Stromberg-Carlson 51A22

This radio was purchased, along with a similar Modernaire radio of the same era, at the April 2022 HRSA Auction. Both were in pretty bad shape. Both were restored in June 2023.

This was the lesser of the two, without a tone control switch and a very small for the size of radio, 5 inch speaker.

It has an aluminium chassis. The valve line-up consists of a 6AN7, 6N8, 6BD7, (all mini valves), plus a 6V6 and 6X5 octal valves.

This was very much the period when manufacturers were using up old stock octal valves, and moving to Minature valves. There is another version that uses Octal valves only.

This radio proved straightforward as new Philips "mustard" capacitors had been istalled sometime in the 1960s. Thus all that was needed were new electrolytics.

Once that had been sorted out, and an alignment carried out, the radio performed surprisingly well.

The dial glass is attached with what was once rubber clips that attach to a metal backing plate. These were very much heat damaged, and I'll 3D print new ones at some stage. The chassis (steel in this case) has surface rust. That will be remidied later in the year when the weather warms up.

I do not have the knobs for this radio, and when I find suitable cloth, I intend to replace the grill. The dial string was missing, as was the pointer. It  was worked out on the Modernaire, a was straightforward on this radio. The pointer moves in the opposite direction expected. I do have the badge.

This was obviously the budget model with it's 5 inch speaker. (There is provision for a 6 inch speaker.) The top of the case is rippled too, suggesting less that stella quality control.