I recently purchased this battery operated portable tube radio, but other than a name on the front of the cabinet, there is nothing else noted. It's called a "Monarch"but that's it .no model number. Doing some research finds that this was also called by Imperial brand too. I understand that it's a early generic set from the late 30's and 40's, but who really made it? It has a Reed type of speaker, and overall in very good condition for it's age. I hooked it up to my ARBE 3, and plays very good!. It's the typical 4 tube set using a 1C5G,1A7G,1H5G,1N5G, I tried looking up at Grillecloth website, but no luck. This is a neat little radio, and enjoying reading about the development, of the portable radio, Using The portable radio in American Life, Micheal Brian Schiffer as reference, Thanks again , Perry

Certainly an interesting find, and glad to hear that it still works. It is typically a bad idea to just power it up without first recapping it though. Maybe somebody who knows their radios can come along and identify it.

Your absolutely correct, if it was AC set with electrolytics, that wouldn't happen. Being a battery only set, I figured I would be okay, thanks for the response, Perry

Monarch was a brand name for the Champion Radio Labs., but this set looks like something Sentinel could have made.


Sentinel 124


Sentinel bakelite radio

I have pictures of another Monarch from I think an online listing. I will put them up here for reference.
I think we can say 1939 for the earliest likely date of manufacture.
Also cabinets are often identical for a variety of name brands, so it was suggested that luggage factories may have produced at least some of the cabinets.

Funny one, Perry, my pictures match your radio perfectly, right down to the scratches and spots!
Sorry, will take them down if you wish. I try to attribute the pic to the owner if possible.

Here's a link to last year's thread, lots of great examples:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=350377&start=20

The speculation is that Monarch was a distributor brand, and was sold by independent stores, such as "five and tens". Champion was one supplier, but some came from RPC/Continental.

Detrola built a significant number of Monarch branded radios as well.

One of the Detrola managers who was a good friend told me years ago that Monarch was distributed out of Chicago but I haven't had any luck finding more details. It's also entirely possible that there could have been more than one wholesale distribution company selling radios branded as Monarch.

John's mention of luggage companies making at least some of the portable radio cabinets back then is correct. Detrola got many of theirs from Shwayder brothers, who were most famous for Samsonite card tables and luggage and were located just a short distance from the Detrola factory.

I believe 'decojoe67' wears his alligator cowboy boots when he listens to his shiny Imperial.
Pic is from the thread linked above.

3 pics below that show a Travel-Aire badge, TravLer dial. And one of a similar but different TravLer.
Cheers.

You can clearly see in the bottom photo just above where the dial escutcheon used to be.

I think we have a winner, since Trav-Ler was a prolific manufacturer for house brand radios back in those days. The model number could be 551, or 552. The tube layout matches perfectly. There was also a nearly identical 553 and 554, using a 1Q5 for the output tube.

You can't really harm anything in the circuit by powering up an ancient virgin battery only radio, but I can tell you that replacing the one or more Electrolytic's and all wax caps should show a definite improvement in sensitivity and volume. Tweaking the IF cores and the RF antenna gang trimmer will gain even more performance improvement.

Well, thanks again, that was some good news,I will change out the wax capacitors in the next few weeks, Perry