413
Item nr.


VEF Spidola 1 Shortwave Receiver

FOR SALE
for EUR 15
Conditions
Beginning of famous series.


Data for VEF Spidola 1
ProductionUSSR (Latvia), 1962.
Price was 73 Rb.
BandsLW (800-2000m), MW (190-550m), 41m (41-51m), 31m (30.5-31.8m), 25m (24.8-25.8m), 19m (19.3-20.0m), 16m (16.6-17.1m), 13m (13.7-14.1m); IF is 465kHz.
Semi-
conductors
10 transistors.
CabinetPlastic. Size 27x19x9cm. Weight 2.2kg w/o batt.
PowerBatt 9V, 6xD or 2x4.5V, or external DC.
DocumentsRmorg on first Spidola; Wikipedia on Spidola.

The Design

Spidola is a line of shortwave portables from the USSR (Riga), with the wave switch carried out as a carousel switch. Ariund 1960 a series was produced with the dail also on this carousel, leaving only the chosen band visible. This model is more rare than mine, technically a bit more peculiar, but it is debatable if such a radio also really looks nicer. I think the dominating speaker grill and narrow band slide opening give this model a stern look.

After opening the back panel, you can read instructions on how to install D cells or flat batteries, and be impressed by the look of the band switch mechanism.

The Spidola was exported under the name Convair. It was succeeded by a more square model, exported as the Convair-10.


Obtained9/2015 from John Bos; sn=264418.
Condition8; plays but insensitive, just the decal misses.
FOR SALEPrice is 15 Euros.
Sound samplePLAY SOUND   Citizens of the USSR where not supposed to go anywhere, certainly not outside the country, but with this portable radio, they could listen to the news from all over the world. It has always surprised me a little bit that these radios were sold in the USSR. Wikipedia reports that Spidola's can be abused as an instrument of crime.

This Object

I was very happy to be offered this radio after the loss of my previous Spidola.

Part of Gerard's Radio Corner.
Generated by SiteBuilder on 26/2/2024 by Gerard (g.tel@uu.nl)