[rfeenstra]

I have a lead on a RCA R39. Looks to be  a Canadian built radio in reasonable condition. 8 tube TRF. Are these especially desireable?

[Arran]

It's probably a "Victor" rather then an RCA is it was sold in the Canadian market. I believe that the R39 is one of the microsyncronous models, which debut for the 1929 model year, and were carried over until 1931, they have a funny arrangement with the tuning capacitors in order to allow them to be aligned to synchronize with the dial scale. The RF section is usually a series of #26 tubes as RF amplifiers, followed by a #27 detector, so not much different then an RCA Radiola 18 electrically, the audio amp and power supply is on the bottom chassis. In terms of value, well they are decent sets, not as good as a superhet, but with push pull #45s, electrodynamic speaker, and a heavy cabinet, they sound good. They are also fairly common, I think that Victor/RCA built something like 400,000 units over three years across all the models, so they are probably middle of the road in terms of value. At one time some guys had a scam of taking the power supply/amp chassis out, and pedaling them to Japanese audiophools as Western Electric amplifiers and speakers, so they used to be worth more because of that, until word got around the Orient that they were being swindled, now they are back down to where most late 1920s and early 30s consoles are. Be careful lifting these though, it's a two many job, the ones with a phonograph in top is a three man job.
Regards
Arran

[rfeenstra]

Thanks Arran!