Tube radios and tuners with remote control
 

I'm curios, there where ever manufactured or imported in the U.S.A. tube radios or tuners or amplifires that had remote control, no matter what kind of remote control (wire = lazy bone, flashmatic, ultrasonic).

Here is a Soviet radio (the only of it's kind) that had a wired remote control with a wider range of controls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIv-...ture=emb_title
One day I've seen one working at an aquaintence.î
More of it: http://rw6ase.narod.ru/00/rp_l/leningrad57.html
http://oldradio.cqham.ru/vac/festreml.jpg

Pyle was selling a garbage tube radio (4 cathode followers, and noisy buggers at that, picking up the PWM noise from the VFD they sat above), which had a full remote control. I reviewed it when I was on Audiokarma years ago before I got a video karma account.

As for actual antique radios though I don't really know. For my Fisher I slapped one of those remote controlled power outlets on (RF), so I can turn it on and off, but I have no volume adjustment of course. (Though this is solid state not tube, but 1977 era).

Foreign: there was a SABA AM/FM table set with ultrasonic remote that got imported to the USA....IIRC there was an article about it in ARC many years ago.

Domestic Pre-war there most famously there was the Philco mystery control which could turn the set off, adjust volume, select tuning presets and opperate a record changer...A friend owns a working radio only model...I was given the same model console as his last year and once I find the remote I plan on restoring it.

There were many wired remote systems from many makers. One of the more elaborate ones was the capeheart system. Wired remotes tended to be high end.

Post war there seemed to be fewer remote models till solid state had fully taken over....Though some TV/stereo consoles had the changer and possibly the stereo sometimes tied into the TV and remote... Magnavox had some top of the line model (concert grand?) Stereo console that used an ultrasonic remote.

Magnavox had remote control options for some of their more expensive 1965-69 console astrosonic theatre models like the imperial series, that included the radio.

The earliest remote control I know of was a short-range RF unit using a pulse dial code for Philco's model 39-116RX. This is not a rare model, so Im not sure why they did not develop this further. The sound coming at you beats a chair-side model. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siWbRMSYBcc

Philco had a wireless remote in 1939. RCA (and others) had radio consoles with wired remotes in the late 1930's.

@ DavGoodlin : but at those "Magnavox" console you could tune the stations with the help of the remote control?

1970 Theater model from Magnavox offered thier "phantom" ultrasonic remote control for the color TV that also would tune the AM-FM dial and stop on an active station like a seek function, you needed to push the channel select button (with TV part off) to do that. It also allowed you to reject a record on the changer using the same button. Not a sophisticated feature by any measure.

The 1980s Sony Pro-feel and XBR component systems, RCA dimensia components and some others offered combined and more functional TV-Stereo remote controls, using IR remotes. I worked at a store that sold these but we seldom installed and demonstrated them as those buyers were usually informed and ready:sigh:.

Also Don't forget that Grundig and Telefunken as well offered a wired remote (called the "electric-baton") for their higher end consoles and table top models in the 1950s I had a couple of them that could of had that feature (they didn't come with it though) and they were able to operate the tuner and the record changer I think, as I have yet to see one with it, I had seen many of those wired remotes for sale on the 'bay but never with the radios they went with.

Philco "Mystery Control" is the only one I can think of

Fisher made a version of their TOTL tube tuner called the MF-300. Its brother the FM-200 is still highly regarded.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/fisher...er_mf_300.html

The EH Scott 800B had a wired remote. Two flat multi-conductor cables.

I had a 1964 Magnavox color roundie Stereo Theatre with remote. The remote also worked the record changer. Very advanced for its time.

Years ago, I saw an ad for that model of Magnavox TV in National Geographic magazine for '64, and yes, the TV was top of the line (with a price tag to match) at the time. The remote operated just about all functions of the TV, stereo, and even, as you said, the record changer; in fact, I like to think this particular remote system (Magnavox referred to it as the "Phantom") was probably the first such system to offer complete control of the entire system.

Today's universal remote controls operate on the same principle, offering nearly total control of modern TVs, although today's universals, unlike the Magnavox Phantom system, are solid-state. That is, in the Magnavox system, the remote hand unit was battery-powered, but the remote receiver, IIRC, was either solid-state or one of the last tube-type systems; I'm not sure.

My best guess, however, is the Magnavox Phantom remote control receiver within the TV was tube-powered, as Maggie TVs with this system were made in the mid-to-late 1960s. The remote hand unit, though, was solid-state and was powered by batteries; it would not have been practical to design the remote with vacuum tubes, as the size of the batteries would have made the hand unit so large as to be impractical for home use.

Magnavox phantom remotes didn't contain any electronics (I own one) The buttons compressed bellows that blew into ultrasonic whistles.
It was a patent dodge of Zenith's tuning fork system the same way the transistor remotes RCA and Admiral used were.