[PhilcoPhan1936]

I belong to a Group on Facebook, America in the 1930s. People share photos of various subjects from the 1930s. This came across my feed today.

I believe, after looking it up in the Gallery, it is a Model 37-38.
I don't know if this is in any archives here on the Phorum, but I thought it might be of interest.

This is the caption that was with the Photo:

Battery-operated radio in farm home of FSA (Farm Security Administration) client in Orange County near Bradford, Vermont, Russell Lee photographer, October 1939.
[Image: https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1849/4271...94cc_z.jpg]

[Kenradio]

Hi Jeff, excellent picture of the 37-38B radio and battery setup. I have one of these radios in my collection. The B/C battery looks like a Philco 41-8007 which weighs around 45 lbs. but the 2 volt storage battery looks pretty cool. I use my ARBE III to power my 37-38B along with my 38-643B.  Thanks for posting the picture.  Ken

[PhilcoPhan1936]

I have a 37-610 that is in a similar cabinet, with the nicer escutcheon used in the late 1937 and into 1938 models, but it has a 38-624 battery chassis installed in it. I have the proper chassis for it in a bullet cabinet, and the bullett cabinet is the proper cabinet for the battery chassis.  
I plan to do a swap once I get around to restoring the battery chassis.
Nice to know there are folks out there preserving these rare battery radios. Seems like a lot of collectors don't want to bother with them.  

[Justin A]

My wife just bought one of these......oh my this IS going to be quite the project. I will have to build a power supply fir all these voltages, I think!
j-

[Radioroslyn]

I had a 37-33 that required the same battery pack. Ended up building a little ac/dc power supply for it and running the batteries for the bias voltages.

[MrFixr55]

I have several "Farm" radios for a few reasons:
First, they are usually a lot cheaper than house current versions, precicely because of the issues mentioned above on how to power them.

Secondly, the circuitry is interesting in their own right. There are various systems. Some, very similar to "car radios", even with the same 6V tubes and B Vibrator, running off a 6V car battery. Others, like the 37-624, using "2V tubes" with filaments in series -parallel and a vibrator B supply, also running off a 6V car batteries. There are also sets using "space charge" tubes that ran from 30VDC from Delco farm power systems. Soe used a 2V lead acid or "Air Cell" "A Battery" for the filaments and anywhere between 90 and 135V worth of "B Battery Blocks". One of the easier ones to deal with are sets made in late 1838 and later which used the same octal and later miniature "1.4V" tubes that were used in the portables of the 1940s through late 1950s before transistors took over. These were powered by a 1.5V and 90V batteries. An alkaline D Cell will run the filaments for quite a while. B power can come from 9V transistor batteries or build a simple supply for that.

Thirdly, these represent important history. These radios were used in areas where AC Power was not available, usually in rural areas of the Midwest, Great Plains, Deep South, etc. areas of the US, where utility power was not available until after WWII. The radio was the link between the rural farm family, usually living a hardscrabble life, and the outside world. The farmer may have used it to find out commodity prices, the family may have listened to religious services on Sunday, and, occasionally, entertainment.

Which type of power (6V, 30 V or 2V a Battery and 90 - 135V B Battery) depended on location and if the farm was mechanized. If the farm had a Delco system or "WinCharger", they had a 6V or 30V radio and the luxury of listening to it when they wanted. If they were not mechanized, then they had the A and B battery radio and used it sparingly.

It is surprising that as many of these that did have serviced, considering their obsolescence upon electrification. Often, radio sellers would hold "bonfire parties" along with sales of AC powered radios after electrification, where these battery radios were all piled up and set on fire.
 
To someone who is a 3rd - 4th generation Irish - German American whose US ancestors all lived in the New York Metro Area, these artifacts of the Depression and Dust Bowl period are touchstones to those that sacrificed greatly and worked hard to feed the USA during a period of great turmoil.

I have 4 of these farm radios:
- Coronado 650, ca 1937 (2V, 90V set, not yet working) This set was marketed to the rural Midwest and had a 455KHz trap to
attenuate the ship to shore Morse Code great Lakes navigation radio traffic.
-RCA 5BT, ca 1937 (2V, 135V Broadcast set with a power supply that I built)
-RCA 6BT, ca 1936 (2V, 135V Broadcast / SW set with a power supply that I built). The 5BT and 6 BT were great performers. The
6BT had the option of running from a 6V Vibrator supply for B power and tapping the 6V battery for 2V filament power.
-RCA 14BT2 ca 1940 (1.5V / 90V power, chassis, battery and tubes similar to those of battery operated portables of the time).

[radiorich]

Hello mrFixr,
I too have like 4 or 5 in my collection and the one being a Tiny Emerson cabinet made out basically pressed paper .
One of my Nicest is a RCA console model 235-b !

Sincerely Richard

[Radioroslyn]

And if you power them straight from batteries you don't p/u all the noise that comes in thru the ac line. You'd be surprised how quiet a set can be w/just an antenna and ground connection running from batteries vs the ac line.

[Arran]

32 vdc was what some sets used, the farm lighting plants used to use 8 volt lead acid batteries for storage, in a series-parallel arrangement, 32 volts was also the standard for electric light on trains. I have a 32 volt Phonola set that seems to be a licensed copy of a Wells Gardner circuit, I also have a 6 volt Stewart Warner vibrator radio that uses 2 volt battery tubes in series. As I understand it G.M/Delco was a big proponent of 32 volt sets in the U.S since they manufactured the lighting plants, I'm not sure what the Winchargers put out but I think some may have been 32 vdc, as well as 6 volts. A lot of farm battery sets were converted to run the tube filaments from 6 volt car batteries by using a rheostat to drop the voltage, I think the reason was so it could be adjusted as the charge went down, some even had a built in volt meter for this purpose. I have found croc clips on the "A" leads of many battery sets with the 2 volt tubes, so wet cells were obviously the preferred method of obtaining filament voltage. The Air Cells were 3 volts, most of my 2 volt sets have a built in dropping resistor, with a terminal panel for shorting out the resistor for 2 volt operation.
Regards
Arran

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