A sad find - Westinghouse transistor portable

[mhardy6647]

Found this poor little guy on the scrap metal pile at the town dump earlier this summer. Initially was going to leave it lie in state; came back later in the day and felt too bad for it. I suspect it wasn't in bad shape when tossed on the scrap metal pile, but by the time I found it, the front-end loader had "compacted' the pile :-( The poor thing was full of dirt.

It deserves a better fate.

I will likely be leaving it on the freebie pile at the NEARC fleamarket on Oct. 2 in Manchester, NH. www.nearc.net

I had tried to take a photo of its innards but my camera battery died. I can re-try later if anyone is interested.

[Sandy G]

Po widdle feller...

[Bill Cahill]

I have that model radio in physically better shape, but, needing help, and, parts. How much to ship yours to 33705?
PM me. I really need it, fi you are getting rid of it.
Thanks.
Bill Cahill

[radiotvnut]

Yes, that's sad. I have the yellow and white version of that radio that I paid $35 back in around '92. The president of our now defunct antique radio club had it and didn't really want to sell it; but, I pestered him a few times about it and he agreed to sell it to me with the understanding that I give him first shot at buying it back if I ever decided to sell it.

[mhardy6647]

My luck with digital camera batteries has been poor lately. Different camera (the "shop" camera), dead batteries in this one, too! Just threw in the 'emergency' set of alkalines whilst the others charge.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of quick 'n' dirty photos of the innards.




I cannae tell; does the speaker really have an inverted magnet, or is this one just trashed?

Bill, I just sent you a PM.

[Bill Cahill]

PM reply just sent back. Many thanks.
Looks like it may be inverted.
My speaker was trashed by roaches.
Bill Cahill

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Bill Cahill

Looks like it may be inverted.
Bill Cahill

Agree ! looks just like the speaker in my 4 tube Motorola 54L1.... extra points; where are the tubes?

jr

[radiotvnut]

The speaker in my yellow and white westinghouse is inverted, just like the one in the picture.

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Motorola 54L1.... extra points; where are the tubes?

jr

3 submini's, one regular miniature

[jr_tech]

Yep!
A 3S4 for audio out... the rest are sub mini 1AJ5 (detector and 1st audio) 1AH4 (if amp) and 1V6 (triode-pentode convertor).
jr

Didn't you do some conversions of AC sets to sub-minis ?

[Reece]

Can't tell from the picture, but if the ferrite antenna is broken, you can superglue or epoxy it back together and it will work fine.

[mhardy6647]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Agree ! looks just like the speaker in my 4 tube Motorola 54L1.... extra points; where are the tubes?

jr

Whoa that thing is cool! Is that a consumer radio with "pencil" tubes!?

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by mhardy6647

Whoa that thing is cool! Is that a consumer radio with "pencil" tubes!?

Yes! it is a Motorola 54L1, which is a "full size" (about 8"x10"x3.5") AC/DC/Battery portable from the mid 50s. I nearly passed it up because of the ugly re-paint job, until I looked inside and saw the unusual "inverted" speaker and the sub-mini tubes! Most of the radios that I have seen with the sub-mini tubes have been much smaller, about the size of "pocket" transistor sets of the era. I suspect that this rather plain Motorola is often overlooked by collectors.

jr

[batterymaker]

I think that Westinghouse is one of their first transistor receivers. It could be powered by either six D cells or a large cardboard case battery--I want to say it was a 2701, don't hold me to that number. It's one that I want to build a replica of and power my yellow-and-white Westy with.

The plug for the battery is tucked away in a corner of the set, plugged into a socket.

[batterymaker]

That Motorola is usually looked over because they also brought out a same-chassis portable that had a wind-up clock in it--and that's the one collectors really go after.