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WARTIME CIVILIAN SET

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Front View [40K]

  • Released June 1944
  • MW waveband only.
  • 4 Valves -
  • Battery only.
  • Original cost £10 19s
    (Batteries not included!)
NOTES This is the battery equivalent of the mains-powered civilian set (or 'utility' set). The mains version utilised 4 valves, and given one of these was a HT rectifier not needed in battery sets I would have expected the battery version to have only 3 valves. But no, it still has four.

Around 175,000 of the mains version were produced and I think that an additional 75,000 of the battery model were produced. However whilst the mains version regularly turns up today the battery version very seldom turns up (in fact this is only the second one I've ever seen in the flesh). The battery version would have become obsolete quite quickly after the war as new housing would now have mains electricity and the lack of a longwave waveband wouldn't have helped either.

Chassis stamped U10 [3K]Of the 44 different manufacturers who produced this model, this particular one was built by Ultra, identified by the rather crude 'U10' stamped on the chassis (follow this link for a complete list of manufacturer codes).
SERVICE DATA Having been keeping an eye open for one of these sets I squirelled away an original Trader service sheet #688.
CURRENT STATE Very sad :-( Battery fumes have warped and split the base, one of the control knobs is missing (and I'm not event sure the two left are correct), the finish is rough and the rubber wiring has completely perished. Still, maybe the battery acid acted as a barrier to any woodworm as they seem to have left this one alone. BTW, the warping of the base isn't due to battery acid, rather its a consequence of weight of the industrial-sized 15-trillion-gigawatt mains transfromer that had been preciously bodged in.

Three of the valves are almost certainly the original, being marked with BVA numbers 132, 142 and 162 (the '2' indicating that they were manufactured by Brimar). The fourth valve is presumably a later replacement as it is a Mazda TP26.
WHERE FOUND A donation to the cause.

Rear view [31K]
I suspect there should be an extra horizontal shelf in the
right-hand section where the H.T. battery would be stored.
The L.T. battery would go in the left compartment.

The two clips (top center) are remains of a
mains power supply adapter.


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Last updated
22nd October 2006