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Site Information About The Site Operator Interest was first sparked by the acquisition of an Ekco
receiver at a jumble sale in the 1970’s for the princely sum of 2p.
It would be nice at this point to say it was a classic round AD65 or
similar, but the reality is that is was a fairly anonymous late 1950’s table
set, that even now is not too desirable. The
interest in valves was underway though… The next few years were spent acquiring valve radios at junk shops and jumble sales, but without any particular collecting strategy. This resulted in a significant number of uninspiring sets making their way to my house, but amongst them were several receivers now deemed desirable. The advantage of the collection being built up over so many years is that many of the sets have not originated from fellow collectors, and have hence avoided some of the questionable restorations sometimes seen today. By way of example, all the sets featured on this site retain their original factory finish, only two having had significant work carried out on the cabinet. Visiting the exhibition of vintage receivers staged at the
V & A Museum in 1977 further raised interest in the subject, and I’ve
tended to use the booklet that accompanied the exhibition as a guide to the most
significant receivers of the valve era.
In 1982 about 30 receivers plus ephemera were lent to the
local council who staged an exhibition lasting six months in a nearby museum.
A small accompanying booklet was produced and various local press
articles followed. I recorded a
couple of spots for broadcast on radio stations like BBC Radio London,
Independent Chiltern Radio and the BBC World Service. (Though the last was never
broadcast due to International Events). In 2002 I was featured in an article in
the Sunday Times, which described how modern technology could assist in wireless
restoration. I am the contributor of several articles that have been
published in the quarterly Bulletin of the BVWS. In 2005 I provided advice to a local council museum which staged a six month exhibition on the history of Murphy Radio, as well as loaning some exhibits for display. More recently examples from my collection and a (favourable!) review of this site appeared in the monthly antiques magazine "Antiques And Collectables", (also for a while known as "Whats It Worth"). In 2006 several receivers were lent to a local council museum as part of a major display of receivers to mark a reunion of Murphy employees. My job entails the maintenance of digital exchange equipment for a major telecommunications company. I have never traded in receivers etc as a business. I am still interested in acquiring further original examples to improve the collection. Site Preparation The site was prepared using Microsoft Front Page 2000 The photographs were taken with a Canon G2 4 Megapixel digital camera The photographs were edited using Adobe Photoshop Elements If you spot any mistakes on the site, please let me know. Likewise if you have any comments I welcome feedback. Send email to classicwireless@btinternet.com Please put a relevant header in the subject line (e.g. vintage radio) or your email may be lost amongst junk mail and spam. Replies can take up to a week or two, though are usually quicker. © COPYRIGHT RETAINED ON ALL TEXT AND IMAGES ON THIS SITE. |
By 1979 I’d joined the British Vintage Wireless Society,
and have remained a continuous member ever since.