Vintage school radio - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

Tractorfan · 28th Nov 2010, 8:55 pm

Hi,
There's a thread currently under way in the vintage telly section about school TVs. This reminded me of the schools radio that was in the assembly hall of my primary school (I was nine way back then). It wasn't the usual Clarke & Smith wooden cased job, instead it had a steel case with a drop down lockable door and a carrying handle from front to back. Something is telling me it was a Grampian. There were four Bulgin pointer knobs across the bottom with some more above. I can't recall the tuning dial but there was an EM34 type magic eye at the top. The case was grey or pale blue "crackle" finish and lots of small ventilation holes along the sides. Never saw the back but it seemed (to my young eyes) to have too many mains leads. Of course, one was the line feed to all the miniature Walsall type speaker sockets in the classrooms plus an aerial lead. It was plugged in with a Crabtree 15amp plug to a Clang 15-5amp adapter that the Decca record player or C&S tape recorder also shared. (This is getting seriously sad

).
Even at that tender age I yearned to own a radio like that one. Alas, I've never ever seen another

.
Cheers, Pete

28th Nov 2010, 8:55 pm	#1
Tractorfan Dekatron Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: St. Frajou, l'Isle en Dodon, Haute Garonne, France.(Previously: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK.) Posts: 3,183	Vintage school radio Hi, There's a thread currently under way in the vintage telly section about school TVs. This reminded me of the schools radio that was in the assembly hall of my primary school (I was nine way back then). It wasn't the usual Clarke & Smith wooden cased job, instead it had a steel case with a drop down lockable door and a carrying handle from front to back. Something is telling me it was a Grampian. There were four Bulgin pointer knobs across the bottom with some more above. I can't recall the tuning dial but there was an EM34 type magic eye at the top. The case was grey or pale blue "crackle" finish and lots of small ventilation holes along the sides. Never saw the back but it seemed (to my young eyes) to have too many mains leads. Of course, one was the line feed to all the miniature Walsall type speaker sockets in the classrooms plus an aerial lead. It was plugged in with a Crabtree 15amp plug to a Clang 15-5amp adapter that the Decca record player or C&S tape recorder also shared. (This is getting seriously sad ). Even at that tender age I yearned to own a radio like that one. Alas, I've never ever seen another . Cheers, Pete __________________ "Hello?, Yes, I'm on the train, I might lose the signal soon as we're just going into a tunn..."