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Main Front Page Some Background Info. Providing Power Making It Work Other Folks in Other Places The Boatanchors Collection Vintage Test Gear Last updated 23rd June 2008 |
The Portable Collection Here are examples of the sets I have in my portables collection (which numbers over 100 sets). For additional information and pictures for each set, click on the link under a photo then use your browser's 'Back' button to return to this page. American Portables are featured after 'Vidor', at the bottom of this page!
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My collection started with seeing an old Vidor set for offer on E-Bay. I bought it, only to realise that it was battery powered. Far from being disheartened, I resolved to build a power supply and restore it to working order. Looking for information on the web, I realised that many battery sets are forgotten simply because the batteries are no longer availiable and the sound quality may not have been as good as the larger wooden cased models. Are they collectible? I think so. What are they worth? Plenty to those who value them.
In a larger sense, these radios tell us the bigger story of an industry in decline. Although the new generation of low-current battery valves and 'all-dry' batteries had made possible the design of smaller, lighter radios, the writing was on the wall. These sets of the 1950's paint a picture of an industry about to be revolutionised by a fundamentally new technology. Despite the 'Nuvistor', the 'Acorn Tube' and the 'Compactron', vacuum 'hollow-state' semiconductor technology was about to be killed by the desires of the mass-market... we will never see radios like this again.