This is a hard question for a radio addict.
It’s good to know that you can still buy yourself hours upon hours of radio fixing pleasure for 20 bucks.
If it is a box with wires coming out the back, even part of a radio it is an item of intense interest:)
One thing I would like to collect is 1930’s radios with clocks. I also like Roger’s sets. I don’t have many of either but I admire them.
My ‘junque’ is pretty much a mix of mainly pre war radios, battery sets, consoles, table sets, ranging in age from the 20’s to the 50’s. bakelite and wood. No specific brand, mainly local sets. I tend to gravitate toward project sets, meaning all or some of the parts are there, a box of fun waiting to happen. I think I like to work on a variety of things because each one I find interesting in different ways. I try to refrain from opening too many projects at once, but it is hard to do as often it takes years to come up with, or make the missing bits. Often the enjoyment is in the thrill of finding and or making all the parts, and the friends I make in the process.
One of the fun things about the hobby is that it touches on so many different skills and techniques. gluing things, making parts from metal, computer skills, straining your eyes by googling until the wee hours, learning from everyone’s questions. doing dial scales in photoshop, Ebaying till your eyes are sore,, making missing wood parts, stripping paint , refinishing, repairing finishes. masking, toning, fine painting, spraying, sanding and rubbing out.
Taking things like capacitors apart and restuffing them, taking transformers apart and fixing them or putting new guts inside, or finding a match. Taking switches apart and fixing them, fixing speakers, removing rust and repainting, making specially shaped bits of molding, turning knobs, making dial scales and pressing out dial covers. gluing veneer back down and filling marks. Electonics, and electricity, tuned circuts. the list goes on..
I have a lot to learn about electronics. Usually I do so by getting stuck and then figuring it out bit by bit. I am very patient that way, good thing because some problems have lasted months:) Having friends to ask really helps. And then, when they play , and they haven’t worked for so many years that the mice moved in, and now they not only work , but will play, perhaps for many more years to come, and you think about the days when it was new, and listen to the golden oldies, and then you think , how long could this old table radio potentially last? has it passed it’s day of being thrown out because it is worthless? Will that day come around again?.. or will it be an artifact in a case in another 200 years? you may never know but It is interesting to think about how long they could potentially ‘survive for"
Phil