This radio, at the time of these photos, is still in the shop, under negotiation. Somebody else has first option. But I think we might still get it! It has no name plates or ID anywhere, and the dial escutcheon plate is missing. As well as this, it shows no signs of life, at all. And one of the turned legs is off, but is included. It is possible that it may have originally been made up from a kitset. It has an eight valve chassis, although one of them is missing. It is a possibility that the missing valve was the rectifier and has been converted to solid state. It has since been determined that is not the case. It is probably a 2A5 output valve, the same as the one next to it, above the speaker plug. This would mean it has a push pull output. Further update. I have bought it, and pulled the chassis out. The power cord was an old rubber one, and deteriorated to the extent that it had blown itself off the power tranny! Replaced the cord, and fitted a 2A5 in the empty socket, and it goes! It is very crackly, so needs some more work, but the basics are there. It appears to be dual wave as well, although there is no indication of that on the dial. Although there is a 0 to 100 logging scale. I would say it was definitely made from a kitset, which was quite common in "them there, far off days". Most Rola speakers have a code on their frames, which when translated, tells the date of manufacture, but you need to interpret the decade! Very handy, at times. It looks as if someone may have paid $350 for the radio, at some stage. But I can assure you, it won't be me! Here you can see 7 of the 8 valves, and one empty socket. The two terminals on the back are phono input, and the two on top are aerial and earth.
Cleaned up a little, and with the missing 2A5 valve replaced.
View from underneath the chassis. Before anything was replaced, except for the power cord. The cabinet is in quite good condition and should scrub up quite nicely. The grille cloth is not original. Close up of the dial. There is a light bulb behind the pointer, that turns with the pointer when tuning. It shines light through a small section of the dial. |
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