15-07-2013, 07:20 PM
(15-07-2013, 06:16 PM)Kalee20 Wrote: It's not my favourite radio - it's somewhat insensitive; the AVC system could have been better; oscillator/ RF tracking could have been much better with more trimming. Mains cable anchoring is as you say, leaving something to be desired. But there's a good-sized loudspeaker, and sound quality is good.
It's also easy to work on, and the chassis comes out without any drama.
Incidentally, I thought the 500 was the woodie and 501 the Bakelite?
Thanks for reading the thread and for your comments - I'd echo your sentiments.
Re the sensitivity, the data sheet does state:
Quote:
Frame Aerial: 'The built in frame aerial, mounted on the back of the cabinet, is only intended for local station reception. For more distant listening a normal aerial and earth should be used'.
End quote.
It does receive a few stations on the frame aerial - in these parts, 'Magic 1161', 'Absolute Radio' and Radio 1 all at good strength. However, with an aerial plugged in it really comes to life on all bands. (My workshop aerial consists of a 60 ft wire fixed to the garden fence about 6ft off the ground. It works well - height makes no appreciable difference on LW & MW - even an aerial 10 Metres above ground is only a 20th of a wavelength high on 200 Metres (if 'high' is the right term for 1/20th of a wavelength!. On 1,500 Metres it's only 150th of a wavelength high and most of what RF is received is ground wave rather than sky wave).
Unlike many sets of the era, it does have the merit of being AC only, with a mains transformer.
You're correct about the 500 being the more expensive 'woodie' and the 501 being the Bakelite one. In some of my posts I mistakenly referred to this Bakelite one as the '500' so I've edited the posts to remove any confusion.
I don't think that the early 50s was an illustrious time for the British radio industry, or any British industry come to that - cars, motorbikes, shipbuilding or whatever. Still using 1930s machinery clapped out by the war effort, still the same labour-intensive techniques producing shoddy goods in short supply ('Export or die'), for which customers had to wait in line, and in many cases, were the subject of ration books. Full employment, an often workshy labour force, under-capitalisation, restrictive practices and inept, complacent management, leading to an 'us & them' ethos in which strikes became endemic. Not fertile ground for innovative radios or much else for that matter.
Remarkable how Germany and Holland got back into peacetime production and by the mid 50s, names such as Grundig and Telfunken started appearing in UK shops, offering '3-D sound' and 'hi-fi' at a price. I know that those large glossy radios with their long dials and piano keys aren't to everyone's taste, but when viewed alongside the lacklustre drab sets that British firms were turning out, to my eyes back then, they were quite something. But in fairness, for dedicated short-wave listeners who could afford them and could find the space to house them, there were Eddystones.
Then TV came along!
Sorry for the irrelevant socio-economic reminiscences - I'm showing my age again - I was already aged 11 when this set was coming off the production line.
