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A SCARCE RECEIVER!
(and the story behind it)
I acquired this piece when I first started
getting serious about radio collecting. I resided in Alexandra,
VA at that time and spent many hours haunting antique, junque
and old radio/TV shops looking for radios. The best finds were
the old radio shops that had been around for years as many never
threw anything away.
My wife and I used to travel from our
apartment in Alexandria, VA to her home town (Morgantown, WV)
and my hometown (Ashland, KY). Of course, we would stop at any
prospective place along the way looking for old radios. This
quest would often take us off the beaten path so we could
scout out new places. Among the these places was Uniontown, PA.
There was an old radio shop there that was always closed,
peering in the windows it was obvious that this place had great
potential of being a treasure trove. After several visits and
finding the shop always closed, I decided to try find the owner.
After inquiring with folks of other business's in the area, I
came up with a name, looked in the phone book and Voila! The
owners name was Jay Guyton. I gave him a call and was
invited to his home. He lived alone in an old two story house with
an attic. He was ill with diabetes and did not get
around very well. We had a conversation about old radios and
collecting, we got along quite well. He was a very amiable
gentlemen that I would say was in his 60's. After about 30
minutes of conversation, he allowed me to look around his home
to see if there was anything that I would like to have. What
find, among the many pieces I acquired was the Deforest MR-6, a
Grebe CR-18 my
Clapp-Eastham HRL
and other fine pieces. On a subsequent trip he handed me the
keys to his closed radio shop and allowed me to go visit on my
own to look for more treasures. In the basement was more good
items, among them was a A-K breadboard and a Stromberg Carlson
horn speaker. At the time, battery sets was all that was
considered collectable, if your were to cart home a plastic or
AC cathedral type radio, you would be laughed at by other
collectors. I'm sure there were other (newer radios) there but
they were of no value in the mid 1960's.
Now back to the MR-6; when I found it, the
audio transformers were missing and the detector panel had extra
holes drilled in it. I spent years trying to find the parts
needed to properly restore the MR-6. Over a long period of time
I had found all the parts I needed except the audio
transformers. I did not want to make do with modern transformers
or drill new mounting holes so I went through all the audio
transformers I had acquired over the years and low & behold, the
mounting holes on a pair of "All American's" lined up with
the original holes in the audio socket plate perfectly. I
didn't want to install them with the "All American" plate, so I
made new plates as you can see in the photos' below.
I was surprised as to how well the MR-6
performs, being it of such an early design and all. With the
right coils sets, I can tune stations from all areas of the
broadcast band and if desired, clear down into the earthquake
zone (it will tune down to 100,000 Hz).
MR-6 backside |
MR-6 audio amps |
MR-6 detector |
MR-6 tuner |
All-American transformer |
transformer after
re-label & mounting |
click on any of the above
images to enlarge in a new window
JUST COMPLETED; a re-mastered reprint
of the owners manual, rare brochures and a detailed technical manual that was complied and created by myself and Doug Thomle. It includes 17" x 11"
fold out schematics, diagrams, operation and all you want to know about this rare receiver.
> CLICK HERE
TO ORDER the MANUALS.
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