On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:58:52 +0000, Ian Jackson
wrote:

In message , Don Pearce
writes
On Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:50:10 GMT, "Brian Gaff"
wrote:

Who recalls the RT and VC kit transistor radio called the Elegant 7,
refering to a whole seven transistors!
I built one of these, but the output transistors were faulty and after ten
minutes they would get very hot and the output would stop. Tuurn it off for
a few minutes and it did it all again. In the end the company sent us a set
of matched GET 114s and all was well!

Brian

Sorry you can't see this, but here's the original ad for the Elegant
Seven at four guineas. Also on this page is my first ever valve amp an
SET (tetrode not triode) down on the right - 3 to 4 watts, it says. It
even worked.

http://www.soundthoughts.co.uk/look/seven.jpg

I made an Elegant 7 for my mother-in-law. I still have it. I modified
the mains power supply so it would also trickle-charge the 9V
(non-rechargeable) battery (which works - provided you start with a new
battery, don't let it discharge too much, and don't over-do the charging
current). I remember it being not the most sensitive of radios, and
unusually noisy. [I think that some the cheap multi-layer capacitors of
the time were bad for that.] Must dig it out, see if it still works, and
maybe fix the 43 year-old noise problem.

I suspect there will be bigger problems today with the amount of
electronic garbage flying round in the air, but it would be
interesting to see how it holds up. I think I would be going for the
transistors before the caps in a noise search though.

d