Midwest 37-16

[Eric Strasen]

The speaker voice coil in my 1937 Midwest 37-16 console went south some time ago, so I replaced the 12″ speaker with a full-range Eminence unit obtained from Parts Express. Fortunately, the field coil and output transformer were just fine and I was able to detach them from the old speaker and mount them in the cabinet. The 37-16 has 16 tubes (a relatively modest # by Midwest standards) and provides great audio from its four 6N6G output tubes.
Have spent the last 1/2 hour trying to load a couple pictures of the set, but my MacBook refuses to downsize them to CVRS limits. Oh well…

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[Eric Strasen]

I see one of the photos did load after all. The set has been heavily modified to accept a switched RCA jack, through which I play an old EICO HFT-90 FM tuner or a CD player, as AM broadcasting is a vast wasteland hereabouts. Will now try to load a shot of the radio’s front, this time unencumbered by my cat.

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[phil]

those are neat radios. I have one that is I think a 12 tube. it’s unusual because the speaker is separate and the receiver is made to sit on top of it. My chassis is pretty flimsy ( thin metal) and so is the cabinet ( they used tiny nails and thin wood) but they always seem to have such a visual charm. Yours is beautiful !

I only really tried mine when I bought it but as I recall it sounded pretty impressive for it’s date and making the chassis lighter gauge really didn’t detract. most radios used such a heavy gauge where the strength wasn’t’ needed. people probably just expected things to be heavier. I always joke that back then, gravity wasn’t what it was now. 😉

if a set has an RCA jack for phono is it usually safe just to connect it to an Iphone or CD player or does one need a cap or resister or something to protect the solid state stuff? I assume a phono would have different impedance but that’s about where I get lost so I haven’t tried doing this.

Ive got a neat little telephunken sterio amp and a separate brand sterio tube tuner. the amp is very lightweight and small for an amp but maybe with older speakers like from a Euro set, maybe some electrostatic tweeters it might have a nice sound to it? It’s nice to have something with tubes that you can actually use and listen to when you get tired of the traffic report 😉

Phil

[Eric Strasen]

Phil:
I sent a lengthy reply to this some time ago with lots of valuable information about Midwest radios and how to modify them. For some reason, it did not post here, but is posted under my name elsewhere on the CVRS site.
I put a lot of effort into that submission, so can anyone tell me how to post it here?
Will be almost eternally grateful for any help received.Thanks much. Eric Strasen

[Eric Strasen]

Phil:
The ultimate source for information on all things Midwest is Mike Simpson at https://www.midwestradiomuseum.com. This site is well worth a visit, and Mike is willing to help out any Midwest radio owner with advice, schematics, etc. On all previous posts about my set, I messed-up the chassis number. It’s a 16-37, not 37-16 — 16 referring to the number of tubes and 37 being the year marketed. My set is in Midwest’s S-16 cabinet. As Mike says, Midwest cabinets were built “quick and dirty” with nails and glue. Mike himself rebuilt my radio’s chassis some years before I obtained the set (off eBay) and a California friend of his rebuilt the cabinet with actual screws and plenty of Titebond! It’s a real work of art. That your cabinet survived all these years is a minor miracle.
I isolated the switched input with an .05 MFD capacitor, wired directly to the volume control with shielded cable (be sure to ground only one end of the shield, near the volume control). You will need two cables, one for the RCA jack and one for the radio signal. Don’t worry about input impedance. It doesn’t seem to matter to the Midwest or to my EICO HFT-90 mono FM tuner or to any of my CD players. With this hook-up, you can bypass the fidelity-limiting receiver circuitry and patch right into the Midwest’s great audio output.
Your Midwest probably has a bunch of trimmers. DO NOT MESS WITH THESE!
The best time to listen to broadcasts on your Midwest is late at night, hooked-up to a good outside long-wire antenna. You can DX AM and shortwave stations from all over the place.
I’m guessing you reached the CVRS site mostly by accident, while searching for Midwest data. If you want a blow-up photo of my switched RCA jack and switch set-up, eMail me at " rel="nofollow">http:// and I’ll sent it to you.

