Please help me identify this lovely radio

[atjblack]

Hello All,

I am hoping that an eagle-eyed member might be able to help me identify this radio. Based on the speaker and some wording on the dial glass, I think it is French, but I haven't been able to identify it, despite numerous searches.

It is a lovely radio and I would like to restore it, so I am hoping identification will lead to a schematic. Someone has been at it before me, so it won't be a matter of simple part replacement. It has a quite a number of Valdex caps that I haven't seen before.

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

Andrew

[paulsherwin]

It seems to be French.

[Mr 1936]

Hi

I can't help with the maker, but it appears to be French made and would have been from the early 1950's. The speaker is marked Paris but that would probably have been a bought in item.

The bands are:
GO (Grande Ondes) - European Longwave
PO (Petit Ondes) - European Medium Wave (USA Broadcast Band)
OC (Ondes Courte) - Short Wave
BE (Bande Etalier ??) - Bandspread Shortwave 49 metres
PU - Pickup (Gramophone, Phonograph)

At first glance the circuitry and valve line up looks conventional for the era and would be similar to many others. There is a tuning indicator (magic eye) on the front panel.

Given the European station names this may have been a home market set that was brought to Canada by a French speaker.

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by Mr 1936

There is a tuning indicator (magic eye) on the front panel.

Strange. Although there seems to be a tuning indicator valve fastened to the rear of the front panel, I can't see any "window" or clear space on the front scale-panel through which it could be seen. The whole of that area seems to be filled with lettering...

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Boulevardier

Strange. Although there seems to be a tuning indicator valve fastened to the rear of the front panel, I can't see any "window" or clear space on the front scale-panel through which it could be seen. The whole of that area seems to be filled with lettering...

I think it corresponds to that bull's eye symbol on the left.

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by Graham G3ZVT

I think it corresponds to that bull's eye symbol on the left.

Surely the indicator will be on the right of the tuning scale when looking at the front (it's on the left when looking at the back).

[Paul_RK]

Odd indeed. I think the display end is just visible in the first photo, with its centre slightly to the left of OC and PO on the r.h.s. of the dial.

Paul

[Boulevardier]

Something else to ponder - what is the point of the legend "PU" at the bottom of the waveband markings on the right of the scales? Unlike the "GO", "PO", etc markings, "PU" obviously can't relate to any of the scales. Unless there is some sort of pointy thing that moves up and down behind the glass to show selected waveband/function?

Mike

[bobbyball]

I would imagine "PU" is for "Pick up" - gram, phono, "Tourne-disque" in French, whatever you want to call it. There are enough sockets on the back for aerial/earth, pick-up and extension speaker.

[kestrelmusic]

Undoubtedly French. It looks rather like the sets made by Alfar of Paris.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
Some French sets had a mechanical pointer to indicate the band it was set to.
The exposed voltage selector is also a fuse btw.
I've seen a few French radios with a burnt out, or badly scorched transformer after being brought out of retirement after the mains voltage in France was standardised at a nominal 230 volts. Hitherto, it used to be 110 volts.
Cheers, Pete.

[Nickthedentist]

Is it just me, but doesn't it look like a chassis that's been fitted into a (good) homemade case? Perhaps from a radiogram, or a radio with a damaged Bakelite case?

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by Boulevardier

...Unless there is some sort of pointy thing that moves up and down behind the glass to show selected waveband/function?

Mike

I think there's one here, probably adrift from its cord drive, a transparent bar with its white tip currently between OC and PO and pointing directly at what looks to me like the centre of the magic eye.

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

Is it just me, but doesn't it look like a chassis that's been fitted into a (good) homemade case? Perhaps from a radiogram, or a radio with a damaged Bakelite case?

Interesting idea Nick! But the anomalies keep crowding in when you look at it. The positoning of that speaker means that the scale-plate must be positioned directly in front of it and would effectively obstruct most of the air movement from the speaker cone. Very strange stuff indeed!

Mike

[Nickthedentist]

This "Reela" is similar, albeit in a much more baroque, and typically French cabinet:
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/reela_bayard.html

Personally, I think that this is what the OP's radio started life as. Maybe it was just too French for British Columbia and someone decided to modernise it when it was 15 years old or so.

[Boulevardier]

Originally Posted by Nickthedentist

This "Reela" is similar, albeit in a much more baroque, and typically French cabinet:
https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/reela_bayard.html

Personally, I think that this is what the OP's radio started life as. Maybe it was just too French for British Columbia and someone decided to modernise it when it was 15 years old or so.

That Reela seems to have the same speaker problem - perhaps the French just didn't care about such things in their relentless pursuit of style...

Mike

[Radio Wrangler]

The slots in that front panel/baffle lok to have been made to take a range of speaker sizes, then there seems to be a circular adapter piece added between speaker driver and baffle.

The other holes in the baffle are all clean and crisp, looking factory made.

Could that round adapter really be a spacer to create some room for the diial cord etc?

The drive cord pulley is out of the plane of the dial so some 3-dimanrional pulley work must be on the go..

It does look like a bit of a franken-radio.

4 valves so is there a metal rectifier? The chassis has what looks to be a B8A-based valve at the front end then two B7G mounted ones in small envelopes and one larger B9A envelope which I assume must be audio. So it's a mix of eras just on the chassis.

Good puzzle!

David

[Nickthedentist]

The speaker grille looks like its been nabbed from a defunct cane chair.

[marceljack]

I would think that the case is an amateur (well) made one, as it's made of very thick, fully flat panels.
The magic eye is visibly not at its intended place (on the right when the marking on the glass is on the left side, front view).
Also something to remark is one Rimlock tube (probably an ECH41 or 42) when the others are noval (which happened relatively often at the beginning of the '50s).

[Boulevardier]

Is the magic-eye a noval? Was there ever a noval-based indicator designed to be viewed from its top as this one is mounted? Wouldn't it have to be an octal GT type?

Mikel