A 1942 philco radio I picked up.

[Zorba]

Locktal tubes. Nice radio!

I was a TV repairman in another life.

[Tom in N.J.]

I do believe that the whole world stopped and listened to Charlie McCarthy with me on Sunday... on our Philco console.

[Flying10uk]

It's surprising how many younger people don't know what (radio) valves are and that they had to "warm up" first.

[usabaker]

It's surprising how many younger people don't know what (radio) valves are and that they had to "warm up" first.

One of my kids turned on one of my old radios and asked why to that very thing. Now she has old radios and record players.

[browningautorifle]

they had to "warm up" first.

I'd forgotten that...

[emmagee1917]

Way back in my collage days ( 1976 ) my roommate had a small tube TV . He knocked a drink over on it and yanked out the cord as it blew . He pulled off the back , pulled a few tubes out , we drove down to the grocery store , they had a little test station and tube assortment in a small table . He plugged in the suspect tubes , found the bad one , picked up a new one for a buck or two , drove back , installed them back , and we were up and running in less than an hour . Try doing that today with the modern stuff .
Chris

[Flying10uk]

When my Grandfather was selling radios in the 1950's his main shop, in the high street, was a couple of shops along from a side-road and a couple of shops down the side-road was his second smaller shop. The 2 shops were linked together by a small passageway, for staff only, and there was also a radio workshop between the 2 shops. Unless you read the name of the business above the shops, it wasn't immediately obvious that the 2 shops were actually both part of the same business and were really just one shop in 2 parts. On one occasion during the 1950's a "customer" decided to shop-lift/steal a radio from the smaller shop, in the side road, and walk out without paying. The thief then walked around the corner into the high street, into my Grandfather's main shop and proceeded to ask my Grandfather if he was interested in buying a brand new radio which he just happened to have. My Grandfather kept a straight face and said "I'lll need to take it out the back, into the workshop, and get my radio engineer to inspect it, before buying it." The radio was taken out to the workshop and the police were called who came and arrested the "customer". It does make you wonder about the person who stole the radio because one would think that he would have traveled further than just around the corner before trying to off-load it and perhaps also read the names above the shops.

[bob4wd]

I also like old radios, especially if they have a military connection. Here is a picture of a couple of military-looking old Hallicrafters radios, one from the late 30s and one from ca.late 40s. I had an identical one as a kid during WWII and listened to all the war reporting at the time. Both are fully restored and workjust fine.

[IanS]

The mention of accumulators took me back to the fifties when I used to help a pal deliver charged accumulators and collect the discharged.. This was done using a delivery pushbike. It was surprising the number of these old radios that were still being used, these had a band called trawler band where they could listen to the local fishing boat radio traffic.

[old tanker]

Old tube radios still evoke wonderment. Now i can enjoy the rigs I lusted after that were far beyond what a paper route could fund.