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UPCOMING EVENTS February 7, 2010 - Workshop and Outdoor Mini-Swap Meet May 21-22, 2010 - Radio Daze 2010 September 2010 - Annual meeting and Swap meet See Calendar of Events for details of these, and past events. |
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WORKSHOP AND OUTDOOR MINI-SWAP MEET Sunday February 7, 2010 Museum of Broadcasting 3515 Raleigh Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minnesota On February 7, 2010, The Northland Antique Radio Club and the Museum of Broadcasting will present the annual Radio Workshop, a technical presentation where you can learn some of the best new ideas about old radios. The workshop will take place at The Museum of Broadcasting, located at 3515 Raleigh Avenue, St. Louis Park, Minnesota 55416.
While technical subjects are usually the focus of our workshops, presentations over the past 20-some years have also covered veneer and wood finish restoration, bakelite repair and restoration, locating radio related information on the Internet, comparing contemporary table radios, and many other subjects of value to anyone interested in restoring old radios. At the time of this writing, Steve Raymer is working hard getting "some ideas" ready to present. He puts a lot of effort into this as we've all seen in past years. He also welcomes anyone who wants to help or has a restoration topic they would like to tell the group about. Please call him at 952-926-8198 if you want to contribute. The day begins with trunk sales outside in the parking lot. Sometimes this can be a bitterly cold little swap meet, and other times (such as last year) it has been very pleasant and we get a larger turnout. In any case, it's always exciting to have the chance to buy old radios in the middle of winter, and you never know when a great bargain might show up! The Museum opens it's doors around 11 a.m. and will have things for sale in their backroom, as usual. Then the program will begin at noon and should last about 2 hours. We look forward to seeing you! Refreshments will be furnished by the Northland Antique Radio Club. Admission is free to all current Pavek Museum and NARC members (and immediate family members). Membership forms will be available for anyone wishing to join the club. |
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NARC FALL INDOOR SWAP MEET REPORT Saturday November 7, 2009 St. Croix Lutheran High School 1200 Oakdale Avenue, West St. Paul, Minnesota This year's second largest event was held November 7, 2009 at St. Croix Lutheran High School, as usual. The weather was still mild, so it was easy to unload the car.
The doors opened at 8:00 a.m. and the sellers, with carts full of radios and related items, rushed to their tables to get set up by 8:30 when buyers and the general public were allowed in. The hall was bustling with people and merchandise was changing hands. There was a wide variety of items for sale. There was paper, test equipment advertising and lots of radios. There were some good deals to be had. One collector found a Freshman cathedral radio for only $10!
The official count was 30 sellers occupying 37 tables, and 82 buyers accounted for, although NARC members and family members got in free and many of them weren't counted as buyers. A good guess would be 125-150 attendees total. Sales seemed to be brisk for most sellers and it was fun to mingle with fellow NARC members and see all the items on everyone's tables. Lunch, available from 10:30 until 12:30, was hot dogs, cookies, chips and pop for $3. Not a bad deal. The silent auction was on again, and several items were offered. By 12:30, another NARC Fall Swap Meet was history. |
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& SWAP MEET The NARC Annual Meeting, Mini-Swap Meet, and Election of Officers will be held on Sunday September 20, 2009 at the Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis Park. This will be the same format as last year's annual meeting with the swap meet held in the parking lot starting at approximately 10:00 am, followed by the meeting starting at 12:00 noon in the museum. Refreshments will be available after the meeting. Dues ($12.00) for the 2009-2010 club year should be paid at the meeting or soon after. Membership dues forms and ballots for club officers will be in the next newsletter, and will be available at the meeting. The theme for the meeting is again 'Finds of the Summer'. We are asking club members to bring in a radio or radio related item found over the summer and a story of how they acquired their new treasure. Remember this event is FREE for all current and renewing members. Be sure to bring some items to sell in the parking lot! See you there! |
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By 5:00 PM on the evening of Friday May 15th the auction room was already packed. I knew we were in for a very busy evening. Radio Daze was off to a good start. There had already been good attendance at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting's annual garage sale earlier in the morning, and now a great auction of old radio equipment was about to start! The room was filled with consoles, wood and bakelite table radios, boxes of tubes, paper, and everything else imaginable. Even a couple of Edison cylinder phonographs were up for sale. By the time the auction started, 236 items were consigned and 101 bidders registered, making it our biggest auction in almost 20 years! At 7:00pm, master auctioneer, Ed Ripley, started selling. He did a great job with the help of Frank Rasada, Jim Thompson, Matt Hyman, Bill Linder, Mark Pysick, Bill Callaway, and Bill Fanum running items and holding them up for the audience to see and bid. There wasn't an empty seat in the house. But it appeared the bad economy had some effect on prices since some items went for the minimum bid of only $10 and some items didn't sell at all. Better items went for pretty good money, but some that had high reserves didn't sell. The high seller was an excellent 1940s Coca-Cola Cooler radio that sold for $500. Other lots that sold included several Emerson 520 catalin sets, a Majestic grandfather radio, lots of transistors, and even a Zenith tombstone that was a past Radio Daze raffle item. Don Hauff, Kim and Lynn Wagar, Irene Jacob, and Mary Farmer managed the business end of the auction. They all pitched in to collect fees, and get buyers, sellers, and the membership registered. They worked like a well-oiled machine and made everything run smoothly. If Lehman Brothers had this crew working for them, they'd still be in business. And also thanks to Pam Orth, Eileen Sturzenbecher, Steven Farmer, and Sally Bohlinger for helping with security. Great job everyone!
