I think it appropriate to post my story here, as I did on a Facebook group today about my first ever purchase of a vintage radio - because it was a Philco! Here goes.......
"Who remembers their first vintage radio purchase and the story behind it? Here’s mine, just because. So it’s 1965. I’m 13 years old and have been already soldering for at least 5 years. My mom loves ‘antiquing’ and knows I like antiques too, especially if it has to do with radios or phonographs. So we drive to one of her favourite antique store areas of the time, in Buttonville, Ontario Canada. I’m looking around and I spot something interesting hidden in a corner almost completely covered with all kinds of stuff. I go for a closer look. Yes, It’s an antique radio!! Rapture! I sheepishly ask my mom to find out how much they want for it. The owner says, “ahhh, you can have it for $3.” OMG!! $3? even in 1965? Before you could say ‘wow’, it was already hanging out of the trunk of my mom’s ’64 Ford Meteor and on it’s way home. It’s not a rare model, but sentimental, and my kids will have to decide if they want to sell it once I’m gone. I certainly won’t sell it. BTW it’s a model 82, which is the Canadian version of the 86 (worked on 25 cycles). And it worked right away despite missing one of the two 71A P-P output tubes."
I added the 71A very shortly after. I posted a sequel to the story on Facebook which I'll paste here:
"A small sequel to the story: It wasn't long before I obtained a replacement 71A and cheap. Toronto had an amazing "radio row" back then. In those days it was no big deal for a 13 year old to take the bus from the 'burbs and hang out downtown on a Saturday. This one place on the row had a huge bin of 'obsolete' tubes for 25 cents each. My limited knowledge of antique tubes at the time was that any tube with two digits was gold, so I passed on the 2A3's, 6A3's, etc. (moan!!) and picked up about 20 tubes including a 71A."
I was a 13 year old newbie at the time and so the term 'recapping' did not exist. One did whatever it took to get the thing working. I don't really know why, but I've kept the radio in storage all of these long years without working on it at all. I suppose one day I should throw in some new filter caps and fire it up.
Nice looking radio! So cool that you got it working at 13. My first radio since I got into the hobby around 4 years ago was also a Philco, a 41-250. I purchased it from a guy inside Renningers in Kutztown but not during the regular meets there. That was before I knew of the swap meets at Kutztown which I regularly attend now twice a year. A friend told me there was a guy there that had radios so went and checked it out and bought it!
Yup, still playing drums since I was 11. Some photos (vintage and newer) on my Facebook page (Neil Shapiro). Still rockin' and rollin' at 65.
I guess I shouldn't really use the term "fire up" when it comes to vintage radios LOL!
Here's mine... a Bendix 676D AM/SW radio phonograph. Here's the kicker. My mom loved to "antique" every piece of dark wood furniture with an antique white paint with gold trim. She thought it made the beat up stuff look classy.
When I was in high school, I came home one day after football to see my Dad swinging an ax into the radio cabinet. He said it was old, didn't have room and was headed to the dump. I pleaded with him to stop and got a brief stay of execution. I took the radio, glass, and speaker out... then he went back to work.
I listened to the BBC and all sorts of stations til finally died. I buried it the back of my closet in a box. There it remained safe and sound for years, until I was old enough (and smart enough) to recap it.
Some years later I found the same radio (un-axed - LOL) in Hayward, California and bought it for 5 dollars. It sits in my great room, the radio that got me started.
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