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Here's big early portable Majestic
I have a slew of these '39-'41 luggage portables, but this is biggest and heaviest of them all. It's the size of an old projector case. It's a 1939 Majestic model 420. The cabinet is solid as rock with 2 latched doors that can be taken off their hinges. The dial is the size of a typical large wooden tabletop set. This was a heavy duty portable! It's so unique that Radiomuseum has it's photo with "model unknown". My info is being submitted.
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#2
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#3
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I wonder what the original price was? Looks like something for the carriage trade to me.
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#4
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It's AM only and must've been a pricier portable at the time only because it's so overbuilt. Even without batteries in it, it's three times the weight of a typical model and solid as a rock. A very robust radio!
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#5
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I was wondering about that. can you still get it to work on batteries as well or will it only work on AC now? |
Audiokarma |
#6
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The Majestic 420 (love that model number ) is a battery only set and would need a separate AC supply if not using batteries . For all my old portables I've had great success stringing enough 9 volt batteries together in series to get the required B+ , in this radio's instance 45 volts so 5 in series is the right number and for the A (filament) supply a couple of "D" sized flashlight cells hooked in parallel will last long enough to get some good listening out of it .
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#7
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Yes, the dial has the second metered strip. I always saw that as a way to make a basic one band dial seem like it has an extra band. *also, init4fun - Yes, hooking up the batteries is really easy. Some put a small battery eliminator in them, but then you have the cord sticking out of the enclosed rear cover, and you get the AC-line noise. On batteries these sound wonderful. Once you get one, you soon have several more. They're cheap and have a lot of charm. I'm up to 15! All '38-'41 models. PS - I didn't catch why model number 420 is particularly appealing! (?) |
#8
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Now , aren't ya glad ya asked ? |
#9
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By the way, this Majestic had now been posted on Radiomuseum. They had it listed originally as "model unknown". |
#10
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That's really great that you were able to help them with the model number , to me that kind of info sharing is pretty much the best use there is for the internet
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Audiokarma |
#11
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Here is the updated Majestic page: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/majest..._portable.html |
#12
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Just to update, I had my repairman fix it for me. All tubes blown, open output trans., and in need of a full recap. With 1.5 for the A and 10 9V's for the B, the set plays like it looks - full rich sound and very sensitive. I never saw one of these so big or heard one play this good. I'd recommend to any radio collector to get just one of these '39-'40 tweed-stripes models, but you'll soon have 2 or 3!
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#13
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It is the one that the tube filaments run off the cathode voltage of the 50B5 when operating on the AC line. Audio output is 1 watt, versus 250mw when operating on battery. Also, it doesn't use that large voltage dropping for the filaments, when operating on AC. Look up the schematic in Nostalgia Air. |
#14
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