A Personal History of Car Radio
"The good old days" - by Roy Harriss
After leaving school in 1943 and returning to London from evacuation,
it was find a job time, my first being with a small manufacturing
company based in Hammersmith. This was a severe shock to the system.
Work started at 7.30am and finished at 6.00pm, with 1 hour for lunch,
and 7.30am to 1.00pm on Saturdays.
After being fitted with Bib & Brace, a size somewhat too large
for my rather undernourished frame, I was introduced to Mr George
Larr, the works foreman, who showed me to a work bench with a huge
drawer underneath for tools, some of which were provided but were
expected to be added to at my expense in due course.
Noting the variation of exciting projects under construction, I
was highly delighted when Mr Larr showed me a plan of a trolley
he would help me build. This was to be constructed of 3/16 x 1½
inch angle steel and comprised 5 shelves with 16 gauge steel inserts
standing 5 feet high, 5 feet long and 4 feet wide. I was shown how
to measure the correct length of angle steel and mark it off at
45º from the bundle that had been deposited alongside my workbench.
So far so good. Fitting the first length of angle in the vice proved
more difficult than anticipated, as trying to hold and balance a
12 feet long heavy piece of steel and screw up the vice at the same
time was not an easy task. The cutting of the angled corners, a
total of some 80 in all, plus the uprights, by hand, took me over
one week as some required filing to fit, by which time I was barely
visible under my overall.
By the end of the first week I had lost most of my enthusiasm for
the engineering world and felt there must be an easier way to enjoy
one's working life. All was not lost, however, as I did pick up
some engineering skills which became useful later on.
I moved on to another small engineering company assembling electric
lamp units on a piecework basis. This unfortunately did not last
long as the union found that I was earning twice the normal wage
for the job by attaching a box spanner to an electric drill to speed
up production. The union downed tools and I upped sticks.
I always had an interest in radio from school days where fiddling
about with crystal sets, earphones and valves was the usual past
time. Therefore it seemed natural to look for some form of occupation
in the field of radio. After a short spell with a company based
in the Earls Court Exhibition Building in London, modifying American
aircraft equipment to fit British bombers, I moved on to an amplifier
manufacturer in nearby Kensington. Here I stayed for 2 years until
I found that the Rootes Group car manufacturer was advertising for
car radio mechanics.
The company produced the Humber, Sunbeam and Alpine models to which
Radiomobile car receivers were fitted when required. This for me
was ideal and I stayed with them for 3 years. Periodically visits
were received from Radiomobile personnel ensuring that any problems
with the product were noted and dealt with promptly. It was on one
of these visits that Mr Wally Crossland, the then Service Manager,
asked if I would like to join him at RDM. Radiomobile was a marketing
company formed between HMV and S. Smith & Sons to launch the
new innovation, Car Radio.
This was an offer not to be refused and I duly reported to Mr R
P Chilvers, Forman of the Service Department on the Great West Road,
Brentford. I was one of 12 mechanics each with his own bench incorporating
a signal generator, output meter, volt and ammeter monitoring the
12 volt piped supply, together with an AVO Model 40 multimeter.
The radios currently serviced at that time were mainly the models
RM80, RM100, RM4100 and RM4200. These were all produced by EMI under
the HMV label based in Hayes, Middlesex. Standard valves with loctal
bases were used in the Models 80 & 100 receivers, which were
extremely bulky and had a current consumption of around 10 amps.
All four models required a high-tension line of 200 volts DC, which
was derived from a Mallory vibrator converting 12 volts DC to AC,
transforming up to 200 volts AC then rectifying back to DC.
The models RM100 & RM200 were the first radios to employ miniature
valves that were therefore able to fit the tuning section into a
7 x 2 dashboard aperture, although room had to be found elsewhere
for the power supply and amplifier sections.
The first single piece receiver was the Model 20X, it used miniature
valves but still required a 200 volt, high-tension line. All these
models were the latest technology at the time and were all produced
at Hayes bearing the HMV logo. Each component was soldered individually
and packed in position with little room to spare.
In those days these were luxury items and carried a 33% purchase
tax, and as car manufacturers had not yet started providing an accommodating
slot, sales were moderate. Radiomobile was therefore formed in order
to promote the idea of radios in motor vehicles and to boost sales
accordingly. One of the major problem areas encountered was the
lack of a dedicated fixing position in the car, and most radios
were hung from the underside of the dash panel in a central position.
Noise suppression of the engine and car electrics caused great
problems, as there was no such thing as resistive high tension leads
to the spark plugs. Most vehicles were assembled on a chassis to
which the body was bolted; this was also a source of crackles through
the receiver due to poor continuity. It was, therefore, most essential
that when a radio was fitted to a customer's car, great attention
had to be paid to the suppression of interference for customer satisfaction.
It was for this reason I transferred to the Radiomobile Service
Garage, situated in Temple Road Cricklewood. It was here that VIPs
would bring their cars for the fitting of this, as some would say,
"new fangled contraption".
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