Low-fi AM radio restoration...

[jack]

So, many many years ago I picked up an old "Ultra Troubadour U6961/U7961" 5-valve radio for just a few quid. This is a typical post-war (1953) Bakelite set built to a price - in this case, £12, 6/6. It's been languishing in the loft on the shelves of radios on the "Project" list for probably 10 years or more...

Then bizarrely, my younger son (the civil engineering one) found a freebie valve radio on Gumtree - it had been used in some sort of exhibition at Tate Modern and now the show was over, they were just giving away the props!

So, he picks this radio up... and it's exactly the same model as mine, so now we have two. The odds on that happening are tiny...

I've just restored his and as he doesn't have our network of AM transmitters (!) I've just built him a low-cost, tiny AM transmitter that runs off of a PP7 9V battery drawing just about 7mA, so lasts for ages. The signal source is a cheapie Bluetooth receiver which is charged from USB and then happily runs for hours on that. I have a slightly better one - an Anker A3352 BT 5.0 unit which I'm using for testing...

Photos later if wanted...

[Ant]

Yes to pics
My mother in law has an old valve radio in the loft, in a walnut case, its a big bugger and im not sure of the age. Its walnut and burgundy on the back of the glass so i reckon its fifties
Wouldnt mind getting my grubby mitts on it

[Ray P]

It's always interesting to follow this sort of project Nick - please.

[Dave the bass]

Yup, pics please.

I've got our-Ed's old Pye Cambridge P75 from 1953 lined up in the list of winter projects to look at. Heavy deals went down in a Louth cake shop

Our-Nigel has kindly supplied a spare P75 chassis too.

Whahey.

[IslandPink]

Cool.
You'll be able to pick up the Goons on that !

[jack]

Cool.
You'll be able to pick up the Goons on that !

One of the nice things about essentially turning the radio into a Bluetooth speaker is that you can play stuff from Dick Barton, Special Agent or the Goons, Tony Hancock etc.

Personally, I'm not a fan of wooden radios - Bakelite is my thing... don't know why, but like neon, I just love it.

[jack]

As promised - Dave, get your 'excited trousers' on,;



This was the first of two of these Ultra "Troubadour"s that I have.

It needed a full capacitor swap, some other minor repairs and re-alignment. Built a small AM pantry transmitter tuned to 1025kHz (fixed) driven from a 9V PP7.

This is all driven by a small Anker BT receiver which has an internal Lithium battery which will keep it going for about 5 hours.

I'll do a proper write up of the second one.

[Dave the bass]

Awethumne! Thanks Nick. My trousers flapped!

My friend had Dick Barton once, I think he got some ointment at a chemist and it went away eventually. (The Chemist, not the Dick Barton) he still has trouble riding horses...

I've got our-Ed's old Pye P75 to work on during winter when the Bullet Lab gets too cold work in.

[Cressy Snr]

Aye, it’s a rewarding experience getting ancient valve radios going again.

[jack]

Excellent Father's Day card from #2 son for whom I did the radio...

PXL_20220619_164501997_copy_1209x907.jpg (253.48 KiB) Viewed 6095 times

[Ray P]

Nice project and great appreciation Nick, I'll look forward to the second project...

[IslandPink]

Good effort on the radio and the card !

[Mike H]

Awethumne! Thanks Nick. My trousers flapped!

My friend had Dick Barton once, I think he got some ointment at a chemist and it went away eventually. (The Chemist, not the Dick Barton) he still has trouble riding horses...