I know this is a very specific topic but that is what I am looking for and I don't really know what is available that meets those specifications. I know thare were some pretty good sets made in the 50s that have the new FM band but I also know that there were some made in the 40s ( Zenith 8H032 as one example) and that is what I am looking for so I just need some brand / model numbers so I can do a search.
Thanks,
Frank

FADA 790. B version is the best choice.

Thanks Bruce but no wood cabinet. I am specifically looking for a wood cabinet set.
Frank

Oops! Must learn to read some day soon.

Scott 800B tops my list for 1940s FM receivers.

Philco 48-482 is a great performer and can be had cheep.

Philco is a possibility, Michael,isn't the 800B a console?
Thanks,
Frank

Yes, a console, but I love them. Big, pretty, take a long time to restore. I have done three and liked each one.
Jerry

Zenith 8H034. Zenith championed Armstrong FM (not the 'knock-off' circuit that Philco used) in the late 1940s and led the way in FM set production.

Yes. 8H034 I really like that set. Bought one last year at a swap meet and I didn't get to it to restore until this year. When I got it open I found that the speaker had been replaced with a PM and there was all kinds of wiring hanging loose,tuning cap broken and other miscellaneous probems with the chassis so I parted it out. I still have the cabinet though and it is in pretty good shape. If I could find another chassis I might go with that.

Frank

The 8h034 is a great choice with both FM bands and very good performance. I have one myself.

- Bill

(web picture)

I had heard somewhere that the 8H034 was dubbed "The Major" by Zenith in honor of Major Edwin Howard Armstrong, inventor of wideband FM for broadcasting. I wonder if this was their first post-war FM table radio? The one I have now does have an EM speaker but I had another (which I sold) that had a PM speaker and resistive filter circuit that looked like it was made that way at the factory. Does anyone know if there were actually two chassis versions of this radio?

Dave

There are the RCA 68R3 and 68R4. They have wooden cabinets. And this Canadian RCA 80 has a weird FM band I'm not familiar with, in addition to the 100 band:
http://www.radioatticarchives.com/radio.htm?radio=6743

Here's a list of FM-only radios, some of them may be wooden and early enough to fit your tastes.
http://www.somerset.net/arm/fm_only_list.html

I've seen Westinghouse made some AM/FM radios in the late 40's, like the H-161. Motorola made the 77XM22.

The H-161 is a hefty table model with a full width gold grill cloth, inset with a curved dial in a rainbow style. Armstrong licenced, toten a electro-magnetic 8" speaker and is comparable in sound quality to a Zenith of the era. The boxy styling might not appeal to all.

Bruce Webster

There were other models that looked similar, but not identical, with only the newer FM and AM.

Dave,
The bakelite 7H820 of the immediate post war era used an EM speaker as well and had both FM bands. Probably logical to assume that both early FM and the EM speaker went the way of the Dodo shortly after post war production started up. Some slight cosmetic changes within those first couple of years happened too.

Bruce Webster

The Stromberg Carlson 1121 is another good postwar FM choice.



Any Armstrong licensed brand will be good ones. Freed-Eisemann, GE, Magnavox, Stromberg Carlson, Zenith to name a few.

The GE X-415 is another good one, but the dials usually have issues.

-Steve

I was gonna say, "Oh, I forgot about the Setchell-Carlson 5110 that sold on eBay a while ago; good luck finding another..." But then you wouldn't have THAT problem, would you?

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=195019

Yes, I'm jealous.

OK, so you started at the summit and now you want to work your way up? Here's a challenge: Find yourself a Midwest 18-37 with AFC chassis in a Y-18 console, and retrofit it with FM100 in a way that is both consistent with the Midwest 1937 design motif, and which also makes use of parts available in 1937! IOW, it should not be obvious to Mike Simpson that the modded chassis is not original.

On your mark.. get set... go!


::

Interesting you mention this idea.

I'm working on a plan (to do in my non-existent spare time ) to build an FM 100 receiver using technology available in 1935. As the 955 Acorn tube was first introduced in 1934 followed by the 954 tetrode in 1935, I plan to use them in the "front-end" of this FM receiver.

The National Co. Malden, Mass. was possibly the first to introduce an experimental VHF/UHF receiver using the Acorn tubes. (The model 1-10) The Acorn chassis of this receiver was available from National for hobbyists and amateurs alike to build their own receivers. One suggestion was for use as a "Front-end" of a superheterodyne...... which is exactly what I intend to do.

The IF section could use the newly introduced octal tubes, but in the "Spirit" of the project, I may just use the previous generation of tubes such as the 6D6 and 6C6. Probably use a pair of 1V's as the discriminator.

I'm slowly gathering parts for this project and maybe one day, it will bear fruit.

-Steve

That *would* be very cool, Steve, I would love to see that! Of course, I was just being snarky; didn't actually intend that as a real challenge.

I personally would like to get my hands on that Motorola or its plastic cousin, the 79XM21. Missed one on ePay the other day, first one on in a while.