Electrohome 6TF4

Electrohome 6TF4

Manufacturer: Dominion Electrohome, Kitchener, Canada.
Model: 6TF4
Approximate Date Of Manufacture: early 1960s
Type: 4 tube AM/FM radio
Tube lineup: UCC85 19D8 19FL8 50DM8
Status: working, restored
Where purchased: eBay, June 2004

Description

This is a plastic AM/FM tube radio from the early 1960s. When I received it I was amazed to see that it received both AM and FM -- how could it be done with only four tubes? The answer is that the 9-pin Noval tubes are all double or triple tubes, so the 4 tubes are the equivalent of 9 individual tubes. It also uses a silicon rectifier for the power supply and a germanium diode, presumably for the detector.

It has an internal ferrite rod antenna for AM and external antenna connector for FM, meaning it really needs some kind of external antenna to receive FM.

For a radio of this era I expected it to use a printed circuit board, but the components are mounted on a chassis, except for the volume control and AM/FM switch which are mounted on the case.

The controls are very compact, only two knobs. The on/off, volume, and AM/FM are on one concentric shaft. The tuning is on the other knob and has a vernier built into the tuning capacitor.

As received it works very well and is quite clean inside and out. It sounds quite good despite having only a small 3.5 inch diameter speaker.

The model number of this radio sounds more like the designation of a vacuum tube, and in fact there is such a thing as a 6TF4 tube.

Pictures