[phil]

the same just happened to me! I wrote out a nice reply with some links to mikes site and when I hit submit It dissapeared.
Mike shows my radio here , it is a 16 tube from 1934. It seems like it was years ahead in design. Mine worked well when I got it so I never even opened it but it has been a few years so I shoudl do a delicate power on and check the wiring etc. but it worked really well and had big sound for such an early radio. I have no idea of the value it would be nice ot know more about it.

thanks for the info on the Ipod hook up. I sort of understand. this info would make a good article for the newsletter if it hasn’t been in there as many would like to connect newer sources of input and not all want to buy and build a 100mw broadcasting unit, and I guess you loose some fidelity through that method anyway.

https://www.midwestradiomuseum.com/1634RM.jpg

Eric I have been with the CVRS for some time. I am in New Westminster BC. I actually started the CVRS forum but I wasn’t really trained as a web developer. The website and forum later underwent some development by a professional web designer and now the website looks so much more professional but I think we should switch the forum back to PHPbb as it is the most common free web forum software so people know the tools and they work well. as it is right now it is terrinbly sluggish.

the issues I had were with updating it and with robot sign ins and spam so it was taking some time to keep them from signing in and I had to screen each new member. the bots werent’ too hard to pick out as most are from Russia and have funny email addresses and usernames usually dont’ make any sense as they are computer generated names with no radio related context.

as it is the forum software is super slow and if you take too long to submit it logs you out before you hit the submit button and there is no warning that you are logged out, it happens automatically even if you are typing like mad.

the trick is to do a “select all” and cut or copy, and then hit submit , so if it kicks you out it’s on your clipboard and you can return and past it back in. It just happened ot me where I wrote for about 10 minutes and hit submit and there was no way to get what I had written back, I had to retype the post. it’s frustrating isn’t it?

also I like to space my paragraphs to try to keep it fairly easy to read but if you do that here it just clumps all the type together. its a known bug.

[Eric Strasen]

Phil:
I assumed you reached the CVRS site by accident, since Midwest radios should be super rare in Canada. They were sold by mail order only from the Cincinnati factory, often without cabinets, and these days are not thick upon the ground even in the States.
Guess the old saw “never assume” applies here. Did you acquire the set in Canada? It would be cool to know something about the set’s provenance. I will attempt to post a photo of my switched input set-up, but can’t promise anything.
You may want to move your Midwest to the “front row” of your collection. It’s a superb performer.

[Eric Strasen]

Phil:
Looks like the photo did not upload. If you want to see my handiwork, eMail me. Frankly, I’m tired of fighting with these image issues!
Eric Strasen
" rel="nofollow">http://

[phil]

I spent an hour writing a descriptive response and I saved it , then I went back to edit mode just to correct some typos and poof it was all gone. the whole post vanished.

Eric you are welcome to email me at
I bought it here in Vancouver over craigslist. I dont’ know it’s history at all other than that. He was a collector and he had a nice oak horn speaker that was quite rare so likely it got here via Ebay? or similar maybe?

im not new , I have been with the CVRS a while and actually I started this forum in Phpbb it worked well and everyone knew how to use all the tools but it did have issues with needing updates to prevent spambots from signing up. I managed the sign ins manually for quite a while. I was never a web designer but I spent a lot of time figuring how to get it set up and working and tried my best to get the post count up. I never did a great job with the website and it needed updating and a decision was made to hire a web developer. Now the website looks better but this forum needs a rebuild with different software. I don’t know why it is so slow. personally I’d like to see the forum go back to PhpBB as it is

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by phil.

[phil]

now my post returned and it seems like I was just repeating myself.. I will leave it be for now but sure feel welcome to email etc. one thing I find difficult on this forum is that you cant’t easily tell where people are from. usually forums have a space for a profile but either it isn’t getting filled in or it is hidden somewhere. this is a real problem when people want to buy and sell and trade as it isn’t very apparent who is close enough to do exchanges with and avoid shipping heavy or very fragile stuff.
Phil

[Eric Strasen]

Phil:
I live in Wyoming, but have been a CVRS member for several years as I own a number of Canadian sets, including a Toronto-built 1947 Stromberg-Carlson 694, which has been pictured on this site in the past. Like many radios marketed in Canada and the States in the immediate postwar, it included a “phono” switch connected to an RCA jack, which bypassed the set’s broadcast circuitry and led directly to the audio output.
Your Midwest is a real beauty! There is no need to drill holes in the chassis to mount a switch and RCA jack. You can mount them on a separate piece of heavy sheet (no voltage potential to shock anyone) and fix it to the cabinet or just let it lay there. Later on, if you wish to revert back to original, just unsolder your shielded cables and nobody will be the wiser.
Midwest wound their own transformers, including output Xformers, which were much better than average for 1930’s sets. This is why it is advantageous to make use of the set’s audio output and superior 12″ speakers.
Eric

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