Grandmother's Radio

[Nowhere-Man]

Thought I would share the pic. My grandparents are both long passed away. My grandfather died many years ago. A few years later my grandmother died too. Till the very end the Bush model pictured below sat right by the TV set on a small stand. Growing up in the 1970's I always thought it was a bit old fashioned because at that time everybody was into turn-tables, vinyl and stereo speakers. Nevertheless, sometimes my grandparents would switch it on and it always sounded fine.

I wonder what ever became of it. At the time when the house was finally cleared out it may well have just been thrown away as scrap. Or maybe it is still working somewhere.

Has anyone ever worked on this set or have any comments? I can see it has pushbuttons and read that Bush incorporated this to imitate Philips. Are they easy or difficult to work on or pretty standard?

My grandfather worked all his life in a hotel and actually met a few famous people. That included Laurel and Hardy, Norman Wisdom and The Beatles. In some cases he got autographs (although not the Beatles). He just mentioned once you could hear them playing electric guitar in the hotel room while they stayed.

[Geordie McBoyne]

Looks like a Bush VHF61. Details of the set can be found in the 1957/58 Radio and Television servicing book. VHF61 is housed in a Bakelite cabinet and VHF62 has a cabinet made of wood.
Excellent performers all helped by having two IF amplifier stages on AM and three on FM, the ECH81 heptode section serves as the additional IF amplifier on FM. Valves: ECC85, ECH81, two EF89, EABC80 and EL84 output. EZ80 rectifier.
Intro date, late 1956.
A year later Bush introduced the models VHF71 and VHF72. Not as good as the VHF61/2 because these sets have only one IF amplifier stage and employ Mullard U series valves.

Geordie McBoyne.

[hamid_1]

Yes, your grandparents' radio appears to be a Bush VHF61 : http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/bush_vhf61vhf_6.html
It was also available in a wooden cabinet - model VHF62.

Bush copied the style from the radios of continental Europe (not just Philips, but Grundig, Saba, Nordmende and other German manufacturers) that were being imported in the late 1950s. VHF FM broadcasting had just started in Britain, bringing higher sound quality. To appreciate the quality, you needed a good radio. Germany had already been using FM for several years and had established a reputation for building high-quality FM radios. The Bush VHF61 was an attempt to compete with those luxury imported radios of similar appearance.

In a somewhat similar story, my grandfather had one of the aforementioned luxury German radios - a Grundig 3028 GB "3D Sound", in a large wooden cabinet with 3 speakers, magic eye tuning indicator and piano-key controls just like the Bush VHF61. By the late 1970s - 1980s these radios were rather old-fashioned and not very desireable, but I was struck by how much better my Grandfather's radio sounded, compared with my pocket transistor radio. This encouraged me to seek out old valve radios in junk shops and jumble sales. Eventually I came across a Bush VHF61 for 10p in a jumble sale, labelled "Not Working". As it looked like my grandfather's old radio, I thought it must be good quality so I took a chance and bought it.

After bringing the radio home, I plugged it straight in to the mains (not considered a good idea these days) but luckily nothing went bang. In fact all the valves lit up, including the magic eye. As I turned the tuning knob, the magic eye seemed to respond, as if the radio was picking up a station. However there was no sound at all, not even a slight crackle or hum. It was definitely not working, as described, but why?

When I looked at the back of the radio, the fault became obvious. The Bush VHF61 has terminals for an extension speaker. Beside the terminals there is also a screw, which when removed, disconnects the internal speaker. The screw was missing, leaving the internal speaker disconnected, thus no sound. Fitted another screw and the radio was working, surprisingly well. I still have that Bush radio and it still works, decades later, though it ought to have some new capacitors now. It should be fairly easy to restore. The components are neatly assembled on tag strips. I'd say this would be a good radio for a beginner to start restoring.

As for my grandfather's Grundig radio, I'm also not entirely sure what happened to it. When he died many years ago now, my aunt claimed the radio, but then she also died some years ago and I've no idea what happened after that. Fortunately I've since found another Grundig 3028 GB radio and restored it. It sounds just as good as I remember the old one did.

[Nowhere-Man]

Sad to say I think my aunt just "slung" that Bush radio but I'd love to have it back.
I also happen to recall very clearly the arrival of colour television since my grandad only had a black and white TV that stood right next to the Bush radio. Basically family friends and relatives all gradualy acquired colour TV sets. I also recall the very first program I saw in colour was Hawai Five O. Of course back then the sets were rented and expensive to own. We actually had a Bush cPolour TV that one day just caught fire in the living room. Smoke billowing from the back.
After that Bush had a bad reputation in the house. As to trannys, I recall one very oldish one I was given in a brown leather case that had lots of holes for the speaker at the front. They all had the little earplug so I was soon hooked on radio luxemburg.
Really the technology of that era was in its own cllass. Far better music and far better TV shows. The commercials were especially good. Hi Karate, Milk Tray, R Whites lemonade, Nimble Bread and the classic nuts whole hazlenuts (Cadbury's make em and they cover them with chocolate).

[Terry]

We actually had a Bush cPolour TV that one day just caught fire in the living room. Smoke billowing from the back.

Ah - the Bush CTV25 - also known as the burning Bush!

There was a modification kit for them - it didn't stop them catching fire but simply turned the line output can into a Davy lamp by covering all the ventilation slots with wire gauze, thus containing the flames!

Dealers were supposed to retrofit the modification to sets in the field - I trust yours' had been modified!

In practice, I doubt many were sold without the mod as the problem occurred very early on - it happened to the demo sample that Bush supplied to us before the colour service proper started. Fortunately, Baird also supplied us with an M701 demo set about a week after the Bush arrived which we'd set up in the workshop. The first I knew of the Bush problem was returning from lunch one day to find a space where the Baird had been as it now occupied pride of place in the shop!

At least we got to assess the performance of the Bush before it packed up - unlike the next dealer who was due to receive the demo set the following week!

[Kalee20]

Yes, looks very like some of the good Continental sets of the time.

I seem to recall hearing... Doesn't this set have an unusual IF for FM, 19.5MHz rather than the usual 10.7MHz?

[Terry]

The Radio Museum entry says 10.7MHz.

However, as 19.5MHz was the standard TV sound IF for several years it is quite possible that a manufacturer might have adopted it for early FM receivers.

Doubtless someone will know the answer ...

[Geordie McBoyne]

For FM it was a 19.5Mcs IF in the Bush models VHF41 and VHF54. These sets employed two EF80 pentodes in the FM tuner.
VHF55 was an AC/DC version of the VHF54. FM tuner used two UF80s.

Till Eulenspiegel.

[Nowhere-Man]

Clearly my grandparents radio was the real deal. It isn't listed in the usual schematics website under Bush as most of the diagrams there are for non FM it seems. That is slightly older models.

What a shame my family simply threw it away. They also sold the autographs of Laurel and Hardy on Ebay which I thought was madness. I mean, those were personal autographs.

As to the Burning Bush, that was pretty comical. Plumes of belching smoke emerging from the back.

[pwdrive]

Trader sheet here for the bush VHF61:

https://www.doctsf.com/documents/schemat.../VHF61.PDF

Lawrence.