During the War domestic radios weren’t being made but the government still wanted the population to hear its propaganda so a radio was designed which would be cheap in both materials and money to fill the need. Thus was born the Wartime Civilian Receiver, sometimes erroneously called a Utility Radio.
However, there’s more to it than that. Firstly they didn’t come on the market until July 1944 so these TV shows and films showing a family listening to Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech on one are cobblers. As for economy they managed to make it look cheap and austere but they cost enough to be taxed as Luxuries and inside is a huge power transformer containing a load of strategically important metals. It would have been much better to have used a dropper as this would have been cheaper in both terms of money and resources besides allowing the set to be used on DC mains, of which there was still quite a bit at the time. As it was people with DC mains would have to use the battery version, the batteries for which took more resources.
The truth is that most of these sets were flogged off cheap after the War on the surplus market. At that time kits were also made so that Long Wave could be added as originally they were Medium Wave only.
Now I must be some sort of pervert as they have the reputation of being one of the ugliest radios ever made but I like them — another set in the running for that title is the Pye VHF3D which is another favourite of mine.
I did have one but was always disappointed in its performance. I even borrowed another from a friend who is far more knowledgeable about radio than I and found mine performed SLIGHTLY better than his. Besides that there’s nothing on Medium Wave these days that I’ve any wish to listen to so it ended-up on e-Bay.
I’d also got a JasonKit FM tuner which dates from the late-'50s/early-'60s that I’d never done much with despite it performing well and sounding great. I’d made a case for it but left it as a Tuner and I thought it’d be more use with a built-in amplifier. That got me wondering about what sort of case to make for it and the ‘Civvie’ came to mind.
I managed to get a reasonable idea of dimensions from photographs found on-line and drew up plans. These are available here but I’m not claiming that they are historically accurate; I came up with something I had the skill to make from wood I had available. Some information on making a faithful cabinet can be found here. For feet the originals had two strips of wood running front-to-back underneath. These are all very well but such things have a nasty habit of scratching whatever they are stood on so I fitted four rubber feet salvaged off an old computer case instead.
The amplifier is a μA741 and a couple of transistors as detailed here. This is powered by the LT via a voltage doubler and an LM317. The LM317 is there to get rid of hum as the actual voltage doesn’t matter that much.
However, there’s more to it than that. Firstly they didn’t come on the market until July 1944 so these TV shows and films showing a family listening to Churchill’s ‘Finest Hour’ speech on one are cobblers. As for economy they managed to make it look cheap and austere but they cost enough to be taxed as Luxuries and inside is a huge power transformer containing a load of strategically important metals. It would have been much better to have used a dropper as this would have been cheaper in both terms of money and resources besides allowing the set to be used on DC mains, of which there was still quite a bit at the time. As it was people with DC mains would have to use the battery version, the batteries for which took more resources.
The truth is that most of these sets were flogged off cheap after the War on the surplus market. At that time kits were also made so that Long Wave could be added as originally they were Medium Wave only.
Now I must be some sort of pervert as they have the reputation of being one of the ugliest radios ever made but I like them — another set in the running for that title is the Pye VHF3D which is another favourite of mine.
I did have one but was always disappointed in its performance. I even borrowed another from a friend who is far more knowledgeable about radio than I and found mine performed SLIGHTLY better than his. Besides that there’s nothing on Medium Wave these days that I’ve any wish to listen to so it ended-up on e-Bay.
I’d also got a JasonKit FM tuner which dates from the late-'50s/early-'60s that I’d never done much with despite it performing well and sounding great. I’d made a case for it but left it as a Tuner and I thought it’d be more use with a built-in amplifier. That got me wondering about what sort of case to make for it and the ‘Civvie’ came to mind.
I managed to get a reasonable idea of dimensions from photographs found on-line and drew up plans. These are available here but I’m not claiming that they are historically accurate; I came up with something I had the skill to make from wood I had available. Some information on making a faithful cabinet can be found here. For feet the originals had two strips of wood running front-to-back underneath. These are all very well but such things have a nasty habit of scratching whatever they are stood on so I fitted four rubber feet salvaged off an old computer case instead.
The amplifier is a μA741 and a couple of transistors as detailed here. This is powered by the LT via a voltage doubler and an LM317. The LM317 is there to get rid of hum as the actual voltage doesn’t matter that much.
Knobs were a bit of a problem as I couldn't find any new ones I liked — part of the trouble being that there are very few without dots or lines engraved in rendering them unsuitable for tuning knobs — and people want silly money for old ones. I therefore made my own out of oak.
Only afterwards did I learn that I had used something very appropriate. The oak was actually a bit of table leg that the same friend whose radio I'd borrowed had given me. He told my that the leg was off a Utility sideboard that his wife's grandmother had bought after her house took a direct hit in the War.
Only afterwards did I learn that I had used something very appropriate. The oak was actually a bit of table leg that the same friend whose radio I'd borrowed had given me. He told my that the leg was off a Utility sideboard that his wife's grandmother had bought after her house took a direct hit in the War.
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