Tube Radio Vintage

For your consideration is this exceptionally clean and rare 1930s J. Miller Company 3 tube pre-selector. Miller Company is know more for their coils and coil forms, but in the early 1930′s came out with a few kits. This is model 302 and is the 3 tube pre-selector, model 301 was a SW converter, model 511 the All-Wave Superhet Coil kit and model 550 a All-Wave Test Oscillator kit. Please notice the high quality of the workmanship with the under chassis wiring… Parallel wires are tied with string and every component was soldered with care. This unit uses one 80 and two 6D6 tubes. You might ask what is a pre-selector? And why did J. Think it had a market. In the 1930′s consumers started listening to foreign broadcasts for both news and new entertainment, then some, like my grandmother, were homesick and wanted to hear broadcasts in their native language. Most of the radios in the homes in that era had Short Wave bands, some were still TRF’s but most were Superhets. Some radios didn’t have a stage of RF amplification and then some had a large range of frequencies jammed into one band. This unit has it’s own power supply and allowed the consumer to connect it between the antenna and receiver without having to make any power connections to the receiver. Radio amateurs were also a target for this product. The 49 Meter band (5.8 to 6.3 Mhz) was a popular evening SW band in the 1930′s to hear foreign broadcasts, the problem was a large amount of image interference from strong commercial radio stations. The interference caused whistles, squeals and distortion across most of the band. This pre-selector was designed to add two additional stages of RF amplification and to eliminate image interference. The operation was easy and operated this way. The lower right knob is a five step rotary switch. The first two positions connect the antenna directly to the radio through this unit. The third through fifth positions select the band. If the 49 meter band was desired then the fifth position would be selected, after tuning the radio and getting the best reception on the desired station in positions 1 or 2. Then the pre-selector would be switched to position 5 and tune using the pre-selectors dial for the best reception. The frequency spread of the pre-selector is approximately 1.5 to 25 Mhz. The unit was powered up using an isolation transformer and variac and then filament and d. Voltages were measured and appear correct. New #46 dial lamps were installed and function properly. All the knobs are in great condition and are the original. The original metal cabinet with a step lid had a black krinkled finish and was re-sprayed a while back. None of the components were replaced to retain the historical appearance of this early and rare J. There is some information available in Antique Radios, the Collector Resource, in the forum section, 1930′s J. Miller Model 302 Pre-Selector, by author KJ60FC. If you collect early radio or Ham items, you might like this unit. I know you won’t find one this nice or complete. The dimensions of this J. Miller gem is 12″ wide, 9″ tall and 7 deep. Thank you for looking. The item “RARE VINTAGE ANTIQUE 1930′S J. W. MILLER SW HAM RADIO PRE-SELECTOR BUILT KIT” is in sale since Thursday, August 20, 2015. This item is in the category “Consumer Electronics\Radio Communication\Ham, Amateur Radio\Other Ham Radio Equipment”. The seller is “autoprints” and is located in Manchester, New Hampshire. This item can be shipped to United States.