Silvertone Model 6356 Tabletop Radio (1939)
Radio collectors dream of finding an old radio untouched in its
original box, but such dreams rarely come true. The owner of
this Silvertone 6536 tabletop had that lucky experience, however.
Here is the radio as found—untouched and never used, exactly
as it left the factory.
Here is the box, with its postmark dated December, 1939.
The 6536 is a five-tube battery powered radio, as you can see from its
schematic.
These so-called "farm" radios were designed for
un-electrified rural areas. My
Admiral 6T06-4A1 was another such set.
Since you can't buy exact replacement batteries any more, collectors
power these radios with homemade battery packs or AC adaptors. The
owner of this radio happened upon another lucky find: a vintage
"Powr Shiftr," also made by Silvertone.
As the name suggests, the Powr Shiftr is an AC adaptor, which
plugs into a wall outlet and provides power to a battery radio.
In our Building section is an article with
more info about powering battery radios.
Finding a never-used radio is like finding a never-built
electronic kit. Should you try to use it or leave it
completely untouched?
Although the radio was new when it left the factory, its
capacitors have degraded with age during the last seventy
years. This happens whether or not you play the radio.
The same is true of the Powr Shiftr, which also contains
capacitors.
To make such a radio reliable for everyday use, you should
replace the old capacitors and clean and lubricate parts such
as the volume control and tuning capacitor. If you're finicky
about originality, you can hide the new capacitors
in their original cases, a procedure called "restuffing"
and described in my capacitor replacement article.
Using that procedure, you could have a radio that looks like
new and plays that way, too.
This radio doesn't belong to me. The photos
were contributed by a visitor to this website.
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