Scored a rare, huge, and HEAVY DuMont.....

[Tom Albrecht]

Originally Posted by rld-tv01

Was this Dumont a RA101 in a custom cabinet? Are any of these known to exist?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261496913808...84.m1423.l2649

That's the "Club 20" which indeed has a lot in common with the RA-101 in terms of components, but was in fact a totally separate model with a cabinet supplied by Dumont. Intended for use in bars, etc.

More info here: http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/dumont_...20_ra_106.html

This model is actually closer to the "Manchu" RA-105 than the RA-101, but still there is a lot in common, including the 20BP4 picture tube.

The Radiomuseum model page documents the survival of at least one of these in the possession of one Steven Quay. Anybody know him? I'm not aware of any other survivors of this model.

The cabinet style in the eBay ad is a little different than the set shown at Radiomuseum. One seems to have legs and a bottom speaker grille, the other doesn't.

[Steve McVoy]

Here is a another DuMont Club, with a 15 inch tube (RA-102-3B):

http://www.earlytelevision.org/dumont_ra-102-3b.html

[Tom Albrecht]

Interesting -- this one has yet another cabinet style, with the large speaker on the side.

[earlyfilm]

About the picture at:

http://www.videokarma.org/attachment...1&d=1403628344

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

. . . . . Since the stations on the pushbuttons indicate that this set is native to the area. . . . .

I've tried to get late 1940s information here, as call signs, frequency and power has changed over the years:

WGR 550KC Buffalo, NY
CBL 740KC 50,000 Watts Toronto, Ontario, Canada
WBEN 930KC 5,000 Watts Buffalo, NY
WEBR 970KC Buffalo, NY
WNYC 830KC 1,000 Watt NYC, NY
( button missing )
WBNY 1440KC Buffalo, NY
WKBW 1480KC 50,000 Watts Buffalo, NY

OK, something is very wrong here!

Six stations are correct for Buffalo.

There is no way that WNYC, at the time a puny 1,000 watt public daytime-only station with transmitter located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, could be received in Buffalo, especially since in the late 1940's also on the same 830KC frequency was 50,000 watt clear channel WCCO located in Minneapolis, Minnesota! WNYC is one of, if not the oldest public owned radio station still using the same call letters.

Me thinks someone grabbed an AM button from another TV set that was from NYC.

James

[M3-SRT8]

I had an RA-101A Westminster. With the dual 807s. Nice cosmetic condition with good crt.

Sold it. I would not power it up or restore it. Too dangerous.

[rca2000]

LESS dangerous than a ham radio amp, or microwave oven.....

[Tom Albrecht]

The tag on mine says it's an RA-101A, but the sweep chassis has the RF supply. My guess is that at some point, the chassis was upgraded for whatever reason.

The 60 Hz HV supply in a normal RA-101A is dangerous, so you would certainly have to be careful with it. I agree that a ham radio amplifier or microwave oven is equally dangerous, but so as long as you're clear and correct in your understanding, and follow strict rules (like "one hand in the pocket" when working on live circuitry), you have an excellent chance of avoiding danger.

By the way, the current needed to be lethal is something like 100 mA, and anything over 10 mA is considered pretty dangerous. A typical RF HV supply can only supply something like 1 mA, so although it hurts, you're going to be OK. A 60 Hz supply could also be OK if it were properly current limited, but the filter capacitors unfortunately can unload a rapid pulse with quite high current, even if the supply can't sustain the higher current very long.

Once the supply is capable of providing 100 mA or so, it doesn't particularly matter if it can deliver 100 mA, 500 mA, or 1 amp. So it's not really correct to claim that power supplies that are capable of delivering higher currents are more lethal than something around 100 mA. Once you get to that level, it can be lethal.

Some good reading here: https://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~...l_current.html

[rca2000]

I am not really sure what those 3 big oil caps are for n the RA-101, but my guess is 2 are used for the doubler and one is the final filter cap. They look AWFUL big--MUCH bigger than most microwave oven caps do. And the transformer is NOT a little one either. The whole deal looks MUCH, MUCH too heavy duty to just power the HV for a pix tube--it almost looks like it was adapted from an X-ray power supply or such. And YES--I FULLY agree it easily would be able--especially with those big oil caps--of delivering a lethal shock.

Nonetheless--if mine was complete--and with the tube--that would NOT prevent me from messing around with it. But it is not complete--and only useable as parts--or for experiments. And if someone here who has a 101 wanted to get it from me to use as parts for one of theirs--I would happily sell it.

[Kamakiri]

Originally Posted by earlyfilm

.

There is no way that WNYC, at the time a puny 1,000 watt public daytime-only station with transmitter located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, could be received in Buffalo, especially since in the late 1940's also on the same 830KC frequency was 50,000 watt clear channel WCCO located in Minneapolis, Minnesota! WNYC is one of, if not the oldest public owned radio station still using the same call letters.

Me thinks someone grabbed an AM button from another TV set that was from NYC.

James

Or, since Buffalo didn't get TV till 1948, the previous owner could have moved to Buffalo from NYC. People actually wanted to move to Buffalo back in those days

[jr_tech]

Does the dial *actually* move to 830 when the WNYC button is pushed? How about the one next to it that is missing the ID tag? I'm guessing that the buttons were set up in order of increasing frequency from left to right, and for whatever reason, the WNYC tag is just wrong.

jr