3:30 in the morning comes early- but, such is the life of the crack (of dawn) dedicated Russ' Old Radio Repair team, bleary-eyed Russ and Sue. Although some people may believe “Orygone” consists of only one town, there are actually two, PORTLAND and (wait for it) MEDFORD!  Quick geography lesson; Portland is at the top of the state , Medford the bottom. This provides a much needed balance--to keep the state from slipping off into the Pacific Ocean--and a political one.

As it happens, we do not dwell in the northern city, PORTLAND. We live near the state's southern city, MEDFORD. Unfortunately, since most of residents live at the northern end, many events occur there.   It's not unusual for us to raise and shine (but barely dazzle) early in the am,  to attend events or beat out ambitious Craig's Listers for radios. Such was the case yesterday when we attended, The Northwest Vintage Radio Society (NWVRS) show in Aurora, Oregon - a suburb of PORTLAND. 

Met the cutest little dog, a Maltese that weighed in at three-and-a-half pounds. His "Mom" cuddled him close to her chest. If she moved, he'd re-arrange himself, crossing the small legs that dangled beneath him. When "Mama" handed him over for a hug, he felt like a feather. I'm accustomed to hefting Fuzzy and Woolley; they challenge the vet's scale at over twenty pounds each! 

The NWVRS event is always is interesting. It's like a Almond Joy versus Mounds, "Sometimes you get a good radio, sometimes you don't." The fun is in the pursuit. On this particular occasion--thanks to an unplanned for half-an-hour gas stop due to a broken credit card machine--we arrived late. Just like with garage or estate sales, it's best to get there early 'cause the good stuff tends to sprout wings and fly. But, we got the Jackson Bell, and Russ found some thingamajigs and  several whatchamacallits. If the day ended here, we would have been happy- but it didn't.

I'll tell you.  We hit a "sometimes you don't".  We decided to continue north to the City of Portland. A guy advertised on Craig's List he had five radios.  He e-mailed.  "Yes, I still have all five of them...The radios are in very nice shape. I don't think you'll be disappointed." We drove the sixty-mile round trip--out of our way--to take a look. There were five wood, breadbox radios; the cabinets looked to be in fair shape. Russ opened the lid of the first one. "Humm." He tried the second, then third, fourth and fifth. "That's interesting, all the globe tubes have been replaced by non-original tubes. Every single one." What an amazing  coincidence! "Think we'll pass- thanks."

Lunch, then next stop. We met a fellow at an I-5  (the major north-south freeway that connects the two "Orygone" towns) off-ramp. A nice, honest guy with a Vintage Howard radio. We chatted with him for awhile, thanked him for his time, but decided the radio would be more work than it was worth.

We proceeded southward, calling another party about a RCA Victor R-52, however we were unable to reach him.

"I've got an idea," Russ said. "Remember the guy we bought the movie-dial, tall-boy console from 'bout three years ago?" Russ had fixed it up, but we had to sell it. The Old Radio Museum bulged at the beams.

"No." I can remember what I had last night for dinner. Russ has a wonderful memory. I use it often.

"He said if we ever decided to sell it, to please let him know. Let's stop by his house, since it's on the way home."

"Okay." We did. He wasn't home, so Russ left a note and his card.

The message blinked when we arrived home. Sure enough. "Consider it sold."

Russ not only has an memory--at times I wish he didn't have--but also incredible luck. We also received an e-mail, " What is funny is that I am in the process of turning the back half of that RV Garage into a pool room.  Your note coincides with my needing cool stuff for that space and it will be a great thing to have in there." 

Such a nice fellow. How appropriate the radio would be returned to it's owner--renovated with an MP3 player adaption. "Bet it will be the only Radiola 80 to ever play MP3's," Russ noted. Bet it will. ;)

Below is a photo of the old radio's original home.

So there you have it. A day in the life of Russ' Old Radio Repair. Enjoyed sharing it with you; hope you enjoyed it too!

Till next time...

