Old radio brand names.

[Tractorfan]

Hi All,
Been sorting through some old paperwork recently and unearthed a copy of the "Trader" yearbook for 1946. In the back is a list of IF frequencies of the then current makes and was curious about the names no longer in existence - or are they? - amongst the well known ones.
There's: Ace, Allwave, Burrell, Cameo, Drummer, Gilbert, Halcyon, Hartley-Turner, Haynes, Higgs, McMurdo-Silver, Milnes, Orr, Sparton, Tempovox, Unirad & Zetavox.
Have our learned members had dealings with any of these sets and are there others similarly obscure?
Cheers de Pete

[Skywave]

Yes - "Kaiser" of West Germany.

I've never heard of them - until recently, when a "Stereo Six" table-top radio appeared on the bench for an overhaul. Must have been expensive in its day: MW / SW / FM 88 - 108; 'piano-key' type W/C switching; B9A type valves (Telefunken), six internal speakers (yes, that's correct, six): pair of LF, pair of mid-range, pair of tweeters; solid, highly-polished wooden cabinet - & configured, by default, to 117v-a.c. At a guess, I'd say 1960 - 1964 vintage, and clearly aimed at the North American market.

If anyone can provide any info on "Kaiser" and / or this particular wireless, I'd be much obliged.

Al. / Skywave

[paulsherwin]

There was an explosion of small radio manufacturers in the immediate postwar period in Britain, and possibly in other countries too. Often their cabinets and even their tuning dials were made by third parties, and the chassis made use of the flood of obsolescent WW2 surplus parts appearing on the market at the time. Most of these companies had disappeared by the mid 50s.

Paul

[chipp1968]

Halcyon may go back to the 20s ,I had an early transportable at one time,Sparten is American I think. Orr may have made speakers ??I have also heard of Mc Murdo ,Ace and Tempovox

[richrussell]

I've got an Orr - it's badged as an Invicta AW57, from around 1936. They didn't seem to make many models, though I couldn't find a lot out about them. After WWII, they seem to have disappeared.

[llama]

Halcyon was the name on some car radios we used to fix in the early '70s. No idea if there was any continuity with the "original" Halcyon though.
Graham

[Aerodyne]

Some years back I restored to order a small Cameo table model. I've not come across one since. As a boy, circa 1952, I scrounged a valved chassis (no cabinet) from a rag-and-bone merchant. It was badged 'Allander' and again I have never seen one since. Both of these were clearly 1940s in origin. I believe Allander was a Scottish firm but I may be wrong.
-Tony

[Darren-UK]

Allander was a small outfit set up after WWII by a group of demobbed serviceman. I think the full title was "Allander Industries"; Allander being the area of Glasgow in which the company was located (it's part of Milngavie I believe).

I don't know anything more about them, but it seems they weren't in production for very long and probably vanished by 1950-ish.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by Darren-UK

Allander was a small outfit set up after WWII by a group of demobbed serviceman.

This may partly explain the large number of postwar startups. Lots of people went into the forces after school and were trained in radio engineering. Some may have worked on the intensive radar programme and other military electronic construction work. A small radio company must have seemed an obvious next step.

Paul

[MichaelR]

That is very true Paul,

We forget today because Radios and TV's are really commodity items to the masses that in those days they were prized and valued technology items.

I think the radio/Tv servicing trade were much more respected as well certainly post war industry needed these highly trained people.

Mike

[Brian R Pateman]

Originally posted by richrussell;
I've got an Orr - it's badged as an Invicta AW57, from around 1936.

Orr radio has Pye connections.

It was a company started by Charles Orr Stanley in the mid 1920s as a result of the success of "Radio for the Millions" which was produced by C.O. Stanley as marketing material for Mullard. He founded two companies, Orr Radio and United Radio Manufacturers to manufacture radio kits which were then sold through the magazine.

C.O. Stanley went on to control Pye of course which explains the Invicta connection as Invicta was also a C.O. Stanley creation and a Pye brand for many years.

Orr Radio and United Radio Manufacturers were later "purchased" by Pye to the benefit of CO and his sister Pearl who were the two shareholders.

[McMurdo]

I think Halcyon was a brand of Ismay Distributors? They supplied to independent radio and TV shops, they made CRT TVs in the 1930's.

[McMurdo]

Halcyon TVs here:

[Peter.N.]

'Lotus' was another name from pre war times, my parents first radio was a Lotus 2 valve TRF + metal rectifier.

Peter

[mark pirate]

I have 2 ACE sets, one from the 40's & one from the late 50's.
Not a common brand, my earlier set is a well made good sounding woodie, but the build quality had gone downhill by the late 50's
I think they went out of buisness in the early 60's.

Mark

[michamoo]

Hello Mark.
Any chance of a pictures of those two sets?

[mark pirate]

Hi Michamoo, the 40's set is in storage awaiting my house move, but looks similar to the set in your avatar, i remember replacing the 6v6g o/p valve on it to bring it back to life!
May be able to get a picture of the later set as it's in the workshop somewhere.

Mark

[Alf]

I remember having a radio made by R N Fitton Ltd, of Brighouse in Yorkshire. A domestic radio, can't re-call the model number, had a sort of bakelite facia on the top half of the radio. What, to me, was quite remarkable, was that on the short wave bands, the coverage went to 30MHz, in fact, slightly beyond, cordless telephones could be heard, I assumed they were around 31MHz. It had the usual EF, EBC EL series of valves, but it also had an extra EF39 as an RF amplifier. The 7Mhz, or 40 metre amateur band came in loud and clear, well, not exactly clear as ssb was used, but quite good. One of my major regrets was parting with the radio.

[Mike Phelan]

R N Fitton (a few miles down the hill from me here) were known as Ambassador, quite well known and good quality.

[Brian R Pateman]

Excellent sets the Ambassadors! My father had one and I currently have a bare chassis on the do do pile. Mine is an export version and came with lots of history and the service manual.