'Rotating' your radios.

[G6Tanuki]

Who else does this? By which I mean moving your radios round from room to room so they all get good, regular usage.

I do - I've just swapped the bathroom Roberts R606 for the R707 which normally lives in the summer-house [and whose ten-year-old 12V SLA battery-pack is now failing to hold a sensible charge - but I have an 8-cell AA holder and some Lidl 'Tronic' rechargeable cells awaiting installation], the dining-room radio is now the R606 backed-up by a 1950s R209 military-radio for short-wave listening, and the bedroom Eddystone 840A has been swapped for an Eddystone S.750; the living-room Roberts RM40 has been joined by a Trio-Kenwood TR-7800 for monitoring the local 2M repeaters and S19/S20/S21/S22 [I have yet toi build a CTCSS encoder for it].

There's a Pye PCR in the kitchen but that will soon be taken out and replaced by my second R209 [which has a solid-state inverter in place of the failed vibrator].

Does anyone else do a periodic 'rotation' of their radios?

[Ian - G4JQT]

Not quite answering your question, but it's always good to use our sets for say at least 30 minutes per month and use all the switches This reforms the electrolytic capacitors, helps prevent tarnish build up on contacts and if valve a vale set the warmth drives any moisture.

I suspect we've all switched on what was a fully working radio a year or two ago only to find the wave-change switch is intermittent, volume very scratchy or it hums more than it did!

Really, please use them from time to time!

[Vintage Engr]

Some of the older Roberts rotate splendidly, all on their own, on account of the fitted turntable on the base!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist that. Yes, I also rotate some of mine, as & when I can. I also take on board the necessity of this, I had an embarrassing example at a small exhibition that I put on a couple of years ago.

It was a Bush PB189, which had been working perfectly. I had stored it sealed & wrapped. However when the time came to power it up at the exhibition, the L/O decided not to work on MW, which was rather awkward, as my low-powered TX was of course only medium wave...

David.

[stitch1]

Yes … I used to have 50 valve radios in a small room but had to clear it out now there’s only 3 and a few scattered in other rooms the rest are sealed up and stored away. I occasionally swap them out and do any servicing as necessary.

John.

[Sideband]

I try to rotate them. I don't use any of them regularly but I do switch them on in a random sort of way.....'that one hasn't been on for a few months so.....'

[Graham G3ZVT]

I thought this was going to be a discussion about ferrite-rod and frame aerials.

I recently swapped the DAC 90 on the sideboard in my office room for the DAC 90A that was being stored in a cupboard upstairs. Of course only I noticed that anything has changed.

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by Graham G3ZVT

I thought this was going to be a discussion about ferrite-rod and frame aerials.

On that matter, I fail to obey the instruction manual for the Panasonic RF-9000, which advises rotating the set for best reception when listening on MW or LW. It weighs 46 lb. and hasn't a turntable, so it stays positioned exactly as it is.

Main instance here of rotation in the other sense is the spot in the sitting room beside the RF-9000, where quite a number of other large portables take turns to be and to have occasional use: though lately a Soviet-era Integral,

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/military_integral.html ,

a NOS 60th birthday present to myself, is there as often as not. Beyond that, and elsewhere in the flat, a fair number of other sets emerge for half an hour's exercise every now and then.

Paul

[stevehertz]

I rotate radios and vintage hifi receivers.

[Station X]

One post deleted:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=177297

[Beobloke]

I collect turntables but not radios but I do rotate their usage periodically in my listening room, generally according to whim or which one I think I haven't played with for a while.

And I hope you're all impressed that I resisted the urge for any predictable puns pertaining to turntable rotation...

[Beardyman]

There's a little DAC90a in the parlour, a Murphy 198H in my wifes office (that one has seen a lot of usage over the last 3 years!) & several in a display cabinet which I try to remember to "rotate" in turn. Probably the least used one is a Tesla 308U Talisman, it was an absolute swine to get going, mainly down to the side contact sockets with minimal surface to the valve pins. My personal favourites are the Bush VHF90A, lovely tone to that one & the Defiant MSH902 just because its looks embody (for me) the 1930's, not a great performer in all fairness & will throw a fit every now & then with random faults which seem to disappear without trace the moment you get the chassis on the bench!