[MrFixr55]

Hi SRv2,

Please list the makes and models of the farm sets. We are happy to help, as farm sets were extremely regionalized in response to what power was available on the farm. That varied by location. 6V or 32V windmills and storage batteries were popular in some areas, 32V generators with storage batteries in other areas, and in yet other areas, the radios ran off batteries. Some 6V sets had the same tube compliment as a nice car radio or some home radios and were excellent performers. The 1.5V / 90V sets performed like the 4 tube or 5 tube (RF amp before the convertor) battery portables that they were based on with good signal sensitivity but very weak (0.005W to 0.2W) output power.

There were power supplies that were sold by some companies or even the manufacturers themselves to replace the batteries in the 1.5V / 90V sets when rural electrification projects like the TVA finally brought power to the farms. One popular one was the Silvertone "Power Shiftr" for 1.5V / 90V radios. (I have 2 of them). RCA built them also and some sets were drilled for the chassis and power switch for these convertors. I don't believe that there were power supplies built for the 2V / 90V, 2V / 135V 6V or 32V radios. Often, in celebration of electrification, Radio stores would hold trade - in sales where people traded in their battery sets for utility powered sets, sometimes with sponsorship from the utilities, then would hold a public bonfire where the old battery sets were burned. Zenith made at least one 6V set that was switchable between 6V and 117V.

I too developed a bit of an eBay addiction for a while. I was always interested in antique radios; I trained myself in electronics as a kid. My hobbies of electricity, electronics, mechanics and plumbing, coupled with my education as a clinical lab technologist segued into a rather successful career as a clinical engineer for a biomedical manufacturer. Some of what I bought was in homage to "the ones that got away" like my Grandma's Radiola 17 that was promised to me but taken by someone else when she sold the house. Then there were others that interested me. I now have more than 80 radios spanning the 106 year history of the broadcast industry, including a Westinghouse RC and Aeriola Sr, 2 of the first commercial broadcast receivers, ca 1921-1922, a FADA 160 and Radiola 2, ca 1923, a Radiola 3, Atwater Kent 10C, and 20, Ca 1924, and so on. I can't say how much I paid for some of the Holy Grail sets like that Radiola II, Wesringhouse RC and the A-K 10C because the statute of limitations has not run out with Ms. Fixr. The radios I have cover the development of the industry from these early regenerative and TRF sets to a Radiola 60, the first Superheterodyne that was actually designed for house current, an incomplete Radiola Superheterodyne AR812, a Philco Model 20, A GE version of the RCA R7A, and a slew of radios from the late 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, a few from the 60s, 70s and 80s. I also have a gaggle of tube HiFi equipment. All have either been brought back to working condition or restored by myself. About 1/4 are sets that I have owned since childhood, given to me by friends and neighbors or rescued from the curb or the town dump. 30 years ago, I found a Fisher 400C and Fisher 800C Stereo receivers at the curb. These things are worth several hundred apiece. Both work!