Canadian RCA Victor A-20 Globe Trotter 1939 John Vassos Radio
Very Rare 5-tube SW Radio Model A-20 "Globe Trotter", made by Canadian RCA Victor in 1939, in cabinet attributed to John Vassos, near mint condition
In a Nutshell
Beautiful and powerful short-wave radio, that likes to stay together with its better half, a teardrop bakelite record player, both designed for Canadians by John Vassos
Introduction:
The Canadian General Electric Co., Ltd., and the RCA Victor Co., Montreal were important centers of radio development and production during the 1930's. Up for sale is a prominent and rare example for this period, a Canadian RCA Victor A-20. An enthusiastic account of the radio has been written by John Rose (ref.1), who found his at the Bayhead Radio Museum in Bayhead, Nova Scotia, Canada. John as well as Mark Stein in his book "Machine Age To Jet Age I" attribute the cabinet to John Vassos (see below under Vassos). The radio as many of Vassos' designs (pict.30), features chrome parts, here two vertical bars across an arched speaker cloth. The tilted dial scale, and the intricately interleaved round and sharp edges give the radio a unique and rarely seen look. The set features a wide frequency range, with expanded broadcast-band including police band, and two shortwave bands continuously covering the whole SW range from 2.3 to 22 MHz.
About my Radio:
The radio is all-original, except the grill cloth, which however is authentic (ref.1). There is only one source left for new old stock of this arched pattern. The radio still has separate antenna and ground connections, needing extension by a long wire or an external loop to receive optimally. The radio has been serviced, and aligned. The capacitors had been replaced by a former owner with quality Dubilier caps, the filter capacitor values have been increased from 10 to 33 uF as well (pict.33), after taking the youtube video (click on pict.31 or go to ref.2), since there was still a slight hum. It turned out that even after all that there was still some hum. The reason was, that the phono signal was connected to the audio section by the factory without any shielding. Replacement of two cables with coaxial cable (pict.33) helped to finally get rid of all hum. Please
e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.
For the techies only: Transformers were used in all radios until the 1930's, when the so-called AA5 designs came up. Transformers decouple the 110V power outlet from the radio, and provide separate voltages for the heaters and the plates of the tubes. Transformerless AA5 designs use tubes, which have heater voltages adding up to 110Volt, and their plate voltages are provided by directly rectifying the 110V from the plug. Saving the transformer makes the radio cheaper and lighter. Often one of the two poles of the plug is connected to the chassis, potentially generating hazards, when touching the chassis, especially when the original unpolarized plugs are used. Transformer radios like this one are intrinsically safe. John Rose's radio (see Introduction above) has an odd utility plug on its back, which is polarized, whereas the main plug is unpolarized. He wasn't sure if this receptacle was refurbished later. Since my (your) radio has the same receptacle (pict.21), the puzzle remains, as how it comes that a 1939 radio has a polarized receptacle, which is supposed to have been introduced in 1957? The maker is Amphenol.
John Vassos [1898-1985]: Detailed biographies can be found on the net. John Vassos, FIDSA (Fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) was a noted US industrial and graphical designer. Born in Romania to Greek parents, he designed everything from hip flasks, subway turnstiles, paring knives, Hohner mouth organs, computers, an electron microscope, corporate logos, and illustrated books (including works by Oscar Wilde and graphic books cowritten with his wife) and magazines. In 1933 he established the first internal design department for RCA and remained as its consultant until 1964. In 1939 he designed the first consumer television sets for RCA that were introduced at the New York World's Fair. His RCA consoles (pict.30) are among the highest priced radios, like most radios by famous industrial designers.
