Hi,

I was left a Philips Radio by my late Grandfather and have no idea of it's worth or if it is desirable. Would anyone know it's providence or be of interest?

the code on the back is B4X02A

Many thanks
Thomas

G'day Thomas,

A photo or two would assist with identification. Can you please e-mail some through? I can include them in your post.

You can click my username to access my e-mail address.

Its a Dutch made Philips from around 1960. Interestingly enough it has a FM band which is unusual for a valve radio in Australia. The FM band on this set only goes as far 100 MHz though. It is similar in design to the Philips B5Z17A Hilversum Combrio which was exported to Australia. (no FM band)

Thanks MonochromeTV,

That makes some sense as the family emigrated from Germany after WWII, but that was in the late 40's early 50's. They did go back to see relatives in the late 50's early 60's, maybe that is when they bought the radio. The face of the radio shows all preset (or maybe just markings) for European Cities. It does say made in Holland on the back.

around 1960. Interestingly enough it has a FM band which is unusual for a valve radio in Australia. The FM band on this set only goes as far 100 MHz though.

Licensed FM broadcasting in Australia began in 1974 with community classical stations 2MBS and 3MBS. However, I have a feeling there was some FM broadcasting under "experimental" permits from the Broadcasting Board before this. In early '60s my parent bought a hi-fi record player (mono) built for them by Brian Cabena, who had a hi-fi business in the Melbourne suburb of Kew. Cabena was the founder of 3MBS-FM and its studio remained in his shopfront until 2007! I seem to recall he was involved with experimental FM broadcasts - if so there might have been some FM programs for die-hard classical music fans to listen to during that period.

At the time, state of the art for hi-fi afficionados was reel-to-reel tape. You could hear a whole symphony or opera without stopping to flip the LP.

Maven

The Philips unit that is the subject of this thread is the sort of thing I like to collect. It would look good amongst retro 1960's surroundings. I have a bit of a thing for European FM valve radios and have quite a collection of them. I have a really nice multi band, including, FM valve Philips tuner I bought in South Africa. When I get around to doing it up I'll start up a thread about it. But for the time being I'm trying really hard to curb myself from bringing any more of this stuff in to my house!

There was an "experimental" FM service operating in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Adelaide between 1948 and 1961. The programming material was either the ABC metropolitan or national service chosen at the whim of the PMG technician on duty. The official reason for disbanding FM broadcasts was to make room for regional television services and the introduction of 13 channel TV tuners which started appearing from late 1961. Neville Williams, the editor of Radio & Hobbies, in his editorials strongly criticised the decision by the PMG to disband the FM broadcasts. If any one has the Radio & Hobbies on disc, or even old copies, the Neville Williams editorials regarding the FM service are well worth the read.

Many years ago I used to live very close by to 3MBS in Kew. The transmitting tower was in the backyard of the 3MBS premises in Cotham Rd. The interference from the transmitter in the form of classical music would get into just about anything that had a speaker whether a receiving device or not! This was at a time when I didn't really appreciate classical music. You could only watch TV after 3MBS ceased transmission for the night, usually about midnight. Nowadays 3MBS is 24 hours & transmits from Mt. Dandenong. Cabena used to advertise extensively in Radio & Hobbies in the early 60's as Eccleston Electronics of 146a Cotham Rd. Kew.

But for the time being I'm trying really hard to curb myself from bringing any more of this stuff in to my house!

Good luck with that one!

Just be careful with the inside of that, and metal if the knob comes off. A lot of the European valve radio's like many American ones, had no transformer, and were hot chassis, several had no transformer & a printed circuit board and I have actually seen Philips ones with printed circuits, in the flesh: They are just as treacherous.

Marc

This Dutch Philips B4X02A & my A5X83A tuner both have power transformers and 6V4/EZ80 rectifiers. Mine has a multi tapped primary going from 90 to 245 volts.