at the chair?)  Or so you can read the dial when standing beside the arm of the chair?  (What is the point of it being a chairside?)

[SteveG]

I would say it's upside down on the 29CSX also. The speaker grill side of the cabinet, which you would think should face away from the chair, is the side the dial faces. You would be tuning from the wrong side....

Hard to figure these out. My 38-7CS is a little better. The dial on that one is at least parallel to the chair. The oddity of the chairside models intrigues me. Good thing they take up as much space as a console or I'd be totally addicted...

[palegreenthumb]

Thanks Steve!  I don't quite get why there are supposedly 3500 of these made, yet so few are in collections.  I think the 29CSX is a pinnacle radio, and I hope to find one some day.

I'm hoping to get a 630CSX in trade (chickens hatching; quite sure it's going to happen).  Although it's in fair condition at best, I'm pretty excited about it.  But I'm also confused how it's supposed to be used.

Was the user out of his chair during tuning?  Or was the speaker pointed at the chair when playing?  If anybody can explain which direction the speaker is supposed to point, and which side the radio is supposed to be tuned from, please chime in.  It really does seem like the dial is upside down!

[Ron Ramirez]

Yes, the unit is supposed to be placed beside your chair so that the upside-down dial scale appears right side up, with the speaker facing the chair. You tune and operate the set while sitting down.

Not a well thought-out design. I guess Philco's designers didn't consider that the sound might be a bit muffled with the unit against a chair.

[palegreenthumb]

It is rather strange.  You'd have to put it beside an open frame chair, like a Poang from Ikea.  And stylistically it makes no sense. People would look at it and say, "Why do you have your radio turned around backward?"

What publications did Philco often advertise in?  I wonder if I could find an ad showing a chairside?

I checked eBay, but the first dozen or so ads I looked at don't say what magazines they came out of!  

[Ron Ramirez]

Mostly The Saturday Evening Post but also The Etude Music Magazine, Life and many others I can't think of at present. One of the reasons Philco was number one in radio was the fact that they were not shy about advertising and were quite willing to spend the $$$$ to bring in the customers.

[Nathan Slingerland]

This thread has scans of the 29CSX 'sales card' showing it next to a chair:

http://www.philcoradio.com/phorum/showth...p?tid=6252

[palegreenthumb]

Thanks, Nathan! Wow, it's hard to believe, but they actually seem to intend that "the front" points toward the chair!

So odd.