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Murphy Radio 1939

1939 saw the introduction of four new table receivers. None of them featured pushbuttons as standard, but all of them could have a pushbutton unit fitted, and the cabinets were all designed to look pleasing irrespective of whether the pushbutton unit is present or not. The pushbutton unit cost £1.15.0 extra, and plugged into a Octal socket positioned underneath each set, a photo from the underside of the A70 receiver is shown right. This particular receiver never had a pushbutton unit fitted, so the socket is covered by a piece of wax card (arrowed) stapled to the cabinet underside. The Octal socket on the chassis underside is also shown. Also available was a remote control unit, whereby the user could make use of the pushbutton unit to change stations and alter the volume from his armchair. The remote control was an expensive luxury at £3.10.0. Similar to the 1938 season, the set at the bottom of the range had a conventional cursor travelling on a glass tuning scale. This set was designated the A70, and the chief difference between it and the next set up the range, the A72 (described at bottom of this page), was that the latter featured the alphabetical tuning drum.

Shown below left is the console version of the A70. The cabinet is no more inspiring than that of the table model, which of course shares the same chassis. The only real difference is that a larger loudspeaker is fitted, and the larger cabinet should make for improved sound quality too. However, the console version of the A70 was getting on for 50% more expensive than its table version equivalent, which must be borne in mind was the bottom of the range chassis. I’d have thought potential buyers would have been better off saving up the last £1.10.0 and purchasing the top of the range A74 special reproduction receiver, which included a large loudspeaker anyway

Shown above mid right is the A70RG. Again incorporating the same chassis, but also including a Garrard single play record deck. This looks a bit nicer than the console version of the A70, especially with the horizontal blond lines that traverse the control and scale area of the radiogram. Valve line-up for both models is TH41, VP41, HL42DD, PEN45, UU6.

The A72, pictured left featured the alphabetical tuning drum. It consisted of a drum that rotated with a series of lines against each station of a fixed panel. A close-up photograph showing the operation is shown below. R.D. Russell designed both cabinets. The A72 has a ME41 magic eye, but otherwise the sets both share a valve line-up of TH41, VP41, HL42DD, PEN45, UU6.

Murphy Drum Tuning In the example left N. Ireland Reg. (arrowed) is shown tuned-in, with Poste Parisien nearly tuned-in. A separate vertical line is allocated for each station on the dial. If no line was present that indicated the tuning knob should be turned the other way until a vertical line could be seen. When the desired station was reached the line changed into a block indicating that tuning was complete. 1939 was the last year the alphabetical tuning system was to be used by Murphy.

Continue to next page for the A74 and A76 with remote control