[morzh]

To add to it: this is the radio Peter sent to me about 2 weeks ago, and today I went to pick it up; it is in my car right now, and I will open it tonight. The box seems to have no damage, so I hope it is in that exact shape as it is in this video.

The reason I wanted this radio is this: my grandpa while living in Far East bartered this radio off of some American sailor, the radio having found huge popularity with the US personnel. He described it to me in great detail, while I still was a kid. He said it looked like a portable typewriter and used miniature tubes. And was very sensitive, plus being able to receive seaport taverns' radio where people used very bad language. My mom also remembers this and quite recently retold me this same story. The fate of this radio was to be given to my uncle, the brother of mom's, who, as a fresh graduate of 1st Moscow Medical school, along with his wife, also a graduate of the same school (him being an internist and her a psychiatrist) were sent to serve their 3-year young specialist term to Tuva,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuva

a very remote part that had then just joined the USSR. Having been living in quite squalid and unusual for a Moscow dweller conditions, my uncle gifted this radio to the local Communist Party official in order to ingratiate himself to the latter and possibly make his life a bit more tolerable.
My grandpa said that when he found out about this, he almost squeezed the dear life from his own son.

So, about 10 or so years ago I embarked on the search for this radio, until I found that forum where Peter and I met, and there I was told, that the Telefunken "Schreibmachine" (nickname indeed means "Typewriter") T6445 GWK fits the description. There is also Telefunken T1345GWK, that is in the same case but does not have multiple SW bands, only having one. I saw a few, some ion very nice shape, but every time the seller would refuse to ship to the US.
So, about a couple of months ago Peter found one on sale in Ukraine and was able to acquire it for me and ship by a private Ukrainian delivery service called Meest ("Мiст" in Ukrainian means "Bridge" ), same service we used to ship the 37-116 to Ukraine.

And I also had a chance to chat in Ukrainian with very, very nice (and also very, very nice-looking) Ukrainian women. I don't get to practice my Ukrainian very often, so I enjoyed it.

Thanks Peter!
Goopd video too!

And...I did not know it was in fact still working!

[RadioSvit]

Uh... Thank God you got it, I hope it's undamaged. I have already started to worry that he has not yet left the territory of Ukraine due to the tracking, but he is already at your home. I am very glad that I was able to thank you for your help.

PS. You once again confirmed the story I heard from many collectors that this radio was very popular among the US military in Europe.

[morzh]

The radio is in great shape, no shipping damage seems to be present, and the box was undamaged in the firts place. In fact I am yet to see any damage caused by Meest delivery.

I called mom on Skype and showed her the radio. The first thing she said was "A Telefunken?".
(No she could not see the small logo well at all; it took bringing the cam almost to the logo and then try to focus it to show her the text).

Then she told me, that my grandpa acquired the radio not while on Far East (though the radio came from there) but while in Saratov, my birthplace, from someone, who told him they could procure it. This was either in 1949 or 1950. But not just that.
This radio was illegal to own or operate as it had SW band. It was illegal to listen to SW.
Funny, but the Soviet superhets were also manufactured with SW, but the all SW bands were sealed and it was illegal to unseal and use them, until some time after Stalin died.

She told me my grandpa was listening to Voice of America on this radio, and she remembers the bnoises it made when tuning into it. She said grandpa was listening to it at very low volume, so the neighbors could not hear it, and he almost kept his ear to the speaker. He also told the whole family that no one outside should know they had it ever, else they could be in trouble.

The only difference is the color. The one they owned was more like wood-colored, and this one is maroon.
I have seen blue and green ones being sold, and the cheaper 1345 version was black.

[radiorich]

hello Peter,
I really like your latest videos I have a youtube channel but I have not posted any videos yet .

morzh, far as shipping goes I hear you it really has started getting expensive so currently I stopped buying radios or tv's unless they are local .



Sincerely Richard

[RadioSvit]

Michael, very interesting story. In the 80s, I also listened to "Voice of America" and "Radio Liberty". But at this time it was no longer as dangerous as during Stalin's time. I can only imagine the fear experienced by those people who dared to listen to "Voice of America" in the early 50s...

Richard, thank you.

[GarySP]

It's so much more interesting when a family story follows a particular radio. My Philco 20 was my Dad's parents radio originally. It was never determined if it was bought new. With the years it became 'expendable', and became the radio I found in the garage on the property of my grandparents. It hadn't seen the light of day since the 1950's, and was hung on the wall with heavy wire poked through the veneer arch! I found it when I was 11 years old. That is what sparked the hobby for me way back then.
Take care and BE HEALTHY! Gary

[morzh]

Yes, listening to VOA or RF, or DW in 70-s (which is what I did, and btw they had Ali-Spinks results, which is where I found out it from, before they showed it on the Soviet TV) was not as dangerous: if found out, you'd be on the KGB sh**t list, and possibly have troubles with work etc etc, but not go to prison for it.
Plus they jammed the signals, so you could hear that hum all the time.

