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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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25th Jan 2021, 12:49 pm | #21 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 428
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Re: What's your focus?
I've had an interest in electronics since I was but a small lad, about 7 or 8 I think. It's given me a good career, a much greater understanding in general but the valves crept in when I had a Saturday job at a local music shop when I was about 16-17 years old. Mainly Marshall amps at the time. The tech's there had an unlimited well of patience, they explained everything they were doing & why. Off to college I went! At that time the digital revolution was just beginning & my various jobs led me down that path, the valves were forgotten until I found myself with enough spare time, resources & space to pursue them! That was only about 6-7 years ago! My focus is, I suppose, fairly general. I don't collect from any one era although I have radios from the 30's to the 60's in my collection. Nor do I collect any one make, saying that, it does seem I have more Bush sets than anything else! I try to return them to how they would look when new, I'm not always successful but each one teach's me something. On the to-do pile is an HMV1128, Tesla 308U, Ever-Ready Sky King, a Philips (50's I think) & a small GEC. I count myself fortunate that my better half actively encourages my hobby, she loves them & delights in hearing them work again. Another aspect is the sheer variance in styles. Of late a couple of "projects" have sprung up, as they do, one involving an old (early 30's I'm led to believe) Philco radiogram. But that's another story altogether!
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25th Jan 2021, 3:16 pm | #22 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,208
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Re: What's your focus?
I sometimes think that radio collectors have it easy. Here are a couple of photos of some medium-sized items in my collection. Can you tell I'm not married
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25th Jan 2021, 3:24 pm | #23 |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 1,795
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Re: What's your focus?
My Focus is a bit "blurry" too.... its been a great "ride".... From 19 sets as an apprentice, to the Siglent SAA3000 spectrum analyser of today.
When I retired one of my aims was to "go back" to my apprentice days of Valve radio and TV's of the 50's 60's eras , I bought or obtained lots of wooden cased radio's of that era, I also bought several Eddystone receivers, which were revered at that time. However.. the gloss dulled, and I returned to more modern technology of today. The valve stuff was either given away or sold for peanuts, which is the same thing, and all the "bust a gut" Eddy's went too, except for a couple of EC10's which have been re purposed. Where the next 10 years will take me is any ones guess.. wooden overcoat ?
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Should get out more. Regards Wendy G8BZY |
25th Jan 2021, 6:18 pm | #24 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 3,310
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Re: What's your focus?
For me I guess it would be tape recorders, followed by radios and vintage test equipment( the latter being all I could usually afford/find/borrow).
For some reason tellies just don’t float my boat. I do have a soft spot for the Decca Bradford though, as we had one for many years.
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"Nothing is as dangerous as being too modern;one is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly." |
25th Jan 2021, 6:39 pm | #25 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
Posts: 8,831
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Re: What's your focus?
Quote:
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A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever.. |
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25th Jan 2021, 7:06 pm | #26 |
Octode
Join Date: Sep 2020
Location: Thetford, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 1,741
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Re: What's your focus?
Always loved electronics and always loved radio. Spent much of my career mending TVs and would have said that was my favorite item to work on.
These days though, I don't have the space, so focus on radios only. I don't have the room to collect, so just repair and restore. Anything radio, from the wonders of valves to the most modern DAB ****. Still get a kick out of making the broken work again. |
25th Jan 2021, 11:13 pm | #27 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,713
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Re: What's your focus?
Quote:
For me, I don't want to re-live the time when I was repairing the damn things in the 70s and 80s, it's more like acting out my childhood with an early 50s 405 line set with a round tube displaying Andy Pandy.
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25th Jan 2021, 11:48 pm | #28 |
Nonode
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Dukinfield, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 2,037
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Re: What's your focus?
Having jumped out of my pram and straight away started 'messing with batteries, bulbs and buzzers' as my mum put it, I moved onto radio experiments and built a number of crystal sets. Then for my tenth birthday I got a Trionic set, with which I could build different projects. But it was always the radios I was interested in!
After school and college, it was a job in a family-owned TV shop and then an Amateur Radio licence. That's when I started collecting, mainly transistor sets from the late 50's and early 60's and with a special fascination for pocket sets, especially the nifty Japanese types. I still have a small collection to this day and they have now been joined by a handful of Sinclair products, including an original Cambridge calculator (which still works) and an FTV1 mini TV (which doesn't), along with a stray Z30 amplifier from my old homebrew stereo. I don't collect so much these days, preferring to spend my time fiddling and building intriguing gizmos like bat detectors but if I see something nice at a car boot sale I'll usually weaken. So I don't really gave a focus, it's just whatever takes my fancy as long as it's small!
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Andy G1HBE. Last edited by Andrew2; 25th Jan 2021 at 11:53 pm. |
27th Jan 2021, 9:56 pm | #29 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Warrington, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 25
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Re: What's your focus?
My focus has mainly been radio. It started like a lot of people, rummaging in rubbish dumps and wondering how the valves and other components made, what always seemed to be discarded televisions, work.
Later at school I made the 1972 Ladybird Book -Transistor Radio. I then played with various radios that were given to me until finally I was given a Murphy B40D supplied by Howard Turner of Centre Electronics for my 21st birthday. What a difference that was. The ability to tune accurately to any frequency within its range. No overloading with a longwire aerial, even ssb was easy to receive. I still have the B40 today. Three Eddystones have since joined the collection, all valved. I also have "a few" transistor hi-fi tuners which I sometimes use for Band 2 FM dxing. Recently I bought a SDRplay RSP1A which although not vintage shows you visually how things work such as pass band tuning and how narrow bandwidths can chop off the sidebands on signals. William |
28th Jan 2021, 1:47 pm | #30 |
Octode
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Bristol, UK.
Posts: 1,042
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Re: What's your focus?
I've always been interested in electronics in general but never ventured into the repairing of domestic TVs. I was licenced as G8KGH and later managed the tv transmitter licence as G6ANZ/T, hence my username. I am now restarting the ATV interest and my old vision rack is up and running. Most of the cards are from an old EMI CT scanner duly modified to produce colour signals. The colour PAL coders are ex BBC 'white modules'.
Malcolm |
28th Jan 2021, 3:31 pm | #31 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Scratby, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 650
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Re: What's your focus?
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I am a very old friend of Howard Turner, and I can remember the days when he had a couple of walls behind his shop completely covered with stacked B40s. I had one of him too, and I particularly remember him unloading them from his Morris estate car, and carrying them into his shop one in each hand. One was enough for me! Kind regards Dave |
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