1932 Crosley World Radio 819M

[binkmeisterRick]

WOWO out of Fort Wayne, Indiana used to have such an output that people in Japan could hear the farm reports. In fact, they used to do their weather reports from "the world famous WOWO fire escape." A couple years ago they finally had to cut their power in half because some New York station wanted to share the same frequency. They should've gotten their own!

 

[Miss Neecerie]

Am was a different band then that of "Short Wave" The Short Wave band wasn't really AM. It was a different ball of wax if I recall it right. You still can receive stations from other parts of the world on vintage short wave bands! I did with my 1936 Grunow console! You need a very long antenna and also it helps to try it late at night. It doesn't work very well in the day time. Short wave works way better at night. Get some copper wire, it works best!

=WR=

I have a short wave set, that I used to listen to when I lived in Brazil, or Russia...or was travelling. Great fun.

http://www.novia.net/~sadams/My_Pages/ShortWave/Guide.html

Is the guide to shortwave, and at the top it has 'foreign broadcasts by region' which gives you an idea how -big- shortwave is, pretty much anywhere but here.

Voice of America is a blast...and thats where most of the globe learns about what America is doing.

BBc world service is also really quite good.

You can listen in any language you want, depending on where you are at the time.

Shortwave is still going fairly strong, stronger if you make a bigger antenna.

 

[binkmeisterRick]

I have an old Zeinith Trans-Oceanic shortwave that belonged to my late father-in-law I need to get cleaned up. Ot's a cool old radio that closes up for easy transport.

 

[shamus]

WOWO out of Fort Wayne, Indiana used to have such an output that people in Japan could hear the farm reports. In fact, they used to do their weather reports from "the world famous WOWO fire escape." A couple years ago they finally had to cut their power in half because some New York station wanted to share the same frequency. They should've gotten their own!

WOWO did a major change in late 90's. They were bought out and changed their format. Plus they moved the sation and no longer had the world famous fire escape.

It was big new when I was living in Fort Wayne.

I have them printed on my 37 Zenith dial.

 

[binkmeisterRick]

Yep, it was big news. I was still living in Fort Wayne at the time. In fact, Ron Gregory left WOWO because he didn't like the deal. Can't say I blame him..

 

[Pilgrim]

Absinthe_1900 is correct - the connection between the tuning knob and the tuning mechanism is a cord, usually flax, with beeswax on it. It's wound around a pulley on the end of the tuning mechanism, and it's user-serviceable. You can find the material online with minimal searching. To replace the cord, you basically use the pieces of the old one as a length guide, cut to fit, and start threading. (When it comes to cutting, remember what my dad used to tell me: "No matter how many times you cut it off, it's still too short." Allow extra and shorten to fine-tune.)

Incidentally, there is usually a small spring on one end of the cord. Don't lose that! It's needed to provide tension on the cord so it won't slip.

To get at the tuner, you will need to remove the entire radio chassis from the wood cabinet. Remove all the knobs from the front of the set GENTLY. Don't force anything. You can usually then remove the mounting screws that connect to the underside of the radio chassis and slide it out the back. If it doesn't want to move, take your time and look things over carefully. You may have missed some connection between the front of the cabinet and the chassis of the radio.

Also be careful of any glass panels on the face of the radio - sometimes their supports have rusted or dropped out and the radio chassis may be all that's holding them in place. Move the chassis just a little and check that nothing is trying to fall out. If it is, find a way to support it during removal, and fix the problem before re-installing the chassis.

Absinthe_1900 is also correct with the antenna comment. Those sets have much better AM reception than today's radios, but the built-in antennas are often minimal. It was very common to run a long piece of wire to the set's antenna contacts to bring in remote signals, and you will probably need to do that.