Friend that knows of my interest in old radios took these at a nearby antique shop: I've never seen or heard of anything like it, so I thought I'd ask you guys about it. It evidently has the postwar FM band (learned that through questioning my buddy), but thats all I can find out.

It's a Zenith, called a "spinet" I believe. 1941 or so vintage. There is a thread on this already on the on-line forum.

It's a 1941 Zenith 10s571.

http://www.radioatticarchives.com/radio.htm?radio=3739

Chris

Its an old tube radio .. and a nice one .

Its actually the pre-war 42-50 MHz FM band.

Very nice radios. Zenith must of made a bunch of them as you can find this model easily, but not the 10H573 standard style console or the 10H551 chairside version they made.

-Steve

Thanks, guys, for all of the responses.

I can see why they called it a 'spinet'. What I can't see is why they built it in the first place: JMO, but I can't understand the point. And you say these are MORE common than regular consoles or chairsides? Frankly I'm baffled.

I'm not surprised to discover its prewar band FM: it had a weird name- "Electrostatic Frequency Modulation" IIRC. Advertising hype, or a dodge for RCA's Armstrong patents?

Again, thank you for the info.

What I meant, is of the 3 FM radios Zenith released for 1931, you find the "Spinet" quite a bit more than the other two.

Right now, I have 3 of the 10H571 Spinet's in my collection. It took me a bit of searching, but I finally landed a 10H573 standard style version of that radio. You just don't see them very often. let alone the Chairside 10H551!

It must have been popular with the public as they can be found.

According to the Zenith book (Zenith The Glory Years, 1936-1945 Illustrated Catalog & Database) the 10H571 has a rarity of "Somewhat Uncommon" whereas the 10H573 and 10H551 are rated as "Uncommon to Rare"

The value of the 10H571 Spinet is certainly more than the 10H573 or the 10H551 Chairside as it is a very unique piece.

As is the case with many radios. Rarer doesn't always = more valuable.

Oh, The name "Microstatic Frequency Modulation" was just a name Zenith used. Zenith President E. F. McDonald was a full supporter of E. H. Armstrong. They definitely had an Armstrong license.

RCA had absolutely NO connection to Armstrong at that point and seemed to be at war with him as RCA President David Sarnoff was pushing Television as hard as he could! He wanted FM squashed!
RCA never had an Armstrong license and did everything they could to keep Armstrong from profiting from FM. Eventually driving him to suicide...

It was a sad story.

-Steve

Sad story indeed. . .
I just had a few of the characters mixed up.
I'll have to cue up "Empire of the Air" again and rewatch it!

Armstrong," did not kill himself",fully dressed and was thrown from his 16th floor apartment balcony.
he was jumped by unknown hitmen waiting for him, when he came home...dirty business!

47 Plymouth, the standard biographies all state suicide, even including reference to a suicide note. What are your sources for the allegation of hit men? Just curious....

Tom