serial number 1571
Burndept 290 Veneered wood case with curved sides
Push pull output, magic eye tuning indicator, IF 473 kHz. 6L7G 6J5G
6K7G 6Q7G 6G5G 6L6G 6L6G 5Z4G.Long medium and 2 short wavebands.I have
the original Wireless and Electrical Trader Sheet 376 which indicates
that the Vidor model 300 and the Burndept model 303 (a radiogram) were
electrically the same.
Bought new before WW2 and has been in family
ever since.UK 1938
It was purchased by my father in 1938 and I believe it was the first
commercial radio that he bought (the previous ones would have been home
made). I have the now yellow copy of Trader sheet 376 and a hand drawn
circuit dated 28 January 1939 drawn in the American manner. He
subsequently made some modifications so that he could continue
listening to other Ham radio enthusiasts. These included three toggle
switches on the back of the chassis to switch out the AVC, disconnect
the magic eye tuning indicator and switch in a headphone jack. As a
young boy I remember this radio being constantly switched on and it
continued being used daily until my father died in 1983.
This is the only radio in my collection with octal valves which has
these wonderfully shaped screening cans and again the shielding of the
mains wiring as well as the wiring in the volume and tone controls is
an aspect often omitted from many radios.
When I recently tried this radio again it failed to work on the medium
wave and exhibited a significant hum. I found that my father had made
some repairs in the past. These included the replacement of one of the
electrolytics and the screened wires to the on/off switch and one of
the output valves appeared to be an unmarked 6V6. I replaced both with
the only two 6L6's in my spares box which had metal envelopes. The
electrolytic smoothing capacitors in the waxed cardboard box were
removed (boiling water did the trick) and replaced by a combination of
400 volt modern items mounted on a piece of "Veroboard"�. Many of the
Hunts capacitors were replaced as they showed signs of leakage as were
the two cathode bypass electrolytics. Whilst doing this I came across
something odd, there were two capacitors on the AVC line one as shown
in the diagram and another at the end connected to the 500k resistor.
Both appeared to have been there since the set was constructed. Some of
the rubber insulated wiring had perished and was replaced. However, the
radio still would not work properly on the medium wave and eventually I
discovered that a 500pF mica capacitor in the oscillator section was
effectively open circuit. With this replaced and a good clean the set
is working well.
interior view
the two toggle switches have been added and the speaker leads replaced
by my father many years ago.
one of the interior paper labels
underside of chassis after cleaning and replacement of capacitors
top view of chassis after cleaning and repair
How much is it worth?
In January 2012 one of these was sold for � 118 on Ebay. It looked nice and was reported to be working well though did not have the original back cover or loudspeaker.
The Burndept factory in West Street, Erith was bombed on April 19 1941