Regards,

Sue
pholog's blog

So here we are. We worked hard to get to this point, We realize we've been fortunate; we want to give something back. Here's what Russ' Old Radio Repair offers.

Exciting, educational, enriching, enthralling, extemporaneous and extraordinary, Eek!  What could we do to ensure the items on our "It Would Be Nice" list got checked off?
What did we want do following our early retirement? I wasn't sure, but I knew I wanted us to do it together.

I began contemplating the possibilities three years ago, when USA Today  requested people send in their "second acts."  Since people are living longer today-- thirty, forty or more years after retiring-- an opportunity exists to re-invent yourself. Your freedom is returned; it's a  once-in-a-lifetime-chance  to realize your dream. I submitted ours; much to my surprise, it was one of those selected. One of these days, I thought.
"For our next act."   (see #11)    http://mediagallery.usatoday.com/S141444

One of these days--is now. Russ retired from Verizon; his last day will  be April 4th--four days before my (unspecified th) birthday.  We have embarked upon our dream; we have began our exuberant (didn't think I had another e? ;)  journey. Russ' Old Radio Repair LLC has now come to fruition; I can't remember when I had so much fun...except when I got chosen for a Wheel of Fortune tryout last spring. 

     We felt like croutons in a bowl of mushroom soup. Our normal home-on-the-range; big, beautiful, blue skies eluded us. We found  ourselves stuck in a winter funk. As the fog lingered on, our spirits--like the bread chunks--sunk.
     "Let's go see Oakley," Russ suggested. Sounded like a good idea to me, Oakley, a fellow radio enthusiast, happened to live near Sacramento.
 I knew we'd be "picking," looking for old radios along the way. The bright promise of a treasure hunt, and a sunny sky, quickly took us out from under the weather.
     We stopped at several small--by California standards--towns along the way. We had the good fortune to find, or purchase from Oakley, all the neat stuff below.
                                                                           
     As often happens, and what makes our trips even more fun, is discovering the unexpected. On this outing we stumbled upon a Lost in Space robot (replica).  He not only looked authentic, he could light up, twist and move his arms (or so we were told.)

"DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER."  I had to pose with him. Robot captured my imagination as a child. Only Little Joe on Bonanza came close to being nearly as fascinating to me-but for different reasons.

     After insuring Russ got the shot, we left. As we stepped out of the antique emporium, a warm, seventy degree breeze greeted us. It felt wonderful. "Sure glad I remembered my sunglasses," I said, as I watched Russ try to re-acclimate his eyes to the foreign object in the sky above us. 

     I don't know if it were the weather, or the chance meeting of an icon, but suddenly- the world seemed a much cheerier place.  

Till next time...

Regards,
Sue
phlog's blog

Considered a tube tester by most people, this unit is also capable of testing both "electrostatic" and electrolytic caps as well as volt, ohm and db measurements.

Its display is a single movement meter with 2 pointers and multiple scales as well as a large neon bulb.

A rather high voltage is provided by the device for testing ohms in the 2Meg range and higher. A dry cell battery is required for the lower ranges..

It has a special test function for the "new" 6E5 eye tubes.

The tube test function is an emissions tester. It does not have a gas test, but does trigger the neon bulb for shorts of less than 100K.

After recapping/restuffing the device's capacitors, we evaluated the unit's performance. I had to first test the large neon display.
This (photo) is a pin 1 to 4 short test on an 01A indicating an intact filament.

The meter is used for electrolytic testing. A pass/fail range is indicated by the meter.
For "electrostatic" caps the neon tube lights to indicate leakage. This test seems to be a bit more forgiving of leaky caps than I would prefer.

The engineers/builders must have ordered custom built components. There are a lot of high tolerance wire wound resistors, Some appear to have been adjusted/cut/trimmed for value. The paper capacitors are also of odd/custom values like .013 mf and .0016 mf. Several have been paralleled to achieve a particular value down to a .0001 mf margin. I can't see how these paper caps could have maintained that accuracy for very long.