But during Stalin you could go to jail for that. And during the war they made everyone turn them in altogether, and the punishment for non-compliance was death, and then whoever kept the radios would face the same from tehj occupying German forces, and this is why SVD is rarer than hen's teeth. And if you think RCA140 is expensivem, SVD commands about 4-8 times the price in good American dollars today.

[MrFixr55]

The Nazis did the same thing (force the surrender of high performance shortwave radios) to their own people. The VE301 Volksemfanger or "Peoples' Radio" was designed to receive only local stations. The radio is referred derisively (and rightfully so) as "Goebbel's Snout", as it was essentially a propaganda device, as many period ads will attest to.

[morzh]

We had cable radio, or "Радиоточка" ("radio point" literally), which was one or two or even three programs over wire. We had it in every apartment.
During the pre-war periode, the "reproduktor" (reproducer) also called "tarelka" ("a dish, a plate") was a large cone speaker with wires, and this was the news device in absense of radios.

My family never used it, but it was there, almost always in the farthest corner of the kitchen, over the eating table.

In the simplest form it was 30V system, with the device itself being a transformer and an 8 ohm speaker.

A more or less modern (80s) cable 3-way radio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_radi...22258).jpg

The one we had (one way)
https://gorod.dp.ua/news/163373
(this article from 2019 says that in Ukraine the last "radiotochkas" are being disconnected)


The one I remember from when I was 4 or 5, on the walls of some Pharmacy.
https://www.livemaster.by/item/44870822-...-leningrad

[RadioSvit]

Interesting Wikipedia article, Michael. Thank you. I fully agree with the authors of the article, who claim that cable radio stations were justified only in mountainous areas with extremely poor conditions for radio signal transmission. I have one very interesting 1936 Albis V 5TRV Swiss cable radio in my collection. It can receive up to 5 radio stations while waiting for a call from a telephone exchange and provide high-quality sounding of a telephone conversation with a subscriber. But I can't demonstrate it like the necessary equipment from a telephone exchange. It is interesting that all signals were transmitted at a low frequency and in fact it is not a radio receiver but a low frequency amplifier with a telephone switch at the input.

[MrFixr55]

I see "Reproduktors" advertised on ePay often. I always wondered that since they were merely a transformer and speaker, was there a "listen" function during the USSR Period so that families could be listened to if "subversive" activity was expected. Could the "powers that be" know if the unit was unplugged?

Working in NYC and living in Suburban NY all my life, one of my more favorite movies was "Moscow on the Hudson" a movie that starred Robin Williams as a member of the Moscow Circus band, who defects to the US, finds support from fellow expats and Americans but also finds loneliness and longing for his family and paranoia that the secret police is tracking him for repatriation. The movie ends with the KGB agent that was tracking him defecting himself and becoming a vendor of the famous NYC "Dirty Water Hot Dogs (If you visit NYC, you must have one!!). I watch this movie, think of Dvorak's Symphony 9 (The New World), and the several conversations I have had with several emigrees to the US from the former USSR. I have serviced Clinical Labs in The Brighton Beach "Little Odessa" section of Brooklyn, and worked with 2 colleagues, one from Ukraine, the other from Belarus. They all talk of the relief from oppression conflicted with the longing for family and friends. I once bought a hamburger from a stand on the Brighton Beach boardwalk and the young lady who sold it, announced that it is American food served with Russian flair. I told her it was German food, made American and served with Russian flair, and that is what is so good about the USA. (she was very good looking too, which is likely why I remember this story.

My Irish ancestors fled the famine and anti-Catholic bias of the 1860s. My German ancestors fled Bismark and anti-Catholic Bias.

The above is meant to be history and not meant to be political. The hobby of collecting radios also involves the history of radio broadcasting in the cntext of world history, the good, the bad, and the ugly. My heart goes out to all of you!

[morzh]

MrFixr

The "radiotochkas" were basically transmitting a regular entertainment/news programming, a standard one, possibly "Mayak" radiostation (the main radio station of the USSR, the name meaning "a beacon, a lighthouse").

I doubt it could be easily listened to. The article (one of them I gave) in fact describes that very thing the kids did, but that would involve using high-impedance headphones. Plus many people simply did not use it.
I used ours to put in my first transistor amp from a kit my dad bought for me, as a cabinet.

