cant find it in my books

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251016314210?ss ... 1439.l2649

Operadio would be my guess.



Larry

Looks like something Lafayette would have put out around 1935 but other then that, there's absolutely nothing about that radio that I can pin down as to it's brandname or manufacturer. It's an 11 tube tombstone which also sounds like something Lafayette would offer, if only for a very short time. I'm at a total loss with this one. The amount of iron, on the transformer, suggests to me that it may have been made for export, possibly Central and South America more then Europe, along with local sales. I do see there's no voltage tap switch on the transformer or anywhere else, which questions my export theory, and the push pull output uses 45 tubes instead of, say, 42 or 43 tubes. I'm guessing it was made by a New York manufacturer more likely then a Chicago manufacturer or anybody else.

Larry.. That image is Too big.. causing horizontal scrolling.
Please reduce the horizontal pixel width to 800pixels

I think its an export set too Mike, the chassis is very unusual, I believe the eye tube is original, I thought it was an add on at first,
but looks factory if you look at the close ups. However if export, there is no long wave and it has an unusual band coverage if you look at
the dial closely. what little I can see of the tube line up is odd as well.

I saw it and immediately thought it was cobbled together. But I could be wrong. I haven't seen the case before.

Peter

I thought the same, although I had never seen one before, and convinced now its factory. Went through Mallory, and not a single set had a tube line up
as this one. the two 45s with an eye

you just dont expect to see such an obviously expensive set without a name. Must of had a tag and it fell off as one of the labels over the left most knob.

This set Screams out Sparton to me.
I would say for the very least the chassis and IF's look like they were built by Sparton's Canadian factory.
Also a couple of the knobs look like I could put them on a few of my Spartons and match perfectly.
The speaker might of been replaced?
looks like a nice set to get going!
Also larry's image does not look too big here on my Home PC,No side scrolling here.
Nice to browse ARF on a 50" 1920 x 1080 HD screen and Porn too!
wow 800x 600 limit for some,come on some of you catch up, technology is great!

That very possible. That would explain the transformer. Canadian radios typically have power transformers with more iron plates then do their US counterparts. If it is a Canadian Sparton, somebody with a RCC book, covering 1935, should be able to verify it.

Dual 45s with an eye tube is really strange. The case looks "newer" to me than a chassis using 45s. Could be an older chassis in a newer case?

The eye tube wiring looks old, but they did sell add-on kits, so it could have been added in the late 1930s for all we know.

Did anyone here win it?

Peter

Well that image is just way too large no matter what 1,200px × 1,600px
Both my system display it off screen...
This wide-screen laptop I'm using at the moment is set at 1280x800

it does have a Sparton look to it, now that you mention it, and sparton knobs? Did Sparton build tombstones this large? not familiar with the Canadian Sparton sets at all. Label on the back appears to be in English and French but I could be wrong, which tells me it could be export set for sure, or Canadian. Do Canadian sets from the period typically have both English and French on the Labels?

A label that's in English and French, now that's really starting to scream Canadian Sparton. Somebody from our good neighbor up north should be able to verify if this is a Canadian Sparton or not.

Found a set that is similar, but noticeable differences, the Clarion TC53a. from the drawing in Radio Museum the cabinet is the same, and the chassis
seems similar with the addition of the tuning eye. Also the schematic has 3 76 tubes, but this set appears to only have one? too bad Riders doesnt have chassis layout for this set. Also the Clarion has 5 bands
with different coverage than the 4 (no longwave and tunes up to 31 Mhz which is significantly higher than the TC53a) on the ebay set. Knob layout is the same though. Anyone ever see a Clarion TC53a? I never have and nor do I know anyone that owns one. the mystery deepens.

I don't think the mystery is deepening, I think it's opening up and reveling the answer. Bill, I think you hit on the key to this radios origins. The Clarion TC-53 looks like the same radio but in a slightly different cabinet and dial. Nothing unusual about that especially when you talking about a private brand radio manufacturer out of Chicago.


Clarion TC-53

Now look at the black painted brass control tags on the Ebay set and the polished brass control tags on the Clarion TC-76. Their both the exact shape, size, and design which further ties this mystery radio to Clarion brand name or the actual manufacturer, Transformer Corporation of America which was located in Chicago.





The label on the mystery radio's chassis is in French and English because TCA exported this set. I don't know if you remember a few years ago, there was a discussion here on a very large tombstone radio which was called the Sears and was marketed or made by Sears International of Chicago. That Sears radio also had an English/French label on it's chassis and I think we concluded it was primarily an export set though some examples were sold here locally. This is probably why you don't see to many Clarion radios, here in the US, from the mid 1930s. It looks like Clarion turned their attention more on the export market then they did on the domestic US market during that time. Sounds like another American radio manufacturer that you should be familiar with, Bill. You know what brand name I'm talking about. Heck, you have the worlds largest collection of it sitting in your house.

you may be right Mike, could have some close parallels with Pilot, although there seems to be several US companies
exporting large multi-band table sets with console chassis in the Mid 30s that were not or very little were sold in the US, your Westinghouse
WR214 fits that bill as well. Andrea was another, and even AK did the same, and of course the Zenith Export sets are reasonably well documented. The demand for these sets must of been significant and documentation
is minimal to non-existant for most companies. Pilot being the best example of not documenting their export sets well, if at all.

That's the image from the Ebay listing. I only linked to it and have no control over it's size.

Larry

Finally got a look at this set, and it surprised me. It is not a Clarion, its an ICA model 1100SW (Gernsback vol 6). A very unusual set made by ICA Export
company? the tag on the back is in English and Spanish. The tunning eye is original to the set and has to be one of the last sets ICA made.
Very unusual chassis/tube line up and construction. ICA and Clarion connected? sure looks like a TC53a on the outside.
tubes
2-45
1-41
1-42
1-6c6
1-6B7
1-80
1-6e5
3-6D6