I've never heard/read a single thing about 1930's battery radios. The ones
I know about were all from the 1920's. They take the 201 and 301 tubes.
Most were made to take 6.5 volts for the filaments as car battery
rechargabe wets of the time were all 6.5. Here is the interesting thing.
Those tubes dont need that much juice. The rigs bump it down from 6.5.
There were some 201 and 301 tube radios that have direct voltage to the
tubes. If you hook up 6.5 volts to the filaments, kiss the tubes goodbye.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this King-Hinnes Silvertone
Neutrodyne that I have here. The manual I have that may very well be a "one
size fits all" calls for 3 "A" cells. That would mean about 4.5 volts.

I'm gonna juice it up soon. I'm not sure if either the tubes or the
transformers are good. The speaker horn is at least good as I can hear a
click when I give it low voltage.

Michael

"norml" wrote in message
...
I have an eight-tube, RCA portable from 1930 that requires 180V on the
plates. It was originally supplied by four 45V batteries. I built a wooden
jig to hold 20 9V batteries. It looked so harmless--until my finger
brushed
across the output terminals.

Norm

(Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrotf:

elaich wrote:

I'm sure a battery operated radio will eletrocute someone. Why don't you
educate youeself before opening your mouth?

A batteries were generaly 1.5 volts (single carbon/zinc cells), but B
batteries ranged from 45 to 90 volts. There was a special 512v battery
used for electronic flashes in the 1950's, but I don't know if it
was called a B battery or not, I've always heard of it referred to
as a 512 volt photo battery.

It would have made a nice B battery for a small radio transmitter.

Geoff.