My interest started while looking for a mantle radio for our kitchen. Don't really like the modern equipment sound so ended up looking at some old valve radios. However, I have found I can't just stop at one! Can anyone recommend a good book on radio restoration?
Greg

G'day Greg,

Welcome to the Vintage Radio forums. Glad to see another bloke has 'the addiction'. Don't despair though, this one is healthy.

There are plenty of books around that delve into vintage radio however none that I know of specialise in repairs and restoration. One good source of restoration articles is in Silicon Chip magazine. Whilst this monthly deals mostly with state of the art electronics and the more traditional kit building it has also had a vintage radio column from day one in 1988 or thereabouts. A couple of our fellow members here have also taken part in the restoration of radios that have been described in the Silicon Chip articles too.

If something else comes to mind I will let you know.

Hi Greg,
I have found a book called valve radio & audio repair handbook (2nd ED) to be very useful. It covers necessary basic electrical theory in very simple terms applicable to radio through to fault finding & repairs for the more advanced. Stacks of useful info even though it is UK written most stuff applies to the early era radios of the time here. To find it for a good price if interested do an ISBN search for 0-7506-3995-4
Also worth a mention is the HRSA quarterly publication called Radio waves which is an interesting read for the enthusiast & very professionally done.......

Cheers Paul

Hello Greg

A similar book to Duconbusters book that I have is

Old Time Radios! Restoration and Repair
by Joseph J. Carr,
TAB Books (Division of McGraw-Hill)ISBN 0-8306-7342-3 and 0-8306-3342-1 (paperback).

Two listings presently on ebay.

And in case you haven't discovered it,

http://www.thebakeliteradio.com/page102/page102.html

All good stuff & free

A book I found on ebay is the Philips manual of radio practice for servicemen, compiled by E.G.Beard, it was published in Jan 1947 & is an oustanding reference book. Its suits someone who has a basic electronics knowledge but who may be fairly clueless regarding radio receiver servicing (like me!!).
Its 500 pages cover everything from aerials, wave propagation, IF tuning, feedback ccts,common faults,valve data sheets, & also some heavy duty radio/electronic theory for those requiring in depth theory.
Bets thing is its mostly written as a hint book to servicemen so offers excellent advice & time/frustration saving ideas from someone who obviously spent much time servicing receivers in that era.......Might be a bit of a hard book to find though...but well worth a search, would love to turn it into an ebook to share but how long does a copyright last..?

Gday Greg,

These 3 books will serve you well mate

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180570532727&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT.

Regards

Mort