Vintage Discovered some interesting info about my old Westinghouse

[GB46]

I posted this photo of my 1929 Westinghouse console radio in a very old thread, but have just discovered some info online about that radio. It turns out to be the Canadian Westinghouse equivalent of an RCA Radiola 66 from the same year.



The set was still in perfect working order in 2002, but I no longer have it, because we eventually sold our house and spent a few years living in a motorhome, which could not accommodate such a big item.

The Westinghouse only covered mediumwave, like its counterpart. The grill cloth was identical, but the Radiola had the chassis and controls on a shelf at the bottom, with the speaker at the top -- the exact reverse of the arrangement in my Westnghouse 100. I've also found the operating manual. The set used superheterodyne circuitry, which RCA at that time had patented. Also, the manual refers to the tubes as Radiotrons rather than tubes. Apparently the set wasn't very selective, as the user was advised to keep the volume low, otherwise the station tuned to might be heard across a wide range of frequencies.

Here's the Radiola for comparison:

 

[iMONITOR]

That's a cool picture! Not just the radio, but the chairs really set the mood. Does that radio work?

 

[GB46]

That's a cool picture! Not just the radio, but the chairs really set the mood. Does that radio work?

The question should be "did it work", because I no longer have it. Yes, when I brought it home from the auction where I had bought it I put it in the garage temporarily. Then I plugged it in and stood back, expecting a flash and a blown circuit breaker, but after it had warmed up it was working just fine. It depended on an external antenna and had no internal loop, so I connected a short piece of wire and received our local AM station loud and clear.

Once I had decided it was safe I moved it to the front room of the house, where you see it in the photo. Those cheap plastic adirondack chairs look OK, but a couple of antique chairs would have been more appropriate.

I bought it at a farm auction in Saskatchewan. Those auctions are fun to attend, and full of nice things, but the antique dealers tend to dominate as bidders and can afford to outbid everyone else, so I was lucky that time.

As for the photo itself, it was taken with a digital video camera back in 2002. It was the first digital camera I had ever used, and the images were intended to be viewed on a TV. Importing the frames to the computer as still images resulted in tiny pictures with poor resolution. I managed to enhance this one a bit in a photo editor.

 

[cmdrwill]

Nice photos. Way back when the radio manufactures built real furniture.

 

[GB46]

Nice photos. Way back when the radio manufactures built real furniture.

Yeah, instead of the plastic and particle board in use nowadays. When I was kid I guess I had no appreciation for the cabinetry of an old console radio given to me. I removed the chassis and placed it on a shelf in my bedroom and used it that way. There wasn't enough room for the cabinet, anyway. One of the projects I built in junior high wood shop was a radio cabinet. It won an award, but after I had foolishly disposed of the radio it was designed for. The cabinet was displayed to the public without a radio. Not very impressive.

The first TV I ever watched when I was 5 years old was this one, which we had in our living room. It had only a 13" screen, but what a beautiful cabinet! I was lucky to find it on the internet after all these years. About 25 years later, when my parents sold our house, that TV was included in their garage sale, and sold to a guy who planned to turn it into a liquor cabinet.