I know at least several of you out there have pre-WWII boat anchors. It would be nice to document both receivers and transmitters on this topic as a reference for those interested.


To start off the topic, here are several receivers that I own.

First picture, top to bottom:

1935 Peak P-11 Pre-Selector (Top shelf left)
1933 RME 9-D with early matching PM Rola speaker (Top shelf right)
1932 Hammarlund Comet Pro
1934 RCA ACR-136
1936 Silvertone Model 8A (5656A)
1937 RCA ACR-155 (Bottom shelf)

The second picture is my current station setup. On the left is a 1938 Hallicrafters SX-16 with matching speaker. My restored current daily driver receiver.

Please show us your early receivers and transmitters!

73
Jon
KM4HPL

Nice, I like your bc610I with the bc 939 antenna tuner to. Wa7opy

Wow, Jon, those sets are beautiful. There is something indescribably cool about the pre-war stuff. The kicker is that when pre-war radios are properly restored, they perform surprisingly well.

http://www.radioblvd.com/Pre-WWII%20Ham%20Gear.htm

And the guys always wore suits when on the air! Real class back then.

Terry

'm surprised I cannot find a decent photo of my RME 69...

Here it is after I bought it, with the matching DB-20 preselector.

Jon, I love your RME 9D!
Someday I'll find one, I hope

-Steve

One of the more unusual sets that my small collection of pre-war communications receivers includes is this Patterson PR15. I got it over 25 years ago in a trade for a Hammarlund Comet Pro.

Steve, I'd love to find an RME-69 like yours to go with my DB-20.

ton- that's one beautiful receiver!

Those are sharp-looking receivers. For the last five years, I've been looking for and finding some of those '30s sets. They really are cool, and I find myself gravitating towards them.

So tell me: how do they perform, and what kind of restoration work did you have to do?

You guys have some nice radios! Jon, your second pic is exceptional.
Nice vintage setup.

While I've had a number of pre-war items in the past never considered
them as collectable. That is changing now as I've started picking up a
few including an ACR-136, ACR-175 and a Sky Buddy. Looking for
a Patterson (any model) and a Comet Pro. Have wanted a BC-610
for decades but one has yet to cross my path.

Great thread and thanks for sharing pics guys.
Steve W6SSP

Please tell me the switch and jack are stock on that Patterson. It's by far the nicest I've ever seen. Would love to have one here.

I got really hung up on the prewar gear back in the 70s when I first got interested in radio, along with the early regen/TRF rigs. Sent a few like a SX-9, Sky Buddy, and Sargent down the road over the years. The rest are unfortunately carefully stored in a spare room here at the new place that will become the old radio room, so I can't get any good photos. Mostly common stuff - RME-69, Comet Pro, Super Pros -10, -100X, -200SX, NC-81X, ACR-136 etc.

One of my favorites which is near the front of the resto-queue is this RCA AVR-11 tower receiver. I've posted it here before, somewhere. Picked it up a few years back from a friend. Circa 1936 +/-, apparently not many around. This one suffers from some mild but completely reversible hacking, someone removed one of the large filter condensers and its clamp, replaced in under chassis with several smaller ones. Need to find an original clamp and can to plug the hole, and a few of those aluminum caps for the metal tubes. Pretty sure the same cans were used in other RCA sets.

My units.............


S19


SX-17


Skyrider 5-10


My prewar S20-R with a postwar........

One of my favorite sets:





A boat anchor? You be the judge. Definitely pre-war:



Another recent acquistion:

Not pre-war really. But close!

Actually Jim, the SX-28 is a prewar rig. Can't remember the exact design date, late '39 or 1940. It may be a matter of serial number semantics if you
want to be precise on when it was produced, but the design is definitely prewar. One of my favorite radios.

Probably not in the BA category, but the RC is a fun little rig to use. Mine is hooked up to the ARBE III in another room so I can just throw a switch
and be listening to it.

Was walking through the basement area earlier opening windows (70 degrees here in northern VA today) when I came across another oldie I'd
forgotten about, a Meissner TrafficMaster acquired friend and fellow list member John/W3JN last October. I took some shots to show him I
had it set up and working. A lot of fun to listen to, incredible audio. This thing was truly a wreck when he got it in 2006.

That's actually an SX-28A in the photo, and best guess based on the serial number, it
was built in 1944. So not pre-war, technically. But not post war, either!

This is the most pre- of all of my pre-war boatanchors...a 1936 Hallicrafters SX-9 as found at a local "junk" shop for $10.



Dave

As far as I know the jack and switch on the Patterson are original although I've never used the set so I'm not sure what the switch is for.

The RCA AVR-11 is definitely on my list to find. I don't have a ton of room and don't want my collection to turn into a pile of stuff that I can't get at so I try to stay with the higher end receivers. I just picked up an RCA AR88D (without meter) and it's one of my favorite sets.

$10??? You couldn't talk them down? Wotta steal!

I've got an SX-9 but it has the Hallicrafters logo on the upper right corner of the panel.

I bought mine at an estate sale many years ago where it sat until I paid $45 for it on the second day.

The switch and jack are original. The switch controls muting between stations when tuning, now better known as squelch

I have a PR-15 along with the PR-16 predecessor (number in model is number of tubes and the 16 is older than the 15). You will note some resemblance between the PR-16 and the Pierson KP-81 because Karl Pierson worked with Patterson and the related Pierson DeLane group before founding his own firm.

My favorite pre-war sets are the Breting 14AX with its mirror dial and the Breting 12 is also nicely styled. Like the Patterson/Pierson sets the Bretings are also from the West Coast.

Rodger WQ9E