General Television Inc Radio
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Found this little set on that auction site and had to have it. It's a midget cathedral. Very cute from 1934 or so.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/53710524@N06/5559221987/
Gonna take a lot of work to get this back to life!
Terry
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 13,776
Threads: 580
Joined: Sep 2005
City: Ferdinand
State, Province, Country: Indiana
Congratulations on your acquisition. Looks like a speaker recone job is in your future...
It should be a very nice cathedral set when you get it restored. 
--
Ron Ramirez
Ferdinand IN
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Tnx! Haven't had a chance to check out the field coil and transformer to see if it's just a cone it needs. I think I have a 6" electrodynamic speaker around somewhere.
Terry
ps Diagram is here
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel...008530.pdf
Pretty bare bones set. Very curious to hear how it preforms on shortwave.
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 2,023
Threads: 365
Joined: Jun 2010
City: Dover, OH
Hmm, very interesting. That radio looks just like the Simplex midget cathedral I looked at last fall for sale near me. It had the same style cabinet, knob placement, and knobs. Makes me wonder who built the radio. General or Simplex? I should have bought that one near me.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Did a quick check and you are right! The Simplex model R is a dead ringer for this set.
http://www.radioatticarchives.com/radio.htm?radio=2856
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/PagesByModel...043257.pdf
Same tubes layout and has a SW band.
Tnx for your comments
Terry
ps Additional reading
http://www.aqcollection.com
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 2,353
Threads: 92
Joined: May 2010
City: Clayton, NC
How much shortwave frequency does your Simplex radio recieve? I have no four tube sets that have shortwave capability, hence I find this interesting.
Additionally, I had no idea that Simplex produced so many brand radios. Another thing that I love about this hobby is that, after collecting these things since the '60s, there is so much that I still don't know. Funny: not knowing things about radios brings me pleasure but not knowing things about wimmin brings me un-pleasure. Go figure.
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Don't know. There isn't any dial calibration for the SW band just the BC band. I supose I could break out the gdo and get a rough idea. Tnx again for the parts! Great packing job too!
Terry
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 2,353
Threads: 92
Joined: May 2010
City: Clayton, NC
Thank you! Not sure what electronic shape the 20 chassis is in, but it might be worth using for one of your 20 projects....
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Found another variant on epay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Super-Simplex-Wood-M...2556ecc72f
Same diagram on the bottom.
Terry
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Some time has gone by and I've had the opportunity to pick up two more of these little sets. One of them is identical to the first. Some one did some major surgery to it which I would mind but the work is REALLY sloppy. Chassis isn't quite as rusty and the speaker is ok. Long story short I got it on the bench repaired the two rf coils and replaced a resistor in the detector circuit and Voila!!. I was blessed with a working set. Something unusual is the band switch is solder in place to the BC band position. Another victim of the war. Gosh two in one month!! This one I'm going to fix so I find out what the coverage is. The cabinet on this one is pretty bad. It was painted and some of the veneer is missing from the front panel. This one will get the cabinet from the first one.
The other new arrival is a real Simplex. Cabinet is a little different but in great shape and very cute. It has no chassis but it does have the speaker which I need for the first set I got a few months ago.
The plan is to the first one to use as a guide to rebuild the second one. The first one will need a complete rebuilt and some paint work to preserve the rusty chassis.
Terry
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Went back down to the bench and started to clean up the band switch. Cleaned the solder off and got it working. As an added feature the band switch has the tone control on the same shaft. So now the tone control and the band switch are working. I put on the SW band hoping to here a blast of overseas broadcasts and all it did was squeal at me. Buy this time I thought it was starting to like me! I've run out of 57 tubes, it uses one for the detector. I put a 58 in it's place but I'm thinking that's what is causing the oscillating problem.
Terry
ps Fixing that rf coil was a pain as it uses #40g wire. It's hard to solder.
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 2,023
Threads: 365
Joined: Jun 2010
City: Dover, OH
Darn, now I wish I had gone for the two for one deal that included the Simplex cathedral in the deal with my art-deco Zenith instead of the big GE console. 
No matter where you go, there you are.
Posts: 4,686
Threads: 51
Joined: Sep 2008
City: Sandwick, BC, CA
7estatdef Wrote:Found another variant on epay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Super-Simplex-Wood-M...2556ecc72f
Same diagram on the bottom.
Terry
Even if the price were 1/10th of that I wouldn't buy from that seller, he has a bad name amongst the catallin fans selling patched and filled cabinets as mint originals, and the repairs were shoddy. Who knows what he did to it. I believe that you may find that the so called shortwave band isn't shortwave at all, it was what they used to call the police band back in the 1930s, back then the broadcast band ended at 1500 KC so the second band probably runs between 1500 and maybe 2500 KC. The chassis of your first set looks quite repairable, some phosphoric acid and 0000 steel wool will take the rust off.
Regards
Arran
Posts: 7,283
Threads: 268
Joined: Dec 2009
City: Roslyn Pa
Haven't had the pleasure of dealing with him but I did notice that there are a bunch of small nails hammered into that cabinet to hold it together. The set is a trf set and with that being said I don't know if they fair very well as you go up in frequency. My thought is that as you go up in fq the selective will suffer. The only thing it has to add to the selectively is the Q of the tuned circuits. Short of add regeneration to the detector I don't know of any other way to maker sharper.
Terry
When my pals were reading comic books
I was down in the basement in my dad's
workshop. Perusing his Sam's Photofoacts
Vol 1-50 admiring the old set and trying to
figure out what all those squiggly meant.
Circa 1966
Now I think I've got!
Terry
Posts: 4,686
Threads: 51
Joined: Sep 2008
City: Sandwick, BC, CA
7estatdef Wrote:Haven't had the pleasure of dealing with him but I did notice that there are a bunch of small nails hammered into that cabinet to hold it together. The set is a trf set and with that being said I don't know if they fair very well as you go up in frequency. My thought is that as you go up in fq the selective will suffer. The only thing it has to add to the selectively is the Q of the tuned circuits. Short of add regeneration to the detector I don't know of any other way to maker sharper.
Terry
That fits, it's also been poorly refinished, he's as bad as some of the dealers on radio attic for pedaling radios, that have been badly refinished by slobbing cheap varnish on with a tar brush. I don't know if he was the one that pounded the nails in the cabinet but it certainly isn't beyond a guy like him who seems to specialize in selling garage sale specials like that to unwitting customers for top dollar.
Those were cheap sets to start with, cute as they are, the extra band will probably work but there isn't much to listen to on it once you get past 1700 KC except maybe WWV if it will tune up to 2500 KC. Like I said the extra band was what they used to call the police band but these days it's just an extension of the AM broadcast band since it originally ended at 1500 KC on most sets back then. It's a cheap gimmick that acts as a selling feature, ad an extra scale, and a couple more turns of wire on each coil with a tap, and you have an extra band. What it probably does is short out the extra part of the coils in one mode verses the other.
Regards
Arran
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