Un long chemin de la maison

[Charlie]

"A long way from home"

I got a peculiar phone call from my parents last night. They told me they were stopping by... Mom had some beer that we left at her house last weekend, a T-shirt with a 71 Dodge Challenger on it, and a surprise that I would have to wait till they got here to see what it was. Okay... that was odd. They don't normally act mysterious like that.

They get here, and my dad has a box in his arms, and says there's another in the back of Mom's car. It was dark, so I didn't really notice what he had. Just looked like a box. In the back of Mom's car was another box... but just more than a box... it was an old radio. Couldn't really tell exactly what, so I grabbed it and brought it in the house.

Turned out they were shortwave sets... first glance looked about 1938 to 1940. The design of the front wasn't anything I was familiar with, and there was a lot of detailed writing on the dials... more so than you'd normally see. The dials and speaker areas had sharp, 90 degree corners. I glanced in the back of one of them (there was no back and looked as if there had never been one) and the first thing I noticed was a weird plug of sorts on the power tranny. Then it hit me... it was a voltage selector and these were foreign sets! The other set actually had a back on it... it was in surprisingly good shape considering that the radio cabinet was kinda rough. The back was not held in place with screws.... it was in grooves and slides up... kinda neat. It, too, had a voltage selector.

The radio with the larger dial appears to be branded FAMILIAL RADIO as indicated in the center of the dial glass. I did not see any other markings on the cabinet or chassis other than a 6 digit number that I believe is a serial number. It looked like the wording on the glass was French, so using Google Translator, I was picked out longwave and small wave. In the bottom left of the glass, the words ondes courtes et tres courtes translated to shortwave and very short. I think Google likely made a mistake there, so for those of you that still know your French from high school (I don't), s'il vous plaît m'éclairer.

The insides look complete. It has 6 tubes... one of them being an eye tube. There's a 5Y3 branded Philips with green lettering. Next to that is a 6F6G branded Mazda. Not sure what's on the left side of the 6F6... not going to pull it out for the moment. The short black metal tube is branded Brittany. The tall metal tube on the far left is a Mazda 6K7MG. It's interesting that those two taller metal tubes have aluminum envelops. Can't tell what the eye tube is at this time.

The dial has a small window in the lower right corner that shows which band is selected. Turn the selector and the lettering in the window changes.

The 3 pieces going across the middle of the speaker are chrome and look like they should clean up nicely. It doesn't appear to have any pitting.

The cabinet is rough, but I think will clean up with a light sanding and some MinWax. There's a couple of spots on the top rear corner and a side bottom that the veneer is messed up, but not so bad that will take away from the rest of the cabinet. From the front, it should display nicely.

[Charlie]

There are two markings... one is a tag on the top left front that says Blue Ribbon. I don't think that was the brand. The other is on the speaker... branded Duskon and says Made in France. There was nothing on the dial that looked like a brand name. On the inside, it's got 5 tubes... and 80 and 42 that I can see without pulling them. Looks like they are all branded Visseaux. I was surprised to see a miniature tube there in the middle... perhaps a regulator or ballast tube? The insides also look complete in this set, but one of the transformer cans is not secured well.

There is no dial glass, and I was trying to figure out if one ever existed. The bezel is aluminum, and while there are indeed grooves where the glass could fit, it does not appear that there's a way to get a piece of glass in there. Will investigate further later. The dial itself appears to sport 3 light bulbs behind the dial that light up depending on which band it selected... kinda cool. Unfortunately, the indicator on the upper right has a hole in it... showing the bulb right behind the hole. Apparently, this was the band that was used the most.

The veneer on the front upper right is peeling... and is paper thin. I can likely glue it back in place, but being so thin, it may be difficult to strip and refinish.

After pulling the voltage selector jumper plug, I realized it's a 1.5 amp fuse that appears to be fine... but I will put the meter on it to make sure it's not open.

