RCA Victor Model 103

This RCA Victor radio is from the mid 1930s that needed an electronic restoration and some cabinet touch up. Three of the four tubes were defective or shorted. I was a little concerned before the restoration was started that there might be a bad transformer because of some evidence of overheating. All capacitors and some out of spec resistors were replaced. Once the restoration was completed, the radio started right up and was receiving radio signals.

There is a standard AM Broadcast and Shortwave band. There are very few Shortwave broadcasts today so the Shortwave band will not be very useful.

The cabinet finish is original and was restored to remove scuffs and scratches using a finish restoration product. The speaker grill and tuning dial scale have been replaced.

This radio is like many of the 1930s in that the “volume” control is really an RF gain control and not an audio volume control. I guess there was some advantage in those days to use an RF Gain control, but I don’t know what that would be.