A 1940s radio with a difference

A few months ago I acquired two Wartime Civilian Receivers, one incomplete and one in a very poor state.

The incomplete radio had no speaker, no speaker baffle, and no valves. The mains transformer also looked like it had overheated, possibly due to a shorted turn, as there was a large pool of melted wax on the chassis under the transformer.  The chassis was beyond repair, but the remains of the case were worth keeping.

The finished item

I already have a fully restored one of these in my collection (see blogs from March 2014) so initially I was just going put these into storage. A few days later a family member asked me if I could make him a modern radio an old cabinet, which gave me an idea.

The first part of the project was to sand the cabinet to remove the worst scratches and gouges. After repairing  the damaged areas with filler and sanding again I gave the cabinet a few coats of Danish oil. A new speaker baffle made from MDF and covered with speaker cloth finished off the job.

Turning to the chassis, I stripped off all the components with the exception of the tuning capacitor, and put them in my spares box.

The tuning scale and disc were both in poor condition, so after sanding off the remains of the old paint I treated them both to a fresh coat of pale yellow enamel spray paint, as close to the original as In could get. Fortunately I had a some waterslide transfers left over from the earlier WCR restoration, so after the paint had hardened I was able to replace the tuning scale with a pristine new version.

The original back panel was missing, so I made a new one from perforated hardboard; I think its called peg board. I made this the same size as the cabinet, to hide the modern bits I planned to add next.

I fitted a very nice ELAC elliptical loudspeaker. It has a very large magnet for the size of the speaker and appears to be the same as those fitted in the later Hacker Herald transistor radios, which are renowned for their audio quality.

The final part of the conversion (because that it was it had become) was to fit modern electronics. I chose a Chinese made module that combined an MP3 player with a 20W audio amplifier. It will play MP3 files from  an SD card or a USB stick; and there is also a line input with both RCA (phono) sockets and a 3.5mm jack socket. The module will operate from either AC mains or 12-24V DC.

SD Card, USB, Phone & 3.5mm Jack inputs

So how does it sound?  Great! It combines the style and character of a 40's radio with the convenience, sound quality and safety of modern electronics.

I sold this one within days of completing it, so I have now converted the other one as well.  I've made a couple of improvements to this one that I might blog about later.

Keep listening!