General Electric Model 250 radio with PeKo RVB-2 solid state chopper v i b r a t o r
(For the restored radio see • General Electric GE model 250 restored (vi... )
Here you see the General Electric Model 250 portable radio from 1946. It receives the medium-wave band (Broadcast band) which is still in use today. The radio has five tubes of the direct-heated kind, with 1.5V filaments. It is designed to run of 2 volts supply voltage from a single-cell lead-acid battery. A mechanical v i b r a t o r steps up the two volts to 90 volts for the tube plate voltages. All parts for this radio can still be found if you search hard enough on sites like eBay, with the exception of the radio v i b r a t o r. Even new-old-stock (NOS) original radio v i b r a t o r s that you buy on the web often don't work any more I have found; they have a limited shelf life. So I was happy to find a company (http://radio.PeKoRF.com) that can supply a solid-state radio v i b r a t o r substitute that actually is designed to work for 2 volts vintage equipment like this radio, as many other solid-state v i b r a t o r suppliers had told me that a 2V solid-state v i b r a t o r is not possible. Well; turns out it is - and it works great! See the video for the results.
