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Radio Rentals For the first 30 years or so of public broadcasting, wireless sets were an expensive item to buy. Often costing a working man several weeks wages even for a basic set, people looked at other means of "listening in". One option was for people to build their own sets, but by the mid 1930's the industry was producing sets of a quality that most amateur constructors could not equal. Radio Rentals saw this as an opportunity to provide a service by renting out sets for a fixed weekly cost. The sets were maintained by Radio Rentals field technicians so the listener would not get any unwelcome repair bills as he might have done had he purchased the set outright. Renting also meant the listener could upgrade the set as new developments became available, and it must be remembered that during the 1930's new facilities were being offered on almost a yearly basis. Radio Rentals commenced operations in 1930 and at first
offered standard models from the Ekco range as rental receivers, but once they
realised that this could form the basis of a sustainable business and rental
contracts grew they started having Continue to the Radio Rentals model 797 © COPYRIGHT RETAINED ON ALL TEXT AND PICTURES ON THIS SITE. |
sets
manufactured especially for them. Ekco built many of these sets, and the designs
were certainly very similar to Ekco models of the time, but with slightly
differing cabinets. The model 694 is a four valve plus rectifier set made in
about 1936, and provides for reception on medium and long wave only. This set
has something of a curious chassis design. The picture left shows a view from
the top, where it can be noted all five valves are squeezed into one corner of
the chassis. It is not obvious to be why this may have been done, as it must
have made the original assembly of the set harder, and yet there is plenty of
unused spare space elsewhere on the chassis. Valve line-up is FC13C, 9A1, 10D1,
7D6, IW4/350