Monthly Archives: January 2012

Huge and Powerful: The 1937 GE F-135 Repair Complete

Posted on January 27, 2012 by jwk

I’ve finally had the time to finish one of my long-running projects repairing GE’s most powerful radio offering from 1937, the GE F-135. I picked it up from Craigslist back in November but other responsibilities kept me from getting much … Continue reading →

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More Strange Coiled Wires [Mailbag]

Posted on January 24, 2012 by jwk

I had an interesting call the other day with a gentleman about a radio he’s working on, among other topics: That’s a Philco 46-420. They’re nice little bakelite radios with 6 tubes designed to receive the AM broadcast band. He’d come … Continue reading →

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Snow in Seattle! Part 2

Posted on January 21, 2012 by jwk

Following up on yesterday’s post, this photo of a sign posted downtown pretty well describes how Seattleites react at the first sign of flakes falling from the sky. This photo courtesy of my friend Jamie Swedler.

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Snow in Seattle!

Posted on January 20, 2012 by jwk

I’m taking a short break from writing about technical projects to share some of the recent interesting weather we’ve had lately. It snows about once a year in Seattle, and every year we’re taken out of commission for a day … Continue reading →

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What’s that piece of wire, some kind of gimmick? [Mailbag]

Posted on January 17, 2012 by jwk

I was talking with a fellow antique radio hobbyist on the phone the other day about a repair he was working on. A TrueTone battery radio, he’d taken care of all the important steps – checking out the tubes, replacing … Continue reading →

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I love my chassis stand.

Posted on January 13, 2012 by jwk

It’s the winter here in Seattle and it gets cold outside occasionally. Cold enough that I can’t vent my soldering fumes out an open window like I normally do most of the year, but I don’t want them in my … Continue reading →

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Unboxing my Sharp PC-4501 classic Personal Computer

Posted on January 9, 2012 by jwk

It’s 1987 and I’ve been needing a new laptop. After a careful process of comparison shopping I settled on my Sharp PC-4501 from Montgomery Ward. Let’s open it up and take a look! For only $699.99, it’s a state of … Continue reading →

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Hey, I Won Something. [Basic Micro ATOM Nano Development Board]

Posted on January 4, 2012 by jwk

I read too much of the Internet every day, but it’s finally paid off. I happened to catch a post on Hack-a-Day about an awesome giveaway right as it was posted for a microcontroller development board. An interesting one, too … Continue reading →

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New Arrival: 1934 Simplex Model P Dual Band Radio

Posted on January 3, 2012 by jwk

I was cruising eBay randomly the other day and made an incredibly lucky find…a 1934 Simplex Model P Dual Band tombstone radio had just been listed. I have a pretty low maximum that I’m willing to pay for any radio, … Continue reading →

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