The programming was mostly music, the Soviet one, or from the satellite countries, then the country's news ("Vesti s poley" - news from the fields, the "battle for harvest" as they call it, not sure why it was always "the battle" - i guess Russins just like to turn everything into a battle), international news (good things about the Eastern block, bad about the West, which was rotting non-stop), and "pis'ma trudyaschikhsya" the "letters from the laborers", where various folks wrote about they happy things happening (how they would meet and exceed the manufacturing plans and were so jubilant about it) and asked to play some very patriotic or sentimental song (about mothers, Motherland, or some river or some peripheral town, or about the "house of the parents") for them and the rest of the listeners. Hillarious, Grammy-worthy entertainment.

Yes, I remember the MOH movie; the KGB guy was played by Savely Kramarov, a very famous Soviet comical actor who emigrated and his name was supposed to be deleted from all the movies, except that he played such prominent comic parts in so many movies it was impossible, so they settled to not mentioning his name in the credits section. He was such a happy guy and he was supposed to have his real big break eventually here in Hollywood when he got cancer and died, such a sad story. Any good Soviet comedy (there were many, and they were good) that he was not in is rare than hen's teeth.

"Aphonya", "The gentlemen of Fortune", "Ivan Vasilyevich menyaet professiyu" (Ivan Vasilyevich (Ivan the Terrible) changes the occupation), and many others.

Here's the article in Wiki about him in English, and there is his filmography there.

[RadioSvit]

I see "Reproduktors" advertised on ePay often. I always wondered that since they were merely a transformer and speaker, was there a "listen" function during the USSR Period so that families could be listened to if "subversive" activity was expected. Could the "powers that be" know if the unit was unplugged?

MrFixr

Listening through a speaker is possible, but it is quite difficult technically and I have never heard of it. And apparently, there was no great reason to listen to every housewife. )) But I know for sure that wiretapping of telephone networks and private telephones was conducted, and in crowded places (theaters, cinemas, restaurants and even beer bars) there were many agents who reported to the special services what people were talking about and the mood of the population. Michael and I lived in the USSR already at a time when there was some weakening of the activity of the special services, but my parents and especially both grandfathers suffered a lot from the communist authorities. They were both prosperous and rich people, one was a big farmer, and the father of my second grandfather was the owner of a chain of butcher shops and a meat processing shop, but the communists nationalized all that and he was sent to a concentration camp, where he died. But his son and my grandfather managed to escape and fought against communism for many years in the ranks of the resistance of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. However, after her defeat, he was captured and served a sentence of 17 years. Those were terrible times that are hard to even remember

[MrFixr55]

Peter, my prayers for a rapid peace that allows individuals and their countries to reach their highest potential where all countries benefit! Naive, but I still pray for it. ( Could say more but to be fair, I don't want to run afoul of the no politics rule)

In the intercoms used by the drive through restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, etc., the speaker at the drive up menu board traditionally was used as the microphone. (and this is why they don't get the order straight).

I remember one of your posts a year or 2 ago where you built a cabinet for a radio - phono combination. It was a wonderful job! My fabricating skills are poor but I am pretty good at fixing things.

You have an outstanding collection. The only European radio in my collection is a Telefunken Allegro 5083W, that I bought at a church thrift shop for $40 USD. The glass faceplate is cracked but the wood is excellent. I did successfully glue the faceplate back together, replaced the filter caps and cleaned it up. It plays rather nicely. Advertised as Stereo, but only for an external tape or phono input; there is no FM Multiplex, only Mono FM. An external speaker is required for stereo and the 2 amplifiers are not equal (EL84, ECL86).

[RadioSvit]

Thank you again, MrFixr55.

The only European radio in my collection is a Telefunken Allegro 5083W, that I bought at a church thrift shop for $40 USD. The glass faceplate is cracked but the wood is excellent. I did successfully glue the faceplate back together, replaced the filter caps and cleaned it up. It plays rather nicely. Advertised as Stereo, but only for an external tape or phono input; there is no FM Multiplex, only Mono FM. An external speaker is required for stereo and the 2 amplifiers are not equal (EL84, ECL86).

This was a fairly common concept for building a stereo radio in Europe. Stereo decoders were sold separately as an option, but I've never wanted one. Well, one remote external speaker to obtain a stereo effect is also a controversial decision


Yesterday I shot a new video, there is very little about the radio, but a lot of music from the 50s. Listening to music and collecting old records is my second hobby.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPeq4qdcDHA]