Wartime Civilian Radio 195-250V AC mains operated MW only radios
ser nos. U18 05472 and U7 9102
Wartime Civilian Radio 195-250V AC mains operated MW only radios
With materials in short supply during WW2, and money limited, a
large number of people couldn’t afford to buy a radio to keep up with
the latest news. The government belatedly came up with a plan to get
several radio manufacturers to produce a standard affordable radio to
cover the medium wave band.
An
example of a certificate of purchase of a wartime civilian receiver
(not the actual one for either of these radios)
The initial design was undertaken by Dr G D Reynolds of Murphy Radio
Ltd. They were made to a standard design (with very slight variations)
by 44 manufacturers
identified by the code marked on the chassis. The original cost of the
set when first introduced in June 1944 was �
12 3s 4d including purchase Tax
I have two of these radios the first (U18
05472) was purchased as part of an auction lot in 2004. The second
hadn't been switched on for many years, but had
been fitted with a new mains lead and was working when received. The
one marked U18 was made by Invicta Radio Ltd and the other marked U7
was
made by Murphy Radio Ltd.
Invicta model
Murphy model
I cleaned up and polished the cabinet of the first one and treated the wood worm holes. The dial had been painted black thus obscuring the original markings below the curved indicator slot. When I tried removing the black paint some of the original cream paint came away as well so I scanned the dial plate (which is 4.375 inches by 3 inches) and printed out another on photo paper and glued it to the original dial plate see below:
Instructions on rear of the Invicta
model
Label on top of cabinet (all models)
Much of the rubber insulation on the wiring of the Invicta radio had hardened and perished and was replaced by unsoldering one end squeezing it in pliers and sliding replacement sleeving over the original wire before soldering back into position. Some wires were replaced completely. Apart from replacing the "Westector" with a germanium diode, replacing the cathode bypass capacitor on the output stage and reforming the main electrolytics and repositioning them where they should have been no other repairs were needed to get the set working. The set is probably not as sensitive as it could be but as it appears to have the original valves (apart maybe of the output valve which is an EL33) I have not replaced any of them.
The second radio (U7 9102) had less perished rubber insulation and
had at some time been fitted rather haphazardly with replacement
electrolytic smoothing capacitors. These proved to be perfectly
satisfactory so were soldered back in place in a more orderly manner,
the cathode bypass capacitor proved to be very leaky and was replaced
as
was the capacitor across the loudspeaker transformer primary. The
cabinet of this one was lightly sanded and given three coats of Danish
Oil. As with the first model I replaced the speaker fabric which was in
poor condition. The valves appeared to be original : BVA276, BVA245,
BVA257 and BVA211.
What might one of these be worth? They seem to be quite sought after and a working model complete with back might fetch between �60 and � 100.
