This week's unknown has the word "St James" across the middle of the dial glass, and the word "Deluxe" on the plastic strip that details what the knobs do. It has 2 stickers and a number on the back.

Valves: 6AN7, 6N8, 6BD7, 6M5, 6V4.

In the photo you'll see that the 6N8 has been replaced by a 6EH7 and rewired to suit. I wanted to find out if it gave a worthwhile gain (it does).

It hasn't been turned on for nearly 20 years, at the moment it doesn't have a power cord and it needs the type of speaker that has the transformer on it.

St. James was the house brand for David Jones.

A bit of Trove trawling suggests the brand was around from the late 40's to the mid 50's.

I thought I read somewhere (maybe here?) that the St. James brand was named after St. James Railway Station, which is close by to David Jones.

Interestingly all the advertisements in Trove have the St. James radiograms at the Home Appliance Centre, 3rd floor, George St store.

3rd floor, George St store

The initial DJs store was on the corner of George and Barrack Sts. IIRC, they closed that location in the late 1970s or 1980s.

That was a pretty popular lineup in the period 1950 to 1955 among brands such as Kriesler, Tasma, British GE, Stromberg-Carlson, Philips and Oxford/Southern Cross.

I can't recall if we've positively identified manufacturers for DJ's house brand here before.

Unfortunately my email was sent without the attachment, so I missed the window of opportunity.

Perhaps they will be there late tonight..

Perhaps they will be there late tonight..

They will, yep. In the next hour or so I reckon.

Update: Done.

By the looks of the timber, this chassis is out of a side by side radiogram rather than a console. I reckon early 1950s as the dial is still quite large.

You can see that the valve types are printed on the chassis in black ink.

Strangely, 2WL is highlighted even though it was a Wollongong station. At the time it was on 1430 or 1440 (can't remember which), then moved to 1314, then became Wave-FM on 96.5 .

If you look at the timber, at the front there's a rusted button. On the other side is a handle. I guess you pulled the handle and the radio hinged forward so you could see the dial and knobs, like on many radiograms.

Bit of work done in that set 60-70's early polyester caps. Would not bother to fire it up without new electrolytics. Some have commented on 6N8 being a bit of a worry & I have seen a couple fail in an interesting fashion.

Interesting to know why ceramic caps were used as replacements in it: Even that I have done that?

The caps were most probably replaced by me (it's been nearly 20 years). I will use low-voltage caps in low-voltage circuits (such as AGC and around the volume control), because it saves money.

I know most people will use high-voltage caps throughout (like the original), but I prefer to use them only where they are needed.

The 6N8 is commonly a problem either by going noisy or low gain (or both). The ones with the silver mesh shield seem more trouble-prone than the earlier Philips ones with the grey solid shield.

The 6BD7 is also known for going noisy.

Strangely, 2WL is highlighted even though it was a Wollongong station

Also unusual (for me at least) to see the stations running right to left on the dial.

The stations on the dial go up to 2RE (Taree), opening date 21/2/1953.

Here is a very similar looking chassis, right down to the highlighted 2WL on the dial glass.

https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?f=2&th=335#2516

I'd be looking at KGH or Zenith as the manufacturer, though at this stage I'm thinking possibly a variant of the KGH 5M.

See AORSM volume 12, page 217.

That radio also has 2CA highlighted as well. I agree there's a number of similarities between the two radios.

The KGH 5M only has AGC applied to the 6AN7 and only when on MW. The St James radio has AGC on the IF amp as well.

I'm not yet convinced they are related, but anything's possible.

What made me think it was a Zenith is serial number font style. The snag is that Zenith used 7 pin miniature valves - well according to the AORSM circuits. Not all Zeniths or KGH circuits made it to the AORSM though.

Here is a KGH in the Tasma bakelite cabinet with a chassis that looks like it was made by the same company as the St. James (same style serial number font):

https://vintage-radio.com.au/default.asp?f=1&th=996#7558