The Vidor "Lady" series

[peter.sables]

hi
I've just got two radios working. They being the Lady Ann and The Lady Margaret. Turned out quite well. Yes you have guest it, how many were there in this line up what were they.

Pete

[peter_sol]

There was a "Lady Elizabeth" and a "Lady Margaret" Deluxe

[mickjjo]

Lady Catherine:-

http://www.portabletubes.co.uk/portables/v435.htm

Regards, Mick.

[peter.sables]

ha. Right.

So we have a Lady Margaret - Ann - Lizabeth and Catherine. Two to look for.

Thanks

pete

[David G4EBT]

Most of the advertising literature, model names and styling of portable radios from the mid to late 50s was squarely aimed at teenage girls, hence the names, and given that the Coronations was in 1953, it was an era, patriotism was very much in evidence, and Catherine, Elizabeth and Margaret were popular names for girls of that era. The ads in magazines and shops often showed girls in flared skirts jiving to a radio.

In my early teens, portable radios just weren't a 'boy thing' - I wouldn't have been seen dead with one. I recall that as an apprentice in 1955, one of the lads brought one to work and was laughed off the face of the planet by the rest of us - very uncool! His nicknames for the rest of his apprenticeship were 'Maggie' and 'your ladyship'.

Same with the transistor radios that came later, clearly named and aimed at teenage girls. Decca 'Debutante' - Huh? We're back in the era when lads were conscripted into the armed forces at 18 unless they were deferred. No lad of that era would be turning up in an army barracks with a radio called a 'Debutante'. Trust me on that!

[peter.sables]

Well, well, well.

What insight to the life of the times. pour gold. Thank you David. I've got a screen shop of your input and will put it in each radio.

pete

[P.Pilcher]

Small transistor radios were not frowned upon in the 1959/60 era. As a schoolboy, my skills had developed sufficiently by that time to assemble a 5 transistor job. Many were amazed at its small size. At school, I used to listen to it in class and instead of banning its use, staff members would often enquire as to the latest score because I would be listening to the current test match ball by ball commentary!

P.P.

[julie_m]

That's Gender Policing in action for you. Boys are taught to be fiercely competitive, so a boy's radio has to be obviously better in some way than a girl's radio -- whether that be because it is smaller, using newer technology (transistors instead of valves), built by his own hand, or whatever.

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by julie_m

...a boy's radio has to be obviously better in some way than a girl's radio...

My two-transistor 'Boy's Radio' on a gilt chain with a paste jewel set inside the many-petalled flower that covers its 'speaker must have incorporated all possible failings according to the comments here

But, yes, returning to the Vidors, the Lady Margaret must have been the most popular by some distance, and was succeeded by a Lady Margaret De-luxe that differed little other than by a slight re-styling. The Catherine was a further cosmetic redesign, except I think it was during the Catherine production run that construction changed from hand-wired to printed circuit. The Elizabeth was the last of the line and again uses a printed board, while the Anne is an early entrant, larger as it's the only one with an option of mains power.

[wireful3]

As a rather prosaic look at 'Boys Radios' I gather at one time in the USA there were import duties on some Japanese products particularly radios. By designating pocket radios as Boys Radios they were accepted as toys and so escaped these duties.

[peter.sables]

hi.

Well yes it looks as though gender had part to play in radio after all. My Lady Ann runs on mains. its very good.

pete

[Heatercathodeshort]

All these battery portables perform better than you might expect. Very sensitive and selective. How they managed to get a DK96 to oscillate we will never know!
They were mostly named after new and old Queens and Princesses to give them an air of grandeur. regards, John.

[peter.sables]

hi John.

It must be said. they DO work well.

All noted.

pete

[kalee20]

Originally Posted by David G4EBT

Most of the advertising literature, model names and styling of portable radios from the mid to late 50s was squarely aimed at teenage girls

Well that explains the names... But how on earth would teenage girls have afforded them - moreover, if they were given as presents, how would they have afforded the batteries?

The small-sized radios, unlike the larger attache-cased jobbies (e.g. the Vidor CN420 Regatta) can't have had a long battery life at all.

[dave walsh]

It's an interesting thread but I think the teenage theory is suspect. I was 14 when they murdered President Kennedy. I had one of these sets [on the mains- already a bit redundant but I can't recall where I got it from] and could hear the American Top Ten in advance from a New York SW station on Saturday mornings. More importantly a live broadcast of Kennedy's funeral which put me ahead of the UK news. Almost nothing was instant then. Unfortunately now, everything is!
Dave W

[peter.sables]

Hi

Well yes they were very expensive. They did look well for the time they were in though. So posh kids would have them.

pete

How they managed to get a DK96 to oscillate we will never know!

Whan I was but a kid I got a mains/battery one that didn't work, put the mains adjuster on 220V and all was well. So that's how my DK96 oscillated, up the filament volts.

[julie_m]

Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort

All these battery portables perform better than you might expect. Very sensitive and selective. How they managed to get a DK96 to oscillate we will never know!

Battery frequency changers have always been a bit of a mystery to me .....

As far as I can work out, the filament, G1 and G2 form a triode structure for the oscillator, which runs at the sum of wanted frequency plus intermediate frequency; but because the "anode" is leaky, many of the electrons it is attracting towards itself pass harmlessly through the gaps between the grid wires. And then G2, G3, G4, G5 and the anode form a pentode structure; apart from, strictly speaking, the "cathode" here is not actually G2, but the spaces between the grid wires where the electrons are coming through. The antenna signal is fed in at G3. Since the electron stream in this pentode structure is already switching on and off in time with the local oscillator, the signal at the anode is actually the product of the antenna and oscillator signals; which includes the sum (useless) and difference (= I.F.) frequencies, and the anode load is a tuned transformer which passes only the wanted I.F. to the secondary winding (and thence, the DF96 grid).

Is that sort of close to how it works, or have I (quite probably ) totally misunderstood everything It seems intuitive to me (therefore quite probably wrong) that such a circuit would be forever upsetting its own bias conditions, and thus never actually be stable .....

[AC/HL]

One off topic post deleted.

[majoconz]

A bit OT but...
wireful3 said:

By designating pocket radios as Boys Radios they were accepted as toys and so escaped these duties.

The "Boys Radios" in the USofA escaped tax if they had only two transistors - I think they were just reflexed TRF's with a pin drive speaker.