25-06-2019, 11:43 AM
Thanks so much for your responses. Individual replies are coming.
No irreversible changes will be made. None of the mods would take more than a few minutes to remove without trace.
We agree, there’s nothing wrong with a few LEDs and in itself, a LCD panel is overkill for illuminating the selected dial band. But the LCD panel is one of a package of quick reversible mods (listed below) aimed squarely at making the radio survive the next 80 years by becoming relevant and kid friendly.
I’m facing what might be known as the “eternal” problem. With but a few years left above ground, I have a ton of vintage tech gear to try to find a new home for (see attached poorly focused photo. That’s the HMV out of it’s chassis in the foreground awaiting its turn on the workbench to be re-capped and aligned).
If the HMV is to avoid becoming landfill soon after myself, then it will have to do more than play A.M. With a few easily reversible mods, this will be achieved, while keeping the same look and feel of the original.
The HMV has a phono socket at the rear which can be rigged to a bluetooth receiver hidden under the chassis. In this way the next generation can play music on the HMV from their mobile devices.
The HMV has a sort of faux symmetrical cabinet layout. There are left and right speaker grills, but only one speaker is fitted, installed on left. This is a similar design to famed GEC BC 4750 from 1947. On installing a matching second speaker and additional 6V6G audio output stage behind the right hand side speaker grill, the HMV will reproduce stereo quality audio for its new owners..
The new owners could then also stream audio content from the web with the HMV. At the moment, I have a web browser open at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/, This web page gives access to a multi-user Software Defined Radio that picks up radio broadcasts local to the SDR. BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz in tuned in as I write. A web enabled HMV will sound like an authentic long wave receiver even though the HMV was never designed for long wave reception.
If you use the Raspberry PI option to control the LCD panel illumination, then the HMV gets WIFI and/or Ethernet connections to the Web and is thus enabled to play any of the tens of thousands of radio stations that stream across the Internet, including those that play music from the time the HMV was welcomed into the home of it's first owner.
Using a font and colour that matches the dial glass lettering, the LCD panel could discretely and subtly display on voice command, such messages as time, date, frequency etc or other messages in an unused part of the dial.
For now, the LCD panel and other mods will remain outside the radio in case it can be sold as is. But I feel strongly that this beautiful HMV's best chance at survival is to add a few mods while remaining unchanged in outward appearance.
Kind regards,
Terry
No irreversible changes will be made. None of the mods would take more than a few minutes to remove without trace.
We agree, there’s nothing wrong with a few LEDs and in itself, a LCD panel is overkill for illuminating the selected dial band. But the LCD panel is one of a package of quick reversible mods (listed below) aimed squarely at making the radio survive the next 80 years by becoming relevant and kid friendly.
I’m facing what might be known as the “eternal” problem. With but a few years left above ground, I have a ton of vintage tech gear to try to find a new home for (see attached poorly focused photo. That’s the HMV out of it’s chassis in the foreground awaiting its turn on the workbench to be re-capped and aligned).
If the HMV is to avoid becoming landfill soon after myself, then it will have to do more than play A.M. With a few easily reversible mods, this will be achieved, while keeping the same look and feel of the original.
The HMV has a phono socket at the rear which can be rigged to a bluetooth receiver hidden under the chassis. In this way the next generation can play music on the HMV from their mobile devices.
The HMV has a sort of faux symmetrical cabinet layout. There are left and right speaker grills, but only one speaker is fitted, installed on left. This is a similar design to famed GEC BC 4750 from 1947. On installing a matching second speaker and additional 6V6G audio output stage behind the right hand side speaker grill, the HMV will reproduce stereo quality audio for its new owners..
The new owners could then also stream audio content from the web with the HMV. At the moment, I have a web browser open at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/, This web page gives access to a multi-user Software Defined Radio that picks up radio broadcasts local to the SDR. BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz in tuned in as I write. A web enabled HMV will sound like an authentic long wave receiver even though the HMV was never designed for long wave reception.
If you use the Raspberry PI option to control the LCD panel illumination, then the HMV gets WIFI and/or Ethernet connections to the Web and is thus enabled to play any of the tens of thousands of radio stations that stream across the Internet, including those that play music from the time the HMV was welcomed into the home of it's first owner.
Using a font and colour that matches the dial glass lettering, the LCD panel could discretely and subtly display on voice command, such messages as time, date, frequency etc or other messages in an unused part of the dial.
For now, the LCD panel and other mods will remain outside the radio in case it can be sold as is. But I feel strongly that this beautiful HMV's best chance at survival is to add a few mods while remaining unchanged in outward appearance.
Kind regards,
Terry
