Titus II DRM receiver

I posted some info about this radio on the DRM receiver list page a few days ago just hours after it was revealed at HFCC B16 in Miami, but I think it's worth a front page post:

The TWR / PantronX Titus II AM/SW/FM/DRM receiver

The Philips 513 AN

This is an interesting one. I bought this radio mostly sight unseen on eBay because it looked terrible in the pics, and had a fair bit of cabinet damage that'd been poorly repaired. I was looking for something to try out a few ideas I had about Bakelite repair, and this seemed like a suitable candidate. After clicking the button at the right time, a short drive and $30 later it was mine.

Locally-made Philips sets aren't exactly thin on the ground here, and over the years more than a few European models have made their way here too, so I wasn't concerned that I couldn't identify the model of this set. But once I got up close and had a good look, I discovered why…

AWA 565MA

1950's AWA Radiola (not mine!)

I quite like these little 50's AWAs. There's something about the minimalist yet remnant Art Deco styling of local sets of this era which is almost quintessentially Australian. In some ways it's 10 or 20 years later than the rest of the world - but, then again, I don't think the rest of the world produced a style quite like it…

Capacitor Restuffing

When repairing/restoring vintage radios it's pretty common to end up replacing all the electrolytic, wax-paper, and molded paper capacitors, as well as several carbon-composition resistors. Usually it's simply a case of 'out with the old, in with the new' (while keeping any above-chassis components in place but disconnected to preserve the 'look' of the radio), but sometimes you might want to keep things looking as original as possible above and below the chassis.

That's where restuffing comes in handy…

Retr0bright & radio collecting

A lot has been written about Retr0bright in the last few years - most of it aimed at vintage computer / games collectors, but also by & for groups as diverse as telephone collectors & Imperial Stormtroopers - but it seems there's been surprisingly little discussion about it amongst radio collectors. I suspect that's partly because most collectors focus on older wood or Bakelite sets, partly because of an assumption that it really only works on white or other light coloured ABS components, and partly because of the long-held belief that yellowed plastic = the set belonged to a chain smoker who sat in front of it all day and is therefore irretrievably tainted…

But there's a fair number of collectable sets with ABS cases out there (many 1950's & 60's mantle radios come to mind), it's not only white/light-coloured ABS that suffers from bromine yellowing, and cigarette tar is actually fairly easy to clean off*.

Have a look at these before-and-after photos of a grey 1955/56 AWA 565MA I've been working on:

An Intro

Welcome to the new blog!

For a whole stack of reasons I needed to re-organise things in my life, so I'm (slowly) shuffling several blogs and accounts into different themes. This one, which will eventually hold all my radio, TV, and electronics hobby related stuff, is the first.

Oh, and it's not connected in any way to the old Australian Radio, Television and Hobbies magazine. If you're looking for that, go hassle Leo at Silicon Chip magazine. I hear he likes the Internet.