1930 RCA Radiola Model 82

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Ultramatic

Ultramatic

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On my last trip to Beltsville, MD, I acquired from John (Combo52) (Thanks John!) this beautiful radio. It's a mid-range model. The lower model had no doors. The top of the line had a phonograph. Walnut veneers. These radios even came with an optional remote control. Ironically, at the time, RCA did not manufacture it's own radios, but farmed them out to various manufacturers. This particular model was made by General Electric. The General Electric equivalent is Model H-51.

 

The first batch of images is when it had just arrived to Brooklyn:

 



 



 



 



 



 



 

Second batch it was cleaned up a bit with Gojo. That stuff does wonders. I already have the schematic and ordered a variac. Currently sporting some Christmas cheer.

 



 



 



 



 

 
What a beautiful radio Louie! Those vacuum tubes look like they are the originals.

I just love the warmth of the sound that these old vacuum tube radios produce. The way they warm up and the sound takes a few seconds to start to come out of the speaker. I gives meaning to the song, “Coming to You From Out of Nowhere”, and now I’ve just really dated myself for even knowing of this song.

Does it actually work and pick up broadcasts? From the look of it, I’m betting that it does.

Hope you are enjoying it.

Happy New Year Louie!

Eddie
 
Beautiful radio! I love antique electronics, I believe these were marketed by Victor, and that is the reason that the electronics were manufactured by other manufactures. A friend of mine has the model with the phonograph in it. Do not know what brand the radio is, but the phonograph is an acoustic Victor with an electric motor. The motor is really strange looking. It is an "open" motor, and looks like an electric meter disk, with a coil on one side.
 
BEAUTIFUL!!!!!EXCELLENT SHAPE ITS IN!!!!Got lots of care over its life.A man that used to work at the transmitter plant with me collected old radios.He retired many years ago and moved back to Tennessee-his home state.Is this radio AM broadcast band only or does it have short wave bands?If it can receive SW you could hear VOA/Marti in Greenville with this radio.
 
Ironically, at the time, RCA did not manufacture it's own radios, but farmed them out to various manufacturers.

 

<strong>This particular model was made by General Electric</strong>

 

<strong>According to Wikipedia, RCA was owned by GE at the time. Quote:</strong>

 

<strong>The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric (GE); however, in 1932, RCA became an independent company after GE was required to divest its ownership as part of the settlement of a government antitrust suit.</strong>

 

<strong>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA</strong>

 

<strong> So it's not surprising that GE made RCA radios at one point.
</strong>

 

 

[this post was last edited: 1/1/2020-07:49]
 
Those vacuum tubes look like they are the originals.

 

I think some must be replacements. If one looks at the maker names on the tube bases, one will see that there is a mix of names.

 

I played a bit with tube radios when I was younger. It was amusing seeing labels in the radio that always said to use tubes from the radio maker. And yet, there might be no single tube left that was branded with the radio maker name!

I just love the warmth of the sound that these old vacuum tube radios produce.

 

Tubes remain very popular in some audiophile circles. I think "warm sound" was one argument, although people with more experience than I have indicate that many tube amps have become more transistor like over the years. (Yes. There are still tube amps being made, although they are not exactly cheap.) Meanwhile, many transistor amps have become more tube like than was once the case.


 
 
 

 

Thanks John. It's my understanding General Electric bought RCA back in 1986, that it was owned initially by General Electric is news to me. RCA Radiolas also had it's radios made by Brunswick, Westinghouse, Graybar and others until 1931. Indeed, most of the tubes have been replaced. It would be amazing if it had all it's original tubes.
 
The article on Wikipedia mentioned GE buying RCA in the 1980s. Coming round full circle for RCA, I guess...

 

Yes, it would be surprising if all the tubes were original. I'm far from a radio expert, but I've seen a number of old radios, and almost always there is a healthy mix of what are clearly replacement tubes.
 
really nice old RCA!

before you bring up on a variac might be good to replace any suspect capacitors (called condensers at that time) as at least some will probably be leaky unless John or someone else did that already. Radios of this time had potted transformers and interstage transformers, chokes, so were more complex/expensive in a way, later circuit designs eliminated them to save cost. The electro-dynamic speakers as seen here were typical; permanent magnets with enough power hadn't become affordable/available yet. Tubes in sets like these tend to be available and fairly reasonable. Looks great and fun to use and enjoy!
 
before you bring up on a variac might be good to replace any suspect capacitors (called condensers at that time) as at least some will probably be leaky unless John or someone else did that already.

 

Yes. This is possibly already known, but this is worth mentioning. It seems like most people into radios now just automatically replace any failure prone parts before doing anything else. The thinking is: if the part hasn't failed yet, it probably will fail soon. And doing this may just fix problems without having to actually diagnose them.

 

A link to some talk on this topic:


 

Radios of this time had potted transformers and interstage transformers, chokes, so were more complex/expensive in a way, later circuit designs eliminated them to save cost

 

Interesting, and something I'd suspected/been wondering about--if radios didn't have an evolution that allowed cost savings.


 

(Although I knew for sure of one cost saving approach that came along later: the AC/DC radios that eliminated power transformers.)
 
Old Radio

Yay Louie I am glad you are able to give this radio a good home.

 

My first partner Michael found it at an antique store almost 40 years ago, it was working when we got it and I used it many hours.

 

When Ken moved in two years ago we got rid of all the old Victorian furniture in the living room, its kind of funny when I was in my 20s I though it was kind of cool, but in reality it was never my style.

 

Before we moved it into storage a year ago I turned it on and it still worked, it only seemed to get 1 or 2 of the stronger AM stations however.

 

The tube that is missing is a rectifier tube, it has more than one and it has never had one since we owned it, If you need any tubes for this radio I still have boxes of them that were collected when I was a kid, I used to love collecting and fixing old radios and B&W TVs.

 

John L.
 
 

 

 

Hi John. I'm glad the Radiola is here. It will be loved and cared for and get a full electronic restoration. Some more images after a wipe down:

 



 



 

Internal aerial. Notice the external aerial connectors on the bottom. Beautifully made.



 

Toggle (On/Off) switch



 

Tuning capacitor



 

Loose wire. Not sure where this would go.



 

Phonograph connection terminals



 

Heater supply terminals



 

Missing UX 245 rectifier vacuum tube



 

Capacitor Pack. Looks like it's burned out. A thick, tar like residue is surrounding the base.



 



 

Cone speaker assembly



 

Frayed power cord



 

External speaker jack?



 

Background: Power Transformer, Foreground: Filter Reactor



 

 

 

 

 

[this post was last edited: 1/4/2020-03:36]
 
Interesting seeing all the new photos!

 

One point: from what I see, the missing tube is an an amplifer tube, not a recitifier.

 

I once had a console radio (not this old, and certainly not this interesting) that also had a design with two amplifier tubes, but only one still present when I got the radio. It worked--although the radio wasn't in peak condition. Then, that's not surprising for something that is decades old!
 

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