I went to look at this radio yesterday:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/atq/2969699581.htmlPretty little radio, and looks to be perfectly restorable. I was hoping it was a model 1915 when I drove down there, and when it turned out to be the 1993, a battery-operated radio, I decided it was nothing but a boat anchor to me. I'm not up to building a power supply for something like that yet.
Since the description is lacking, I would offer my own observations. Maybe there's someone else in the Puget Sound region who'd like to save this one.
This is a farm set, so it runs off batteries. It originally took three 45V batteries in series to run the radio, plus two 3V batteries (apparently in parallel) to run the heater string.
The tube lineup is 1c6, 1a4, 1a4, 232, 950, 230. Contrary to seller's description, the chassis does NOT have all the tubes as stated, but is missing the 950 and one of either the 230 or the 232. Two tubes missing, 4 present. [I don't think it's the owner's fault that he thought all the tubes were there, he just didn't know what he was looking at. He also didn't seem to know it was a batt-op radio until I explained it to him.]
The cabinet is in very good condition and all knobs are present. The dial is gorgeous, the dial glass is a bit cloudy... probably dirt, but I didn't check closely. There is a strip of loose veneer on the back left edge of the cabinet (when viewed from the front), but it's not cracked. So it looked like an easy fix to me, squirt some glue in there and put a weight on it for a day.
It does not appear to have the dual-ratio drive on the tuning knob like the 1915, or if it does, it wasn't working smoothly enough for me to risk breaking the guy's radio. I tried pulling the tuning knob out, and it didn't act like it wanted to move, so I didn't try any harder.
One thing I really liked about this radio was its size. It only projects from the wall maybe 10 inches, so it really doesn't take up much floor space. Of course, it has a pretty light-weight 8" speaker in it, too, so upside / downside.
The owner was quite disappointed that I wasn't buying it, and asked several times whether I didn't want to make him an offer, any offer on it. I tried to set his expectations about what it might be worth to someone who is going to take the risk of trying to restore it without knowing at time of purchase what problems might be lurking. So I know he's not holding the line at his listed price and would certainly entertain any reasonable offer based on your true evaluation of its value.
If you're interested, contact the seller, not me.
Good hunting,
Rodney
