WWII Radio Restoration

WWII Military Radio

One ‘new’ hobby I have taken on is the ‘art’ of radio restoration. I have always been interested in electricity and electronics. I can remember at an early age taking the back off my parent’s TV set and seeing how it worked, and pulling all the tubes out, and getting them back in the right places.  In my military collection over the past 20 years, I have had some nice WWII-era radios. They looked nice, made a good exhibit, but never really worked. So I decided to take a short “class” from a local man who offers his services to teach noobs like me. I spent the day with him restoring an old Philco Radio I picked up on Craigslist.  One radio I had always wanted was the SCR-284. Just seemed to be the right radio for me. It could be vehicle-mounted, used in the field, or as a command radio. So I decided this would be my winter hobby, repairing and restoring old radios.

I am going to Document the Radios I have restored, or am working on here. I’ll have links to the ones I have pages for if the radio is listed, I own it, but either have not worked on it yet or have not added it to the website.

RADIO AND COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT

Radio Set SCR-284   BC-654 Radio

AN/GRR-5 THE ANGRY 5

A PORTABLE WWII ERA “MORALE RADIO” 

R-100/URR 1944 MORALE RADIO 1944 Espey Morale Radio

BC-314 Receiver

BC-348 Receiver (In progress)

BC-603 Receiver (In Progress)

BD-71 Field Switch Board and EE-8B Field Telephones

TG-5-B Telegraph

Home Front Radio Sets

1942 Philco AM Radio
When the planets approached a similarly cozy distance 94 years ago, in August 1924, some people, including Curtis D. Wilbur, the Secretary of the U.S. Navy, thought it might be possible to actually hear messages from our neighbor. If Martians were ever going to drop us a line, they suspected, that’d be the time. From an office in Washington, D.C., Wilbur’s department sent orders to every naval station clear across the country. An outpost in Seattle received a telegram asking operators to keep their ears tuned to anything unusual or, maybe, otherworldly.