1960s Tube Radio INDEX
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Page 1 Cover Page- Table Radios- Table Radios
Page 2 Other Radios- Japanese Imported Tube Radios
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Packard Bell, Los Angeles was one of the few radio manufacturers that added the Call Letters of major stations west of the Rocky Mountains. The story was that Herb Bell (one of the founders) added it on at the request of his mother who had a hard time finding her favorite station. Being a west coast radio manufacturer, Packard Bell initiated this back in the late 1930's. By the 1950's Packard Bell prospered and became nationally known so the "Stationized" concept was discontinued in the early 1950's. Apparently they made a few for California only sales in the 1960's.
Power saving tubes were introduced that reduce power consumption by 33%. These were the last tube design change of the famous All American 5 (AA5) tube radio
Silver Rot on IF Tranformer Capacitors
TUBE SET BECOMES TRANSISTOR SET
When transistor designs drove costs down, many manufacturers took tube size cabinets and put transistor circuits inside. Result was a bulky cabinet with mostly empty space. Philco was luckier, their basic tube clockradio was very small and fitting it with transistor circuits seem to fit in nicely.Originally a Rectifier Manufacturer, in Bloomington Indiana, Tarzian experimented with converting AM radios into FM in the 1950's. He ventured into radio manufacturing for a very short time. He and his family were and still is heavily into Indiana broadcasting.
Zenith Motto:
"The quality goes in before the name goes on it!"
Zenith (Chicago) throughout it's history has been known for its quality and performance. They were never the lowest price sets nor the most expensive, but when you owned one often you could tell the difference from other sets including televisions. Zenith was the last American manufacturer to hang on to hand wired chassis and made or assembled in the USA. This continued into the 1970's when they had to trim labor costs to stay competitive.
Since the introduction of transformerless radios during the Depression, the design and wiring of these sets always posed a shock hazard to the user and service personel. Manufacturing of such sets often did not follow AC power source convention or take in consideration that when a set is plugged into the wall socket, there was at best a "50-50" chance of getting an electrical shock. Finally by the mid 1960s the use of safety interlocks, printed circuit boards and polarized AC plugs that only allow the set to be plugged in a certain way minimize such accidents.
It was often done, especially in areas where reception was not as good, for the user to connect a wire from the radio chassis to the earth ground such as a water pipe or the screw that holds the AC power protective plate. If the radio is plugged in you can get an electrical shock even if the radio was turned OFF.
If manufacturers followed the National Electrical Code from the 1930s to the 1960s and not tried to find the cheapest or easiest manufacturing solution, I wouldn't be presenting this Showcase.
A Tale of Two Possible Connections
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