radioham

--further to my last and for interest! It took some finding but finally located a Pilot radio table model in wood veneer hopefully for the NBT butty (Brighton). Dating from the late 1930/40's period it looks the part (see Painted boats movie) and is reasonably small in size given the constraints of a working boat cabin. It operates satisfactorily on internal ferrite rod and wire aerials and has a Celestion 8 "elliptical speaker plus a tone control----. However it is in fact a wolf in sheep's clothing since the original (valved) interior has been removed and a 1970's Roberts radio transistorised chassis (pcb) expertly installed instead (not by me!) Thus a VHF fm capability as well as medium wave! The new chassis only requires a 9v supply so it has proved relatively easy to convert to 12v dc /cigar lighter operation with a PP9 battery option if it ever has to work on the bank. One problem of course on medium wave is that the tuning scale legend is well out of date being engraved with Radio Hilversum, Athlone, Luxembourg ,Toulouse etc. However on Vhf, since the BBC channel bands are grouped, tuning is easy with the help of a simple chart. Not sure what the reaction of trust members will be to this innovation. The purists might say that boat people historically were too poor to ever afford domestic radio although both Tom Rolt in 1939 and |David Blagrove in 1960 mention their use on the cut---. lawrie (nbt member) lawrie (

Just for info and ref "The Bargee" film (Harry Corbett) -- after some research, the transistor portable shown in the opening scenes is a Perdio Fanfare (PR36) dating from about 1962 (The "Spinney" model was very similar) using OC44/OC81 germanium transistors. Typically make about £10-15 on ebay these days---. The domestic radio shown in the motor cabin sometime later in the film appears to be a Pilot "Little Maestro" which was in production in various cabinets in the 1950 /60's period most often as a 230v mains radio. However one authority says there was a battery version which probably still used external wet LT /dry HT batteries rather than a 12v vibrator for the latter. The search continues---! lawrie (NBT)

many thanks for everybody's thoughts,info and quips! The query came about as an idea to embellish a working butty's (=brighton) cabin with an authentic domestic radio of ww2 or a later period up to the effective end of commercial carrying. It would appear that in the 1930's and through WW2 a few simple battery sets (and maybe crystal sets before that) as used on the bank several or many years before were in use mainly for entertainment purposes at night or possibly at "gatherings". HT voltage (90v?) from a dry battery and LT (2v) from wet cells (accumulators) whenever charging facilities were available on the bank. An example would be the Cossor Melody mMaker or the Osram Music Magnet----. Perhaps with the advent of 6 or 12v power supplies from the motor of a working pair it is possible that during WW2 ex military "welfare""receivers (which utilised 6 or 12v vibrators for the valve HT supply)were available to working boat people? Examples would be the PCR range or the Hale Electric set--. However by the early 1950's many civilian portable sets would have became available (Pye, Everv Ready, Cossor etc). These used new technology low voltage 1.4v valve filaments with fairly modest dry battery (LT and HT)requirements and would have served up to the end of commercial carrying in the mid 1960's? Fianally-the radio shown in Banstead's cabin (Harry Corbett- in The Bargee) is intriguing!Does anyone recognise the make and/or did BW working boats have 230v ac generators in 1960??? thanks to all once again! L awrie (NBT member)