02-01-2014, 05:54 PM
Many thanks for posting the two videos Tony - you certainly put a lot of effort into designing the FM radio, not least of which was the PCB design, and the circuit!
As to wooden cabinets, with few exceptions such as Colin ('Retired'), for most of us, that tends to be the stumbling bock we'd rather not have to face! Ironic nowadays that whereas Bakelite radios tend to be more valuable and collectable, in their day, they were introduced as a mass produced cheaper alternative than wood for high volume production. A glance at even quite basic wooden cabinets with unexceptional veneers indicates that they were labour intensive to make and finish. Those with more elaborate book-matched veneers would have been even more costly, just as they would be today, albeit better suited than Bakelite for low volume production due to the high capital costs of tooling pressing of Bakelite cabinets.
I've also just spent a happy half hour trawling your updated website, and while there, took a trip down Memory Lane in the 'Nostalgia' section! As a kid, Valentine Dyall with his menacing voice as 'The Man in Black' scared the wits out of me! Although I don't think it crossed the listeners' minds back in the 50s, in retrospect it seems bizarre that the long running series 'Educating Archie', (Archie Andrews - a ventriloquist's dummy), with Peter Brough, could ever have succeeded on the radio, when ventriloquists are such a visual act. Then ironically, with the coming of TV, Peter Brough's secret was out - he couldn't project his voice without moving his lips. TV put paid to him just as it did to Tony Hancock in the end - he couldn't remember his lines and couldn't cope unless he was reading from a script, so needed prompt boards all over the set with his lines on. So evident when watching his TV progs.
As to wooden cabinets, with few exceptions such as Colin ('Retired'), for most of us, that tends to be the stumbling bock we'd rather not have to face! Ironic nowadays that whereas Bakelite radios tend to be more valuable and collectable, in their day, they were introduced as a mass produced cheaper alternative than wood for high volume production. A glance at even quite basic wooden cabinets with unexceptional veneers indicates that they were labour intensive to make and finish. Those with more elaborate book-matched veneers would have been even more costly, just as they would be today, albeit better suited than Bakelite for low volume production due to the high capital costs of tooling pressing of Bakelite cabinets.
I've also just spent a happy half hour trawling your updated website, and while there, took a trip down Memory Lane in the 'Nostalgia' section! As a kid, Valentine Dyall with his menacing voice as 'The Man in Black' scared the wits out of me! Although I don't think it crossed the listeners' minds back in the 50s, in retrospect it seems bizarre that the long running series 'Educating Archie', (Archie Andrews - a ventriloquist's dummy), with Peter Brough, could ever have succeeded on the radio, when ventriloquists are such a visual act. Then ironically, with the coming of TV, Peter Brough's secret was out - he couldn't project his voice without moving his lips. TV put paid to him just as it did to Tony Hancock in the end - he couldn't remember his lines and couldn't cope unless he was reading from a script, so needed prompt boards all over the set with his lines on. So evident when watching his TV progs.
Regards, David.
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
BVWS Member.
G-QRP Club Member 1339.
'I'm in my own little world, but I'm happy, and they know me here'
