Victor VV-R-80

[fmlondon]

Does anyone know if any of this early attempt at a phono-radio by Victor are known to survive?

[ChesterCheetah18]

The VV R-80 was not a combination machine. The first six were basically VV 80 cabinets with a radio chassis installed instead of the phono works. After that a Type A was introduced that used a different cabinet. According to Mr. Baumbach's "Victor Data Book" only 25 were ever shipped. If I recall correctly, one was used as a prop in "Boardwalk Empire", so I suppose at least one survived. I've never seen one personally.

Steve

[fmlondon]

Thank you!

[ChesterCheetah18]

Thank you!

My pleasure.

[VanEpsFan1914]

A surviving example of this strange and wonderful machine may be seen on the second floor of the Johnson Victrola Museum in Dover, Delaware.

The Victrola horn serves as the "loudspeaker," driven by a horn-driver mounted where the tonearm bracket goes. The motorboard is fitted with radio controls and the cabinet contains the batteries.

[AmberolaAndy]

These things really fascinate me. I guess this product was only a concept.

[Skihawx]

The Victor company had no interest in selling radios in 1922. They were interested in preventing anyone else from using the Victor name to sell radios. In order to copyright a name you have have sold product. As I heard the story they produced 25 radios and sold them to their distributors. Here is one I found in an old RCA storage unit years ago. It looks like it may have been a "portable" version for testing. Notice the VV-50 handle? You would think the Victor company would have made a nicer cabinet. But it is not. It looks like Victor may have bought some Federal receivers and took them apart and made these 12" x 12" radio panels. The tube sockets, RF coils, knobs, and inter-stage transformers all look like stock Federal parts. Maybe Federal was involved in the build? I am not sure we will every know. Some day I need to do something with this. Right now it is just a cool VTMC artifact that has been abused over the last 100 years. 238

[AmberolaAndy]

The Victor company had no interest in selling radios in 1922. They were interested in preventing anyone else from using the Victor name to sell radios. In order to copyright a name you have have sold product. As I heard the story they produced 25 radios and sold them to their distributors. Here is one I found in an old RCA storage unit years ago. It looks like it may have been a "portable" version for testing. Notice the VV-50 handle? You would think the Victor company would have made a nicer cabinet. But it is not. It looks like Victor may have bought some Federal receivers and took them apart and made these 12" x 12" radio panels. The tube sockets, RF coils, knobs, and inter-stage transformers all look like stock Federal parts. Maybe Federal was involved in the build? I am not sure we will every know. Some day I need to do something with this. Right now it is just a cool VTMC artifact that has been abused over the last 100 years. 238

That is really interesting. I would like to mess with a 3 dial tuner radio of 100 years ago to see how they pick up a station.

[gunnarthefeisty]

The Victor company had no interest in selling radios in 1922. They were interested in preventing anyone else from using the Victor name to sell radios. In order to copyright a name you have have sold product. As I heard the story they produced 25 radios and sold them to their distributors. Here is one I found in an old RCA storage unit years ago. It looks like it may have been a "portable" version for testing. Notice the VV-50 handle? You would think the Victor company would have made a nicer cabinet. But it is not. It looks like Victor may have bought some Federal receivers and took them apart and made these 12" x 12" radio panels. The tube sockets, RF coils, knobs, and inter-stage transformers all look like stock Federal parts. Maybe Federal was involved in the build? I am not sure we will every know. Some day I need to do something with this. Right now it is just a cool VTMC artifact that has been abused over the last 100 years. 238

got anything else that came from that storage unit? I love hearing and seeing stuff like that, or stuff from dealers that never sold, etc