The paper cones in both speakers appear to be intact and in good condition.

I'm guessing that someone very recently tried to plug these in. You'll notice a new plug on the end of the Familial... it has a bar code sticker on it. I certainly hope they didn't fry anything in there. The other radio has an older style plug on the end of the cord.

I'm going to assume that I will not be able to get schematics for these sets since there's no model numbers... unless I get real lucky and someone on the other side of the pond recognizes these sets. As long as the markings on the capacitors are the same as would be used here in the states, I should be able to recap them easily. I don't plan on pulling the chassis at this time because I still have work to do on my CTC9 and have lots of yardwork to finish outside. For those of you that have been here before, you know that I have lots of yard to upkeep!!

Anyway, that's what I have to show off today. I hope to get at least one of them operational. If anyone can tell me anything about either one... lemme know.

[Charlie]

Forgot to mention... Mom said she got the radios from a friend that bought them at an auction recently. I'm assuming it was a storage auction... but dont really know. In any case, I think these radios have been together for many years. What would be the odds that two radios made in France would end up in an auction together in Texas?

[Reece]

Yard work indeed, you've got fields and fields to cut!

What a find, these French radios. Could be somebody was overseas at one time and brought them home. The miniature tube looks as if the socket had been changed to allow the modern tube when the original wasn't available, mini tubes being widely available after WWII. You're right on with the French markings: often they're grandes ondes for long wave, petits ondes for what we'd call medium wave or the standard broadcast band, and ondes cortes for short wave. The one radio also has tres cortes waves or very short waves. The abbreviations GO, PO, OC are often seen. The "Blue Ribbon" could very well be the brand: sometimes makers used foreign names to make their products more "exotic." Plus it looks like that tag has been on there forever. That thin veneer: is it veneer or photofinish on a paper backing? In any case wood glue behind it and the spot heavily weighted down with the set on its back should do it.

[Charlie]

The thin veneer does seem to be wood... pretty sturdy. I pulled the mini tube. It says Miniwatt EAF42 Dario. I suppose it could be someone's modification, but it looks like it's been that way for a long time. Once I pull the chassis out, I might get a better idea. Please don't tempt me to pull the chassis.... I have enough pulled apart in my living room already!!

[Charlie]

THe web shows that the EAF42 came out in 1948... it suceeded the 6H8MG from 1939(and just so happens the pic of the 6H8MG is an aluminum Mazda tube like some of the others). So looks like you hit the nail on the head, Reece.

[Reece]

Couldn't find the Familial exact model, but this one, with a different cabinet, is from the same era and appears to have the same tube line up so I'll bet the schematic would be the same or close. Only problem is, you need to join and contribute to radiomuseum.org to be able to download the schematic.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/familial_517.html

[Reece]

Those tubes with "MG" suffix mean "metal-glass." They are actually glass tubes inside of a metal shell. Some of the early metal tubes were made that way (by people who weren't RCA) but later that got dropped and metal was metal. As long as the main number matches it doesn't matter if it has MG or no suffix.

Edit: Go cut the grass and let these things sit! They've sat a long time anyway, so what.

[Charlie]

Curious... the Mazda tubes that are in here.... are those Japanese tubes? Like the automobile?

[Reece]

Mazda was a lamp manufacturer so probably made tubes, too. No connection with the car. I'm guessing European.

Edit: Yep: French tube mfr.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_herst...ompany_id=7105

[Sandy G]

Tres Kewl, Charlie !

[holmesuser01]

We had Mazda light bulbs in the US for alot of years. I can remember GE Mazda lamps.

EDIT: Maybe french Mazda is part of GE?

Nice radios! It's also nice when the parents understand you.

[wa2ise]

Comparing your radio's dial to one I have



See if the cities match on the dials...

[Electronic M]

Every time I read that "Blue Ribbon" label 40's radio advertisements for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer start playing in my head......

[Reece]

Here's your earworm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQoghzFUT7g