The next morning was like waking up to late winter. It was windy with wind chills in the upper 20s. But the inclement weather didn't freeze the spirits of the swap meet sellers and buyers. The Comfort Inn's parking lot was even a little fuller than last year. A lot of people were carrying radios and related items and there was a lot of activity. It was a nice break to warm up in the hospitality room and munch on the snacks brought in by Aimee Sahlsteen.
At 11:00, it was time to start taking radios into the conference room for the contest. A lot of great items showed up this year. The most crowded two categories this year were the transistor and tube radios with at least three bands, but one of the neatest entries to show up was a 1962 radio station advertising LP with DJ Ed Ripley's picture on the cover. The star of the show was Alan Jesperson's 16 tube Zenith Stratosphere. It was stunning and 12 years in the making. It was found literally falling apart when Al acquired it. There were photos of the condition he found it in. Charlie Bradley had to disassemble and reglue the entire cabinet back together. He even made a few new parts. The result was very rare, beautiful work of art. Al rebuilt the chassis and had it playing. It was a real treat to see! Needless to say, it won both the Best of Show and People's Choice awards.
Next up, was this year's speaker, Alfred Balk. Alfred spoke about Marconi, DeForest, Armstrong, David Sarnoff and other inventors that he covered in his book, 'The Rise of Radio: from Marconi to the Golden Age', published in 2006. Balk's book debunks many of the legends that David Sarnoff perpetuated about himself and his role in American broadcasting, along with other myths concerning DeForest and Armstrong. After he was done speaking, Alfred answered questions of the audience and later sold out autographed copies of his book that he had brought along. The meet ended with our usual abundance of door prizes, thanks to the Wallace family. Thank you all for coming! |
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February 2009 Workshop Recap
What a beautiful day we had for the February 2009 workshop! It was a great morning for the outdoor trunk sales and some interesting merchandise showed up and traded hands. At noon, the workshop promptly started. First up were Steve Raymer and Bill Schmitt, an RCA model 143 tombstone radio, lots of expensive equipment and a computer to monitor the vintage radio's amplifier performance. Steve originally planned to use freeware from the Internet that would turn a PC into various test instruments. Instead, he used an interface called a PicoScope model 3224 USB oscilloscope that was connected to a PC for the presentation. Bill Schmitt manned the computer and assisted Steve throughout the tests. Raymer put up overheads of radio schematics and manipulated the equipment that tested the RCA's performance. Bill interpreted the results as they were happening. The presentation went over my head, but everyone else appeared to be having a good time. Next up, was Terry Schwartz. He demonstrated how to clean and polish a brown bakelite radio cabinet. Terry explained the differing results collectors get when attempting to restore a dirty dull finish on these cabinets. Depending on the makeup of the material, results ranged from getting shiny finish to a dull appearance. Terry suggested stocking up on red and brown shoe polish. He applied the brown to a cabinet and the results were quite good. The NARC membership saw the dramatic difference between the polished and untouched areas of the cabinet. Who would have thought there was actually a good use for shoe polish in radio repair? Matt Hyman was the last presenter. He brought in several modern stereo table radios for us to compare, including a Bose Wave Clock Radio, a Tivoli, an Emerson knock-off of the Tivoli that was loaned by Jeff Hed, a Cambridge Sound radio, and a Boston Acoustics 'Solo' hi-fi radio. With the assistance of Jeff Hed, he played one radio at a time and went back and forth between models, so the audience could get a fair comparison to decide which model sounded best. The Bose was the overwhelming favorite. Oddly enough, a lot of people also liked the Boston model with the single speaker. Overall, this year's program was a complete success. There were presentations that appealed to the electronics experts, the restorers and the casual listeners. Great job everyone! We also want to thank Aimee for setting up the refreshment table. Details on the equipment and the tests performed are provided on the Pavek website at: http://museumofbroadcasting.org/radiowkshp09.html. |
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NARC MEMBERS! Check out NARC's online list of members having email addresses or websites. This list now contains about 80 members and their interests! |
