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The first, third, and fifth sets are about as RCA as they could have gotten. I've seen some of the Russian military communication equipment of WW II, that was clearly RCA. Somewhere, I've read that RCA did have manufacturing in the Soviet Union, so none of this is any surprise to me.
Ford Motor Company had (has?) a plnt in Russia. I've heard horror stories about some of the engineers that went to the USSR, with Ford, and were virtual prisoners there. Ford offered them no protection whatsoever. Business is business, ya know.
I know that there are those who travel to the "former" USSR, and enjoy it immensely. There are others who travel there, who have stories that are quite to the contrary. I think that all of those tales are true, but the Russkies know how to create good PR, so there will be some good experiences for some travelers who visit the place. But, speaking for myself, it'll be a cold day you-know-where when I'd travel to Russia, or however they now call it.
But, the radios are interesting. It would be also interesting to see the chassis in those sets. I'll bet that they are glaringly RCA.
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Doug Houston Wrote:But, the radios are interesting. It would be also interesting to see the chassis in those sets. I'll bet that they are glaringly RCA.
Actually they're not. He posted some photos on a similar thread at ARF. That surprised me also because I had always heard the story that RCA did indeed co-op with the local manufacture there like they did in many other countries. I would have expected to see them look more RCA-ish. Things like the bezels, dials and knobs are a shoe-in.
http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=112627
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Welcome Well!! The second photo has a dial-face similar to several mid 1930s American made Silvertone sets ( Sears Roebuck & Co.)
Nice sets you have there indeed!! Enjoy your vintage Radio hobby!!
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I once had a Bulgarian radio from ~1935. It was a mixture of things from different countries. The cabinet came from Italy, the dial and tuning capacitor mechanism was US-made, the circuit itself was a generic 5-tube circuit more common to the US than to Europe. The paper caps were Austrian (iirc) and they were all mounted on little metal standoff clips soldered to the chassis. Don't know why they did it that way.
The transformer that was in it seemed to be almost homemade. The laminations were crudely cut or stamped out individually by hand. I don't think it was original to the set and alas, it was defective.
Although the 'brand name' was SYLVANIA there's no relation to the Sylvania who made sets in the US in later years.
http://www.sparkbench.com/sylalbum.html
-Bill
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I have read varying stories about how these Soviet made sets came to be, there does seem to be a cutoff line starting with mid 1930s RCA designs. In one account I heard that they simply bought American made RCA sets and reverse engineered them. In another account, related mainly to television, was that whatever branch of government was in charge purchased receivers and broadcast equipment from RCA around 1936-37. I have never heard any accounts of RCA manufacturing radios in the Soviet Union nor of assisting the Soviets in tooling up a manufacturing plant. Given the mixture of RCA patterned and indigenous parts in those radios I'm inclined to believe that a lot of reverse engineering was involved. I do know that they did have an existing radio and electrical industry prior to these sets being built, but I think that they used a mix of European and home grown designs in tubes and in set design, so it wasn't entirely set up from scratch. It would be interesting to find out the story behind this beyond speculation and rumors.
You have to remember that the U.S was the technological standard of the day in the production of radio receivers, and RCA was among the technological leaders. So if you wanted to establish a successful electronics industry you would want to at least take a look at what the most successful people were doing. From what I can tell the Italians did much the same, they purchased licenses to produce American Bosch sets in the late 20s and early 1930s to give a kick start to their industry. Before that most of the radios sold in Italy were imported or produced by foreign firms.
Best Regards
Arran
The European school did not influence upon radio in USSR. Only american. And this was it is correct since Europe lagged behind from America. I shall later show some information on year of the issue, names and amount copy.
Sorry for bad english
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