Phil Storr's Valve radio projects
Looking for information on some of items on this web site

Just picked up a Tenko Jacky 2XA 2M Transceiver and am looking for more Crystals for it.
Looking for information of a Healing Short Wave Converter model 15E, a circuit diagram or even just an advertisment would be a great help
I am told there was an article on this device in a Wireless World magazine during the 1930's. Who has a collection of these magazine ?

Phil's latest acquisitions
Two very nice South Australian console radios
Would like help with these old items More detail or circuit diagrams
Phil builds a Mate
The HMV 471 table top radio
Transmitters and Transceivers
Remember the Fetron ?
Some very early items in the collection
Some more items in the collection
Some 110 Volt items in the collection more to be added soon
Some of my collection of old test equipment
Some of my Boatanchor test equipment
Communications Receivers
Trio W-50 Super Delux Stereo Amplifier an interesting part of radio history
Kicad,a great open source electronic CAD package
The usual useful links page. Includes details on valve data, transformers and coils

A couple of photos of the inside of my Radio Room, mostly mantle radios one side and an audio desk, and test equipment on the other side with current projects on the bench.

Click on the thumbnail images below to see a larger image. Use the back button to return to this page.

GEC BC4040 BC and LW radio

Here is another UK set that has found its way DowuUnder. Murray George, a fellow HRSA member, collected it and had it send DownUnder. The dial scale is printed on paper and it fades in sun light over the years. Us folk DownUnder are of the opinion the UK does not get any sun, it rains all the time or is overcast and grey. This must be a false impression we have.
I put a request for an image of the dial scale on the UK Vintage Radio Forum and Robert sent me a good clean high resolution JPG of a perfect scale. Thanks Robert.

Philips B5G80A AM/FM receiver I presume came from England with a migrant

I found service information for both tese receivers on UK Vintage Radio Service Data A great resource if you are after service data for radio receivers built in the UK.

Trio W-50 Super Delux Stereo Amplifier

I have had this BIG old valve amplifier for more than fourty years. It was one of a handfull of tuner-amps made to receive the short lived experiment with AM stereo where each channel was broadcast on a separate station. Read about the second restoration project and see more photos here. I have included a link to a paper on the history of FM broadcasting DownUnder. Was Australia the only place where the idea of using two AM stations for stereo was tried ?.

Traeger Type 40 transceiver (s/n 463)

I have had a computer-cut front-panel over lay made for a Traeger Type 40 transceiver (s/n 463) If anyone else requires one I will be a simple matter of having more cut. Any information on this model would be appreciated. I built is a mains power supply for it about fourty years ago and the receiver still works just fine.
Now to make it authentic I would like to find an original pedal generator to make it complete. This set is interesting in that the receiver operated from A and B batteries and the pedal generator was used to power the transmitter HT only.

Coils

Like many "old radio" restorers I have a number of valve radios that have open circuit coils in the front end circuit. This occured because the fine wire used may be contaminated with acid from the hands of the operator that made them and they eventually corrode. Remember, this stuff was made by hand, very few manufacturers would have had any automated coil winding machines.
Searching the web for something quite different I stumbled on a company in the USA that sells reproductions of coils used in BC band receivers in the 1950's and originally made by a companty called Millar.
They are Antique Electronic Supply, 6221 S Maple Ave, Tempe, AZ 85283 USA and they can be found at http://www.tubesandmore.com/

The first three are Universal Antenna, RF and Oscillator coils that have Adjustable inductance and the next two are examples of an older style Oscillator coil that is available in inductances of 125, 142 and 225 uHy.

While talking about coils, I am looking for a Coilmaster coil winder. Anyone out there have one for sale.

A little bit about Phil Storr, HRSA member number 2058

I was born in Mile End, South Australia, in 1946 and at the age of fourteen I was given a vast collection of old radio parts when Merv Mansor shut his business in Hilton and moved to the South East of South Australia to open a Television shop. I have been collecting and repairing radios ever since. Quite a few years later I worked with Merv when he signed on at Regency TAFE as our Television Lab Technician.

When it came time to leave school and find a job, I signed on with Philips Industries as a Radio Apprentice. In the years I was with Philips I worked in Component Manufacture, the Radio and Television Laboratory (working on the first transistor television receivers) and in the Telecommunications area. When I had finished my basic trade studies I attended the Institute of Technology as it was called in those days.

In 1972 I started with the Radio Trade School at Kilkenny as a Trade Teacher and worked my way up the system as it was transformed into TAFE. I am probably one of the last people around who actually taught valve theory and servicing valve radios in the seventies. About 1984 I became entranced with computing and gradually abandoned the Radio, Television and Audio field to eventually become entirely involved in computer studies. Although I was working with computers I still kept up my interest in Radio and Audio on the home front, and continued to be a short wave listener, even though my receivers were by then quite high tech items. In 1999 I took a package and went off to do two years of consultancy work mostly in computing, and working in a friends computer shop when needed. In 2001 I went to work for Geoscience Associates Australia as an Electronic Engineer and I am still there.

I have quite a big collection of old radios, phonographs and parts including many valves and new 1930s components. As well as a big collection of mantle radios I have a number of Second World War era communications receivers and a few emergency services and ships two way radios, and some vintage test instruments. I still have many of the items I collected in my teen years.

I joined the HRSA about five years ago after procrastinating about it for ten years.
I recently sat for and passed the AROCP Advanced after procastinating about that for fourty five years.
The boat anchor HF radios I had collected over the years prompted me to do that and now I am restoring a vintage Heatkit HF station.

My contact details are as follows:

Phil Storr PO Box 501 Modbury, 5092, South Australia
Email: philstorr@adam.com.au
Phone: 08 8393 0900 (work)
Phone: 0428 835 621 (mobile)
VK5SRP

Written by and Copyright, Phil. Storr © Last updated 27th July 2010