What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

I wonder how much of our vintage sets actually gets used. I use my Philips Music Maid as an alarm timer as one of the valve sockets is very unreliable. It switched on a Marconi 557 as the actual alarm.

I later listened to the Today Programme on my lovely Murphy A46 (the only set SWMBO allows into the living room). I played some children's 78s (Teddy Bears' Picnic etc) to my 1 year old granddaughter on my C&S GP7 record player followed by a cd using the microphone input of the same player. My granddaughter is so used to the 78s that she points to them and starts to "dance" before I have even got one out of its sleeve!

Does anyone else use their vintage sets on a daily basis?

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Yes!

Breakfast with the Hacker VHF Herald and "Today" on Radio 4.

Nothing at work, but I rang my wife at lunchtime, who answered on the 1956 GPO 300-series phone in the sitting room.

Home from work then I put away the laundry to the end of "PM" on R4 through my Bush VHF64.

I've just fired-up my Cossor Melody Master to listen to a Haydn(?) string quartet on R3 while I try to do some paperwork, to the light of my 1940s Anglepoise.

And the house is full of vintage clocks, both electric and spring-powered, both silent and chiming/striking, all running (until SWMBO complains).

P.S. My children (2, 6, and 7) love dancing to a pile of 10" 78s or 7" singles on the Hacker Serenade when we have 5 minutes to kill before leaving for school or whatever, and they're too lively to sit still and do something quiet. They can work the autochanger, but the records end up covered with greasy fingerprints, jam and so on, so it tends to be Daddy's job.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Oh yes, I forgot the Cossor in the kitchen used to listen to PM whilst making tea. It is actually a hybrid of a Music Master and a 524 as both got damaged in the post so I made one good one out of the usable bits. It is the only 524 with a magic eye in existence I expect

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Vidor CN420a portable was being used last night - as was Bush DAC90a.

Weekend - Cossor 500. And Ever Ready Model K portable.

This evening, it'll probably be Ferguson 208u. It all depends which room I'm in.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Oh yes! Breakfast was prepared to the sound of Radio Two on a Bush 103, and consumed in the company of a Westminster.

Christmas present wrapping was accompanied by a Leak Troughline ll (plus Sherry and a mince pie).

A little light fettling of a Bush SRP51 to the sound of an Eveready model C.

Does my '86 Linn Sondek playing Bing's White Christmas count?

;D

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Not actually 'today' as in 11 December 2018 but I used my 1949 GEC 4940 until very recently, when acquisition of my mother's piano forced a compromise / rethink in the living room. Our regular landline telephones in daily use are a 1961 Plessey 706, a 1975 red 746 converted for wall use in the kitchen (actually used this day), a 1955 Ericsson N1071 and a 1985 8782R DTMF instrument.


And, if I'm allowed to mention it, my regular 'with-me' camera is a 1954 Balda Mess-Baldix 6x6 folder. I took a couple of shots with it two days ago and I take it everywhere.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

I've managed to fit a Hacker Mayflower and a prewar Smiths clock on our Bluthner upright :)

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Not sure if its vintage enough, but I have been listening to the Philips early 1970s music centre that I have at work as back ground music in the stores/despatch area where I work.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

I wake up to my Roberts R606 on a timeswitch, tuned to "Heart FM", then when I get up I head to the kitchen, turn on my WWII Pye PCR and listen to something like Voice of America on shortwave while the first coffee of the day brews.

By 07:00 I'm off walking the dog for a couple of hours, so no radio.

When I get home I fire up either my Racal RA217/MA323 or the Yaesu FT897D and have a tune around for 30 minutes or so (aided by another coffee brew) to see what's going on on the HF bands. Then breakfast!

If HF is good, I'll maybe work a few stations on 7 or 14MHz; if not I tune the Roberts R707 to Classic-FM for some background daytime musical pabulum.

Later, again I'll check HF. Right now I'm listening to a net on 5MHz but the participants and content's not really something I want to engage in. If it had been, I'd activate my Clansman PRC320 for a chat.

Bedtime - the R707 is again Classic-FM on the timeswitch set to turn off about 00:30 by which time I _might_ be asleep.

At weekends, the morning listening is around 6.2-6.4MHz because that's when the interesting shortwave free-radio stations come on. I've got a dedicated Eddystone 840A and quarter-wave wire antenna as a bedside radio specially for them.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

I'll slip it back in due course, don't worry... ;)

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Unfortunately I have had to hide all my old phones temporarily as we are having problems with the line and an engineer is calling later in the week. I bet that if he saw a 150, 200 and 300 series phones dotted about he would blame the fault on them!

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Nice to hear details of a life built around vintage radio spanning so many decades! Love it, thanks for sharing!

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Got home from work tonight and listened to Radio 1 , 2 and Radio Wales on FM via a rather superb Ferranti U1032 that I got from Mikey's Junk swap meet earlier this year.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Does my 1966 Boxford lathe count as vintage equipment? I used it this afternoon.

I have four vintage radios and two CRT TV's in the house and use one or more of them most days.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Just the kitchen radio today, a 1965 Telefunken 1691 Gavotte, and the usual few early Belling Champions (No.1, No.2, 79 and 83A).

Paul

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Currently listening to the DAC90a I wrote-up about earlier today.

Wife called me on our black 1960's(?) GPO300. Whilst she was preparing dinner, the set I could hear in the background would have been her bakelite VHF61 in the kitchen (phone in the hall).

My daughter was using her 1960's 1001 Anglepoise lamp to read just before bed, previously drawing for homework with a set of early '70s fairy lights (around the picture in the dining room) as a backdrop, our Victorian mantle clock in the lounge can be heard chiming away downstairs with a wonderfully mellow 'dong' every 30 minutes.

At work, was using a 1960's waveform generator, still in calibration too.

A few similarities with other members it appears ;D

Mark

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

the avo 7 is used daily at work although it's getting a few comments from customers these days if they notice it. Most think it's there for show.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Oh, forgot about them! My Avo 9 II is on my 'playroom' bench, to hand for the quick checking of things. We still have a tranche of '8s' at work which are used regularly, but are not kept calibrated. If it was left to the young 'uns whom we employ, they'd be binned.


Once me and my ilk retire, I suspect they'll have a jolly good clean-out of the workshops.

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

Weekday mornings we normally listen to Pulse 2 on MW on a Vidor Lady Anne while having breakfast in the conservatory. At the weekends I normally listen to RTE 1 on a KB GR10/1 which belonged to my parents.

And, as I bought it over 25 years ago, I guess the Fluke 79 I used today can be classed as vintage.

Keith

Re: What vintage equipment did you actually use today?
 

They are good sets. I restored one for a friend a couple of years ago and was impressed by the sound quality.