Hi Guys
We are back packing through South America, in Buenos Aires right now and went to the San Telmo flea markets. WOW, they are huge. Came across a radio that just screamed out take me to Australia. SO, here I am sitting in Buenos Aires airport waiting for a flight to Lima, Peru and two weeks of lugging a radio around. Will post picks if I can soon or when I return. I took a few photos as well of other radios.

Be sure to pack it well, as baggage handlers are not known to be gentle. Depending if it's small enough, bury it in clothing in the middle of a suitcase.

Hi.

One of the worst things while backpacking overseas, if you are into vintage radios, is having to hold yourself back when trawling the markets and second-hand shops. About 12 years ago, in South Africa, I bought a Philips A5X83A tuner (1958) from a Cape-Town junk shop. After 2 weeks of lugging it around in my back-pack (heavy!) I'd finally had enough. I wrapped the tuner up in newspapers, shoved it in a beer-carton and covered it with packing tape. Surface mail back to Australia cost 3 times the price of the tuner and took 3 months to get here. Needless to say, my parcel endured some rough treatment on its journey. The wooden case (some kind of ply) was smashed in on one corner and the chassis bent in the same area. Fortunately nothing else was broken and all was repairable. Next time I'll use copius amounts of bubble-wrap!
Cheers.


http://www.shinjo.info/frank/instruments/Philips/A5X83A/A5X83A.html.

My first australian TV came by ship from Melbourne to Antwerp/Belgium!
It arrived save after a 2-month journey!
The woman from the shipping company made trouble with me, was anxious because of the customs!
She was "Termites sick", all wooden stuff from oversees
has to be checked for termites.
But it is standard, that all stuff is steamed with dangerous
acid before it comes out of containers.
All overseas sets are very stinky and I place them for several weeks in the garage with fresh air.
Shipping TVs from Australia is the most expensive place
because of the distance.
The last 3 sets came by air, a save and fast way and not more expensive than by sea.
The last one, a 1957 Healing console, was about 1200,- Euros (~1530,- AU$) including customs, paper work and X-ray.
X-ray is for detecting bombs, guns, drugs, animals or
whatever else.

best regards,

MonsieurTelevision

P.S. Never use DHL again, they have the most stupid workers, most of the have a islamic background and as said above not the be known as "gentle"!

I've also experienced issues at our end with importation of wooden material from the USA. My explicit instructions to my shipping agent were "Notify me if Quarantine requires the goods to be treated as I want to be present when that occurs".

As it happens Quarantine simply took a quick look and let it through without problems.

For the record, I used Craters and Freighters and I was very happy with the whole process.

All good, I am taking it on as cabin luggage, no problems so far. When I check in I just hide the second backpack under the counter. Once I have the boarding pass the flight staff don't seem to care. Had 7 flights so far and three more by the 17th January and all ok. Sure throws the security x-ray people into a spin, all have accepted my explanation of what is in the bag so have not had to unpack it. Must be my smooth tongue.

Some of them may be collectors too.

Hi Guys, just had my new radio from Argentina accepted as a new radio addition to Radio Museum web site.
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/franklin_fh_06_u.html
Looks like the Franklin FH 06 U radio used parts from Philips USA, the case looks like Philips of the time.
The circuit for the Philips ALG00U may suit mine, will have to wait until I get time to look.
Also bought 3 others radios today but more later.

Something here from Argentina that might interest you

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LARGE-Vintage-RCA-9-VALVE-Tombstone-MAGIC-EYE-Wooden-Radio-RARE-/140995865772....

I know the feeling of lugging 'new finds' back. When I used to collect insulators, my flight from America to Australia left me with a very sore back and shoulder! I crammed several dozen heavy glass insulators into my laptop bag, which as you can imagine, was heavy as heck!

If I get my Macintosh Classic repaired, I'm looking forward to the holidays. I fly to Canberra (via Sydney) to see my dad on the holidays, and I'll be taking my Mac with me this time. I'm looking forward to seeing the looks I get from others! It will be interesting sitting at an airport cafe, surrounded by businessmen with laptops, while I am using an ancient Mac!

Chris

Apple used to sell those "Compact" models as portables!

You can still see the specially tailored shoulder-bags come up for sale from time to time - I saw one at the local tip a few months back. they had compartments for the full-size keyboard and mouse. The owners were assumed to be fit young early-adopters. You probably meet the profile Chris, apart from the "early" aspect.

Maven