Vintage Valve Radios: A practical guide for restorers

About this book Valve radio may belong to yesterday but it remains a work of genius. This book explains how valve radios work and how to restore them. Written by an established author in the field, it is packed with essential information for the practical restorer, regardless of experience, starting from basic principles and progressing in easy stages through to full chassis and cabinet restoration. Theory starts from the atom, through electron flow (conduction) and on to cover the functions of basic components – resistors, capacitors, inductors, transformers, diode, triode, tetrode, pentode and multiple valves. Radio transmission is briefly discussed before sub-circuits are described, from mixer/oscillators through to output stages. Example sets suitable for the improving restorer are described, then fault-finding and full electronic restoration techniques are thoroughly explained, together with an arrowed and numbered exemplar circuit diagram. The repair and restoration of all types of cabinet plus an appendix packed with useful data and information brings the book to the glossary and index. Even before the very start of public broadcasting in the early 1920s, valves - vacuum tubes - were essential, first to the development and then to the rapid advancement of radio and television. By the 1930s, superbly made Art Deco-inspired cabinets housed complex and sophisticated chassis populated with valves. For 50 years or thereabouts, valves – vacuum tubes - remained the bedrock upon which the technology of electronics -radio, television, audio, recorded sound, telecommunications - was built. Vintage radios are often attractive and elegant objects in themselves, well worthy of collection - but they are far from typical antiques; once restored they come to life. Their glowing scales and the warm, full sound of their valves is a revelation to those who experience it for the first time. About the author Since the age of twelve, Tony Thompson BSc., Cert. Ed. has held a lifelong interest in valve radio technology. As a boy he built radios and amplifiers. He qualified as a radio and television engineer and worked in educational television programme production. He opened his own TV, Hi-Fi and video servicing business and was for many years the Head of the Faculty of Design, Technology and Art in a Yorkshire secondary school. Widely skilled, his personal specialism was Electronics and his educational textbook on the subject was well regarded. Now retired from teaching, he has written several books on the general subject of vintage radio and is a regular contributor to vintage magazines.