I've always had a soft spot for old wooden radios. It was a Philco 1940's shortwave floor model that got me started in radio electronics. I found it on the sidewalk back in the 1970's and brought it home to see if it worked. It didn't. Just a loud hum from the speaker. It bothered me that here was a cool piece of discarded electronics that didn't work and I didn't know how to fix it. So I took a BOCES night class in radio repair. How to fix the All-American-Fives. I got that Philco working and that was the beginning of my obsession with radios.

I used to spend my Saturdays cruising the Salvation Army/St. Vincent de Paul thrift store circuit in Syracuse N.Y. for old junk radios. Then I'd head out on Rt. 20 and hit the countryside antique stores in search of them. I acquried a pretty cool collection which I eventually lost over the years to job and family relocation. But 2 years ago I picked up a nice Radiola 18 at a flea market. It was hidden under a table in the back of the guys garage. He didn't seem to know what it was, just a heavy wooden box. "$15" said he. "Thank you" said I. I got it working, polished it up and was very happy with the results.

Then a freebie showed up on Craigslist. A Freed-Eisemann NR-57. A guy was cleaning out his family house and thought maybe somebody could do something with a broken down, wooden mouse hotel with a bunch of tubes in it. It had been sitting out in the barn for decades. Sadly the box was too far gone for me to deal with and the chassis was a rust bucket. But it had decent metal components inside and the tubes were all salvagable so I stuck those up in my attic and added an NR-57 to my eBay watchlist.

And then this latest Craigslist find. The guy is a real antique radio collector down towards Montpelier. His house filled with ancient Atwater Kents and horn speakers. Black bakelite panels with shiny silver metal all over the place. Out in the garage he had more stuff. But he needed to make room out there so he was selling off his "other" radios. A pile of 6 dusty wooden boxes. Not the good pile next to it, which he offered me for a lot more cash. I guess those were the expensive brand names that fetch higher prices in the antique radio collector community. Nope, he was offering the other pile of his "I haven't gotten to them yet and now I don't care anymore" projects. None of them were in terrible shape so I scooped them all up and brought them home (at 1970's Syracuse prices).

I don't have a lot of experience with these 1920's battery radios. Especially with wood refinishing, so this is going to be a good learning experience for me.