Made before I was

[peter_scott]

Yes, my main interest lies more than 10 years before my '49 birth year.

Peter.

[Edward Huggins]

I began to take an interest when my Father was demobbed (Bomber Command, Avionics) and opened his business. For many years after we never had a new, post war, Radio or TV in to work on. The lengths my Dad would go to to resurrect an early 1930s Superhet were beyond my grasp. Hours and hours of work for which he would charge a pittance.....Maybe it put me off old sets. So I'm from the mid 1950s onwards - and so they are all much younger than me!

[mister valve]

I have had to make a reluctant decision on my collecting habits, because I was running out of room to keep them. So now I only collect pre-war radio's, radio-gramophones. The only exceptions to this is if a post-war receiver is of special interest or unique.

But it must be worked by Valves.... None of this modernist 'new-fangled' Transistor stuff !
(Cats-whiskers, Westectors & H.T. Rectifiers excepted).

[Richardgr]

The worrying thing, is that old radios left to their own devices have a unfortunate tendency to breed like rabbits ...

[Radio Wrangler]

Originally Posted by Viewmaster

I wonder how many only collect items made before they were?
I did, but now the prices are far too high for items pre
early 30's

Collecting things made before you were is one thing, but finding something you designed in a museum is a nasty shock !

David

[IanG3XYV]

Or seeing something you designed in the front window of a certain shop in Lincoln!

[Paul_RK]

It's bad enough when you realise that a set which seemed a relic of a bygone day when you first met it, has now spent more than half the years of its existence following you around: such as the 1927 Pye I bought in the summer of '72.

[Joe_Lorenz]

I am from 1962 which was a good year , and I do not have a strict cut-off date
My most important criteria are a somehow ingenious electrical design, solid materials used and good workmanship performed. At least two of these should get a "check" to raise my interest.

Some examples:
- Loewe Opta Meteor, 1956. No beauty, no extraordinary value, but: Built to last, serving decades in our kitchen without any maintenance.
- Telefunken Markstein II, 1938. Made with pride and you can see it.
- Tefagon 4 1304w1, 1928-30. Built with (then) best available components, i.e. resistors sealed in vacuum glass containers
- RFT R 4100 recorder, 1980. Put it on the scales, then you get the idea that these East German engineers wanted it to last even if dropped from a soviet helicopter

Regards, Joe

[Cobaltblue]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

Collecting things made before you were is one thing, but finding something you designed in a museum is a nasty shock !

David

Yes walk around the corner in the Science museum communications section and bump into something I last saw as a B model in 1978! although I did see bits being manufactured in 1980 at the Poole factory. I had previously been based at Plessey Leigh Park site. I was with my eldest son and he found it a bit surreal as well.

Cheers

Mike T

[Damien VK3RX]

Many of the receivers & transceivers I've bought over the years I lusted over but could not afford at the time they were new

[mark2collection]

Almost all of my collection is older than me.

As a child of the 80's, the tech (for me) wasn't interesting then, and isn't now. This includes music of that era too, but it's just personal preference.

My thoughts go beyond the item in use, when repairing/restoring for example, cannot help but think of the people in the factory assembling/testing, the people in the drawing offices etc. Looking at photos on-line from the inside of the radio factories during 'the day' suggest the staffing numbers were huge! An insight into 'how it was'.

Not forgetting how something from an earlier time can still bring joy in todays busy lifestyle, remembering it may have seen the war plus many other world events too, and with mild fettling, still going.

Escapism if you will, with a very different tone to life today, and when playing music from another culture, can be deeply moving.

The fun is finding out what works for you, and then really enjoying it(!)

Mark

[Richardgr]

I sometimes wonder whether our sets collect us! After all, we are just custodians, protecting them from the nefarious, and the looked after sets will find new owners.

There is another element to collecting old radios, and that is the sheer magic that protected them through decades. This is one of my favourites in my collection. It is dainty - about the size of a toaster. It is so beautifully crafted, with real inlay and mahogany burr - even on the back! - and somehow even the transfers are like new, after nearly 100 years.

Concerton III

[Joe_Lorenz]

Several years ago one of my sons was engaged in a school project. The topic was "Berlin as a divided city". Finally he had to summarize the history of that wall and give a presentation to about 100 pupils, teachers and parents. He found out that a number of quotes from 1945 - 1990 radio reports would be helpful. Then he had a great idea: If I could supply a tiny transmitter (connected to his laptop ) and lend him an old radio? Yes, I could!
So he played several audio using a big Graetz Melodia in the school hall, lights dimmed, folks listening eagerly. When it came to John F. Kennedys speech from 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" all the audience had goosebumps and some even came to tears. It was so realistic as if it just had happened!

Joe