[Boatanchors] A VERY Interesting "Mini-Boatanchor" -Longish-

[Barry H]

Hi Phil & Gang

I've got one 250 and, as I recall, two of the Model 260 shortwave version.  None of them had the wet cell still in it and none of them work.  I still haven't gotten around to further efforts in fixing them.  

They are an interesting piece of work.  Actually, I think they're made of pot metal mostly, aluminum with other stuff tossed into the cauldron, but beware, there are plastic parts.  The pop open lid is plastic or bakelite painted the same hammertone as the rest of the case.  There is no whip antenna at all as I recall, it's in the lid.   Apparently they came in a variety of hammertone colors.  I've seen gray, copper, and green thus far.

Actually, those cast metal cases aren't as bulletproof as you might think. If dropped, they'll crack. Some seller, thinking it was indestructable, packed one in a box barely as big as the radio with no padding at all.  The back door broke at the hinges.

I suspect the round disk rectifiers you see there are either selenium or copper oxide.  

Two of mine make some noise -- one hums much louder than the other. heh heh  Very interesting design, somewhat difficult to work on.  But you'll figure it out.  On the other hand, I have not yet seen one offered in working condition.

In terms of density, metallic content and pure heft, they do qualify as mini boatanchors.  

Barry
  


-- "Philip Atchley" <Beaconeer at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Hi All,

Today I drove up to Manteca (~50 miles) to meet a gentleman from the bay 
area and do a radio swap.  Picked up a couple small, low end simple general 
coverage sets (Hallicrafters S-120 & a Heathkit SW-717) along with a Autek 
QF-1A that I really wanted.  Anyway, the gentleman had an extra, condition 
unknown, "Mystery Radio" that he brought along and tossed in just for grins. 
He said he had no idea of it's overall condition or even if it was worth 
messing with, possibly good for parts only!  It was closed up and secured 
with a tie wrap. So being ever the "packrat" I didn't even bother to open it 
up, just said "sure, I'll take it".

Well, I just got home with my unexpected "treasure" a little while ago, and 
being ever curious just had to take a peek.  Even before trying out the 
treasures I drove up there to get!  What I found it to be is a General 
Electric "Portable" radio model 250, VERY heavy for it's size.  The top 
folds up to display the controls and dial on the top of the unit.  At first 
glance, what is interesting is the power switch, which says "Off, On, 
Charge"!  Hmm, so this critter must have a rechargeable battery pack.

Popping open the back cover (hinged) revealed 5 battery tubes (no rectifier) 
a rolled up power cord and a compartment with a cast aluminum cover.  This 
brings up another point.  ONE reason this puppy is so heavy is that the 
chassis AND the case and covers all appear to be CAST aluminum, no funky 
plastic rice box!  The cabinet is painted Hammertone Gray and naturally has 
some skinned spots in the paint, but is otherwise very nice condition. 
Removing the aluminum plate from the internal cast compartment revealed a 
couple of items in two separate compartments, again, cast aluminum.  It also 
revealed a folded up original of the correct SAMS Photofact folder for this 
radio, dated 9-46.  It ONLY tunes the Medium wave broadcast band.

The largest compartment contained a single 2 Volt Willard WET cell measuring 
about 3x2.75x6 inches tall.  It is clear plastic, the front has an 
hydrometer with two "state of charge balls", a vent hole and a fill hole 
with a red plastic screw plug.  The rear has a pair of banana plug sized 
female connectors that mate with the radio.  Of course the battery is bad, 
there isn't drop of fluid in it and it's all covered with brownish and white 
powder inside.  The compartment for the battery has very LITTLE corrosion 
inside, which will clean up easily, so the fluid didn't all leak out at 
once.  In fact it appears that the water probably evaporated and left the 
chemical residue (white and brown stuff) in the cell proper.

The second compartment contains the battery charger and power supply.  This 
consists of a small AC Power transformer that feeds a pair of disk (??) 
rectifiers to charge the battery.  There is NO provision to actually operate 
the radio off the AC mains.  Putting the AC power switch in the Charge 
Position connects the charger to the battery.  Turning the radio on 
disconnects the charger and connects the battery to the tube filaments 
(through appropriate dropping resistors) AND to a small "vibra-pack" with a 
square 2 Volt vibrator that generates the B+ for the radio.  According to 
the schematic about 85 to 90 Volts.  At least one didn't need to buy "B" 
batteries for this critter.

As I stated earlier, the set has 5 tubes.  They are.

1.  1LN5 RF amplifier (Loctal).
2.  1LC6 Converter (Loctal).
3.  1LN5 IF Amplifier (455kc) (Loctal).
4.  1LH4 Detector/1st AF amplifier (Loctal).
5.  3Q5GT Output (Octal).

With a SAMS date of 9-46 I have to 'presume' that this was probably one of 
GE's first POST war consumer radios.  With the Cast Aluminum case and 
chassis, compartments etc. it was definitely NO LOW END product and I 
suspect that it fetched a fair number of those Post-war dollars to buy.  I 
kind of wonder of it wasn't originally intended for the military as a morale 
radio, but the war ended too soon?

Thoughts?

73 de Phil,  KO6BB
DX begins at the noise floor!

THE BEACONEER'S LAIR:   http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/
MY RADIO-LOGS:       http://www.geocities.com/ko6bb/Logs/
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Merced, Central California,    37.3N  120.48W  CM97sh

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