Since it's been rather quiet in the last few days I thought I'd bore you silly with my recollections of the "old days".

I began collecting not radios, but valves, back in the 1970's. My friend and I were regulars at the council tip, and were well known to the workers. This was the time when colour TV had just arrived, and everyone was discarding their old monochrome sets. I could not begin to say just how many radios and televisions we wrecked in order to extract the valves.

Those were fun days, the best of times, without a care in the world.

My friend introduced me to a couple of places at Sydenham, one was a war disposals place on the Princes Highway, the other was the nearby Salvation Army workshop and refuge. We eventually obtained every last remaining valve from the disposals place. The Salvation Army was more difficult, because if the radios they obtained didn't work they were discarded in a muddy area out the back... and they wouldn't allow anyone to extract the spare parts, they just junked it all. However we did manage to get some bits when the staff weren't looking.

Some of the valve types were very common in those days, but are now impossible to find.
Examples:

- Philips edge-connected valves were everywhere, the greatest problem was the base would be stuck in the radio and the glass part would separate when trying to remove the valve.
- Type 80 rectifiers, must have been in every 2nd radio, now not so easy to find.
- UCL82 and UY85 were in a commonly-thrown-out brand of tape recorder. Cannot be found now.
- 8-pin small base with the glass notch (EL41 etc), once fairly common.
- TV valves such as 15A6, 16A8, 21A6, quite common, again no longer to be found.

The earlier TVs had valves such as 6BL8, 6AU4GTA, 1B3GT, 5AS4, 6BM8, 6CM5, 6BX6, 6BY7 and so on, then the later ones had 6GV8, 6GW8, 6DQ6A, 6N3, 6AL3, 1S2, 6ES8, 6DX8, 6EH7, 6EJ7 and many other well-known TV types. The very last ones had the rare Compactron types.

Most of the radios had Octal valves, and a few the 30's types.

So by the end of school I had accumulated almost 2000 valves. But then family problems struck (which I won't go into), but at the end of it all, about 80% of the collection had been lost. A few years later my friend decided to donate his collection to me, so I inherited a bunch of filthy valves, some sprayed green, some covered with mouse droppings, and a number that had broken.

Then the collecting had to be put aside while I worked, did a 2nd job doing CB repairs, bought a house and so on. The occasional valve donation was packed away.

20 years later it was time to indulge again. Of course by now the disposals stores were gone, council tips were under security, and the good old days were definitely over. I cleaned up and labelled all my valves, and sorted them so that I could find a specific one if needed. Then, finally, I started collecting radios. So far I have about 180.

If you're interested, I could post photos of the rarer valve types that I now have. Just give the word.

Then, finally, I started collecting radios. So far I have about 180.

I'm picturing a rather large shed.

How sad to consider all those radios you wrecked in your enthusiasm to collect their valves. Such was so much the way it went back then though, before their intrinsic value was recognised.

Thank goodness that you have now seen the light and no longer wreck but restore them. Good on you {:o)

You wouldn't happen to have any 1F7G, 1M5G, 1C7G or 1L5G valves in your collection would you? I am currently restoring an old Astor battery radio using these 2 volt valves that someone, unaware of it's true nature, had tried connecting directly to the AC mains to "see if she goes". He/she had managed to connect the 2 volt valve filament battery line across the 240 volts. You can imagine the spectacular demise of every valve on the chassis microseconds after the power was applied! Must have been an amazing light show. Hopefully the clown wasn't electrocuted in the process though, as the filament line connects to the steel chassis on one side.......

Try Evatco for the valves or email me and I can send you a HRSA valve list.

You wouldn't happen to have any 1F7G, 1M5G, 1C7G or 1L5G valves in your collection would you?

I have a 1M5G and a 1L5G, but only one of each, so they are not spares. Also their condition is unknown.

Hopefully the clown wasn't electrocuted

Hopefully he was, then he might have learnt not to do it again.