Quote:
Originally posted by Paula
Hi Jeff,
Actually, I live in southeastern Indiana, roughly midway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati (OH). Yes, I have picked up Channel 6 on various FM radios before. It kind of shocked me the first time I heard it!
I'm in the process of restoring a Zenith 7H820 AM/FM receiver from around 1949. This radio has the "famous" Dialspeaker (patent No. 2272660) -- a combination tuning dial and speaker in a single unit -- that Zenith incorporated into many of their radios of the era. More notable is the fact that a few of the early versions of this particular radio were equipped with a second FM setting that covered the 42-50 mHz frequency band that was originally allocated to FM, but subsequently reallocated to to TV. Presumably, one could pick up numerous TV audio signals with this radio. One of these came up on eBay not long ago (unrestored), but when the bidding topped $85, I said "No thanks."
In my previous post, I didn't mean to imply that I owned the Early American style K731 -- that picture is from an ad on eBay. It was an exceptionally nice radio, but with an opening bid of $50, I think that buyers got scared away. I believe it went unsold, tho' I now kind of wish I'd grabbed it.
Below is a picture of the inside of that radio, showing the impressive speaker "array". I think it compares favorably with the Grundig 3068 pictured below it. The Grundig goes the Zenith one better by flanking the front speakers with side drivers, for improved dispersion.
Paula
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I'm not sure, but I think the Grundig set may have been designed for stereo, hence the two speakers at either side of the cabinet. I had a Grundig model 2168 in the mid-70s which had only one speaker--the main one mounted above the tuning dial.
I didn't realize you had grabbed the photo of the Early American version of the 731 from ebay. It's basically identical to the one you have, except for the cabinet, of course (and the fact that your set may have been made a few years later than mine; I read in an item description on ebay for one of these sets that the cabinet with legs was used with later models of the 731, namely, the sets made from 1963 until the end of the production run). If this is true, then the Early American version of this radio may be the earlier model, manufactured in the late '50s. I tend to think my own 731, with the Early American cabinet, however, must have been made in 1963 or later, since the AM tuning dial does not have the Civil Defense icons at 640 and 1240 KHz.
An interesting thing about the K731 series is that the same basic chassis (7K06 and 7K07) was used in several different cabinets under different model numbers. Zenith's model K725B, for example, which used the 7K06 chassis, was in a plastic cabinet and did have the CD icons on the AM dial, so it must have been made before '63 (the year the Civil Defense, also known as Conelrad, emergency broadcast network was abolished and replaced by EBS, the Emergency Broadcast System). The publication date on the Sams I have for my set (it shows the K725B on the first page), however, is 1963. Did the K731 (chassis 7K/7M07) come out before or after that year, with the same Photofact covering every model in the series?
BTW, the 42-50 MHz band found on early postwar Zenith AM/FM radios was later allocated to TV as channel 1 in the late '40s. When channel 1 was abolished in 1950 or so, its frequencies were again reallocated, this time to amateur or "ham" radio as the six-meter band (which itself was later realigned and today is 50-54 MHz, the top end of which is the beginning of the frequency allocation for TV channel 2, 54-60 MHz.)
The standard FM broadcast band we know today at 88-108 MHz was allocated in the '50s. The very first FM broadcast station in Cleveland, Ohio, went on the air in the '40s, I believe, as WBOE-FM and was operated by the Cleveland Board of Education. It operated in the old 40-MHz FM band at the time, 43 MHz, I think. The station is now known as WCPN-FM on 90.3 MHz and is an affiliate of the National Public Radio network, or NPR. The station also has ties to Cleveland's PBS television station, WVIZ on channel 25 (and three translators serving outlying areas of northeastern Ohio) through an organization known as Ideastream.
BTW (2): The small white dot near 100 MHz on many Zenith radios of 1950s-'60s vintage (including the 731 and its offshoots, among others too numerous to mention here) was originally used to mark the frequency, 99.5 MHz, of Zenith's owned FM station, WENR-FM in Chicago.
The marking is obsolete today, as Zenith sold the station many years ago. The station now at 99.5 in Chicago, IIRC, is country WUSN-FM, "US-99.5".