A nicely restored 1942 Telefunken 143GW LW/MW radio

[Pentode Retro]

Just thought I'd devote a quick write-up to this small WW2 Nazi German radio which seems to be quite scarce in the vintage radio world nowadays, even in Germany itself.

I've had this little bakelite beauty since Jan 2009 which I got, courtesy of eBay, for a steal. The radio is an ac/dc 3-valve set and tunes into the AM and longwave bands via a long wire, the valve line-up is UCH11 (frequency converter), UCL11 (output pentode) & UY11 (rectifier) and the valves are of that uniquely German Stahlröhre Y8A octal configuration. The radio was non-functioning when I purchased it but was brought back to life with little fuss by the AVRS president (many thanks Warwick!). All that needed doing was the usual capacitors replacement, a new cloth power cord, minor patching-up of the electrodynamic speaker's cone and NOS Telefunken/RFT valves to replace the tired originals. Surprisingly the required valves are quite easy to purchase via eBay Germany for reasonable prices and they don't seem to be in terribly short supply. Bar a tiny chip on the right back edge, the bakelite cabinet was otherwise completely unmarked and scrubbed up beautifully with fine steel wool and Brasso which I did myself.

The restored radio plays with surprisingly decent volume and quality of sound despite an obvious lack of AVC and appears to be quite sensitive.. no problems picking up any of Melbourne's metropolitan AM stations (bar aircraft navigational beacons, longwave is a blank wasteland in Australia). This radio certainly makes for an unusual and unique WW2 addition to my small collection, one that I hope to hang on to for many a year to come.

Pete

[turretslug]

Thanks for posting that, Pete, intriguing item. I guess it would be a "very short superhet", a "2+R"! When I see that a new member has joined from outside Blighty, I think, now could be some interestingly different stuff but I wouldn't have had "WW2 Telefunken in Oz" as an obvious first thought. I think Telefunken came up with the triode-hexode in about 1934? I find the cultural, political etc. associations as interesting as the purely technical stuff,

Colin.

[paulsherwin]

Yes, an interesting set. I had no idea the Germans were still making domestic radios like these in 1942 - it certainly looks smarter than our Wartime Domestic Receiver of the same era. One of the few positive things you can say about the Nazis is that they were good at industrial design.

You do find all sorts of oddball stuff turning up in Australia, brought by migrants over the decades.

[Pentode Retro]

Yes these little Telefunkens are indeed interesting sets with an even more curious variation, the 143GW-G which appeared to be only available to the peoples of the Nazi-occupied Eastern Territories (namely Poland) and was basically the same radio but with a lack of search capabilities. Only three set frequencies pretty much made it the ultimate Volksempfänger without the eagle/swatika.

http://historiaradia.neostrada.pl/Ok...201939-44.html

I'm guessing only Volksdeutsche would have been allowed ownership of the 'proper' 143GW. It would be interesting to see how the 143GW would compare with Howard's Tefag K5A which was manufactured during the same period and which appears to be basically the same circuit with an added UBF11 IF/RF stage, also receives SW instead of LW.

Pete

[crusher19860138]

What a fascinating set,i really like the design,can you tell me,what can you receive on LW in Australia?

[Herald1360]

SMPSUs, Boilers, Lighting Controllers, lightning etc etc I should think

[Pentode Retro]

Originally Posted by crusher19860138

what can you receive on LW in Australia?

Other than 'SMPSUs, Boilers, Lighting Controllers, lightning etc', the radio does a reasonably good job of picking up the morse code transmissions of aircraft navigational beacons LW is pretty much only found within ITU Region 1 which excludes Australia.

Pete

[turretslug]

A shame really- with the vast size of Australia and a lot of ocean between surrounding countries, one would think that LW would have both a useful primary function and interesting DX possibilities. It's always dangerous to draw over-simplistic analogies but Algeria is a very large country with a coastal population and arid interior, they have a famously powerful LW service.

[Pentode Retro]

Actually there were commercial LW transmissions in Australia, commenced by 2FC in Sydney, Dec 6th 1923, and ceased with 6WF in Perth on Sept 2nd 1929 when all LW stations were transferred to the MW band. Only God knows why LW transmitting was ceased considering that the vast hinterland of Australia (just like Algeria) is mostly flat, especially around Central Australia, where ground-wave propagation could have been most useful. But that is one for the historians to ponder over.

Pete