You’d have thought they’d all be bought out by now.
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Looks like tri-band. A is AM, B is police/aviation/amateur, and C is shortwave. I’m pretty sure there is at least one more band (longwave/maritime) you can get on these old units, but you’ve got my top3.
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Ooooh. This looks like one of those ultra-rare combination television and washing machine. Wonder why they stopped making them? 
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I have a 40s radio (working, and no restoration that I know of!) that has the “megacycles” half with sections marked for police, planes, amateur, and something called “49 Meters”, whatever that means.
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Yeah, Mr. Carlson is really good and has all the right equipment for doing stuff like testing tubes and old caps. Plenty of capacitor testers around these days and replacements can be ordered online, but I have no clue where I could test tubes (back in the day, a lot of electronic stores had tube testers that anyone could use - haven’t seen one in ages). Probably easier just to buy all new tubes and call it a day, assuming the tubes are available. And yes, Carlson does kinda drone on a bit when after 30 minutes of watching, you just wish he would quit talking about the device history and just crack open the case already 
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Meters is the wavelength. 300 MHz = 1 meter. 49m = 6 MHz. It is an international broadcast band.
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Some tubes are still in production. Pre-amp and power stage tubes are still used in guitar amplifiers for their particular overdrive sound. There is also a tube market for audiophile gear. The guitar amps are great, the audiophile stuff is silly.
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The other day, I plugged in my 1939 Philco console radio that hadn’t been run since 1990, turned it on, and it started playing Frank Zappa.
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My dad would have just loved this stuff. Growing up, our family had a series of tube TVs in the house (we would always buy second hand; I guess pop thought they were easy enough to fix), and every so often, we’d head down to the chain drugstore with a bag full of tubes and use their tube tester. If any where found to be bad, pop would just pick up new ones.
What’s interesting too is the turret tuner; the whole thing rotated mechanically to change frequency or bands. Wow. And this was in the 40s, when they were making electronics out of natural materials, like carbon and paper, and even the “PC board” looks like it was made from pressed woodchips. (I know, it’s not really a printed circuit board, but close enough.)
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Boy, that is a BIG picture tube for the period.
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Also mica, but I just learned that mica is still used:
Mica is delved in India, Central Africa and South America. The high variation in raw material composition leads to high cost needed for inspection and sorting.
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If the voltages are anything like a tube amp, then frightening indeed. Make sure you’re insulated and always keep one hand free, and never touch anything with an open fist.
Tubes may age poorly, but they seem to last for ever. I have tubes that are forty to sixty years old that are still fully functional, and they weren’t NOS.
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Beautiful. Is it haunted, or was it just pure great luck to turn on when FZ happened to be playing?
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Nice. I’m listening to “Watermelon in Easter Hay” right now. But not on the old National receiver that is sitting arm’s length away from me. It has a lid you can lift and enjoy the glow of the tubes, including a VR tube that glows purple…it’s been so long since I powered it up ( not 1990, though, about five years ) I’m not sure it would go well. I did replace the capacitors, in the 1970s…
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Even more so, given that there’s a CRT involved. Typical amplifier plate voltages are hundreds of volts, but CRT anodes are multiple kilovolts for monochrome, and tens of kilovolts for color.
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Have you ever attempted a vintage and/or antique technology restoration project like this?
The closest I’ve come is researching the history of a Capehart-Farnsworth that is stuck inside of a mahogany cabinet. It’s similar to the Bennington model, but with small metal rings on each door (which is why it is stuck, because no one wants to break the rings trying to open it up). After three moves, I should find someone interested in restoring it, but it weighs too much to ship it anywhere.
Of course, I found a picture of a similar unit on Letgo.com, because that’s what relatives have been telling me to do with it for years…
https://tr.letgo.com/tr/i/1951-vintage-mahogany-tv-television_3712134f-ff28-45c7-9a7e-884ced84279c
Did he modify it to run off of a VCR or DVD? Ain’t no analog TV stations around any more, AFAIK.
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The only true solution to the vertical/horizontal video-recording debate.
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I have refurbished and repaired tons of old radios, guitar amps, tvs and other old electronics. I started in electronics in the late 60’s and the first repairs were all vacuum tubes. The transistor stuff was mostly kept for the more experienced electronic repair techs. I was also a ham radio aficionado and I built my first transmitter and antennae.
I eventually settled into musical instrument amps and associated electronics. Old guitar amps have been my main source for rebuilding. Musicians actually paid me to rebuild and refurbish their equipment.
I ran a tv/audio repair shop for 10 years and we occasionally got old tvs to refurbish. The main ones were the old swivel type tvs like the Philco Predicta and it’s ilk. Their main problem was the wires and cables going thru the swivel mechanism. Also the old Hallicrafter tvs which were probably the best most sensitive tv receivers ever built. I have also rebuilt an endless number of the 5 tube standard AM radios which were way better than anything on the market. I also used to refurbish old vacuum tube Telefunken radios from classic Mercedes Benz cars being fixed up (they literally threw money at me for these repairs). I even managed to make the auto tune work again which was no mean feat.
Tube electronics are relatively easy to repair. The high voltage keeps you on your toes. The main thing to remember is when testing high voltages, keep one hand in your pocket. That way if you get zapped it won’t be lethal (usually).
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my brother in law had a Hallicrafters TV “back in the day”, he couldn’t say enough about how well built it was (he was a ham as well, so attracted by the Hallicrafters name ).
