What reference book would be best for a young 70 year old, to learn about valve radios, circuits and diagnosis.

There seems to be many books, both new and old publications. I would like a real book that's handy to keep on the shelf.

What would be your recommendation?

Some years ago I provided this list of suggested books:

https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?f=2&th=736

Thanks GTC, I did do a forum search and didn't find that post.

The forum's search functionality could do with some improvements.

Just paste that line into a new browser tab.

Just paste that line into a new browser tab.

I gather that Johnnyd knows that and was instead referring to V-R's existing search feature which initially didn't find the post I referenced.

If I need to search V-R, I use Google instead.

As for the URL, there's some function that is supposed make URLs clickable but whether or not it does, and when, also seems to be rather hit and miss.

Thank you...I found the link and will see what's there.

I mentioned this but repeat.

A copy of the 'Radio Designers Handbook' by Fritzt Langford-Smith.

It seriously is THE handbook to do with receiver design, audio amplifiers and in its 1500 pages covers every aspect of radio design.
Yes, it is technical but so is the design of radios.

Full of intense theory and practical examples of everything you wanted to know in 1967, the 7th impression of the book.
Best to get the latest impression you can at any price.

It is my go-to book on any subject, and then use Google.

Fred.

The forum's search feature operates on the old fashioned premise that a computer will do exactly what it is told - nothing more or less. EG: A search for "books" will return every post/thread with the word "books" in it and both this thread and the one GTC linked to show up in the results. It was never intended to do the sort of guesswork that search engines do and trying to emulate Bing or Google is well beyond my capabilities.

To the subject itself, the list of books that GTC linked to are good ones to try and get a hold of. These and the ones I list below sometimes appear on Ebay. To read articles which explain everything in fairly simple language, I recommend the one by Peter Lankshear - Discovering Vintage Radio. I have quite a few books but this one contains the articles that brought me into collecting vintage radios. This book contains the first of dozens of articles Peter wrote for Electronics Australia back when it was Australia's best-selling electronics magazine.

Peter had the knack of explaining how things worked and it was fairly easy for me, growing up mostly in the transistor age, to adapt that knowledge to the valve era. Most of the principles are the same but I suppose the one thing that people working on valve gear have to understand that there is most often very high voltages involved and that extra bit of care must be taken when working on it. It's not uncommon for 700V to be present on parts of an average valve radio though this steps down several times as it passes through the circuits. For the sake of simplicity and a long life expectancy, it's just best to assume that any part of the circuit can bite.

In addition to the list of books already mentioned, there are others which deal with the history of radio manufacture and broadcasting.

Books written by Steve Savell - about various manufacturers, John Stokes - The Golden Age Of Radio I & II and a rather large limited-edition book by John F Ross - Radio Broadcasting Technology 1923-1998 are good examples.

Re the existing search function, yes it is rather primitive by today's internet searching standards but the main gripe I have about it is that a losing search requires re-initiating the entire search process rather than just changing the search term and hitting the search 'button' again.

I have mentioned this before and, IIRC, it was considered fixable without too much effort. Going ahead with that would be a welcome improvement.

Here is a link to the HRSA.

They have plenty of Books

https://hrsa.org.au/

Hi all,

Re: 'Radio Designers Handbook' by Fritzt Langford-Smith .... Fred Lever Post earlier ...

I have "Radiotron Designers Handbook" by the same author ... and I am sure that they are one and the same ... except of course, for the Title ... 4th Edition published 1952 ... but for some reason dated January 1960 ... maybe a reprint of the 4th Ed??

Downloadable here ... http://www.tubebooks.org/technical_books_online.htm ... along with a whole lot of other 'good stuff' ... approx 25MB

A 1st Ed of "Radio Designers Handbook" is downloadable by searching "Radio Designers Handbook Central Library" ... the .pdf is 145MB ... sorry, I don't have the web site name.

I do prefer a hardcopy ... so I read these first then buy it if worth the $'s.

Cheers,
Ian

I have a reasonably extensive collection of books from various sources, including deceased estates, of radio people. "Elements of Radio Servicing" Markus & Levy" is quite useful. John Rider (USA) put out quite a good book on Oscilloscopes.

What was interesting is the number of these books that fail to mention, yet alone explain "back bias" and heaps of our radios, like Astor & Philips used it quite a lot.

My hard copy of Radiotron Designers Handbook is Third Edition 10th impression 1944.I did have to repair it.

Marc

The Radio(tron) Designers Handbook is explained in my 4th edition 7th impression by the editor of Wireless World.

"The previous edition of this book, published in Australia under the title of "Radiotron Designers Handbook" was first distributed in Great Britain in 1940 from the offices of Wireless World. During the second world war it became a widely accepted textbook and was reprinted many times. The present edition, greatly enlarged, and published by the Amalgamated Wireless Valve Company of Australia under the original Australian title, is printed, bound and distributed in Great Britain by the publishers of Wireless World. London , 1953."

The book shows an edition list starting at 'first published (Australia) 1934'.
Then a second edit 1935, third ed 1940, fourth ed 1953.
Then there are 'revisions' or 'impressions from 1954 to 1967.

The rights were reserved to AWV, type set in Australia, reproduced in London.

When you read it, it's an aussie publication through and through no pommy valves or radios mentioned at all.

Fred.

Basically they did the right thing, by ignoring brands, concentrating only how the circuits worked and the limitations of particular valves. Especially the Pentagrids.