Portable 5

Trav-Ler Karenola Radio & Television Corp.(Travler); Chicago

Data
Forum
Pictures
Collections

  • Year
  • 1927
  • Category
  • Broadcast Receiver - or past WW2 Tuner
  • Radiomuseum.org ID
  • 105450

Click on the schematic thumbnail to request the schematic as a free document.

 Technical Specifications

  • Number of Tubes
  • 5
  • Main principle
  • TRF (Tuned-Radio-Frequency but use of regeneration unknown); 2 AF stage(s)
  • Wave bands
  • Broadcast only (MW).
  • Power type and voltage
  • Dry Batteries / 2 x 45 & 3 x 1.5 & 4.5 Volt
  • Loudspeaker
  • Magnetic loudspeaker (reed) generic.
  • Material
  • Leather / canvas / plastic - over other material
  • from Radiomuseum.org
  • Model: Portable 5 - Trav-Ler Karenola Radio &
  • Shape
  • Portable set > 8 inch (also usable without mains)
  • Dimensions (WHD)
  • 12.5 x 10 x 8.5 inch / 318 x 254 x 216 mm
  • Price in first year of sale
  • 77.00 $ !
  • Literature/Schematics (1)
  • Western Radio Manufacturing Co. 1929 catalogue
  • Literature/Schematics (4)
  • January 8th 1927, Radio Doings magazine advertisement on page 31
  • Author
  • Model page created by Vitor Oliveira. See "Data change" for further contributors.

 Collections | Museums | Literature

 Forum

Forum contributions about this model: Trav-Ler Karenola: Portable 5

Threads: 2 | Posts: 2

Fellow Radiophiles:

This post shows the restoration results by Radio Museum guest Michael Lang, who found the information here very helpful to repair his Trav-Ler 5 tube portable radio from the mid 1920's.

 

 

One of the problems was the open windings in iron core transformer, which Michael rewound completely. This is not a tuned transformer, so the number of turns is not critical. He was inspired by a post showing the repair of one of these transformers.

 

 

 

Michael also had to improvise a supporting pin for the lid which holds the embedded loop antenna as shown in the next picture. In my slightly earlier version of the radio, I improvised a different pin to hold the loop, which is separate from the lid, as shown the the two pictures on the right.

Quoting a few of emails  from Michael:
 
Subject: Re: Trav-ler works !!!!!!!
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:48:33 -0400
Hi Joe,
 
this afternoon I worked on my Trav-ler 5-tube ... I pulled off the old wire from the two coils in the first RF-transformer and winded them new with 0.1mm cupper/laquer-insulated wire (I attached two photos of this work to this mail). Afterwards I rebuilt the chassis with it's new transformer and put voltage to everything - unfortunately I don't have a 3V-battery, so I took a 2V-accumulator, but I received only one very very weak signal far far away. Then I took a 6V-battery and reduced the voltage to (around) 3V (due to the CX299 / 199) and... it worked !!!! I was able to tune a few stations with the original loop antenna loud and clear in the headphones and listenable in the speaker. I will try some experiments with the voltage of the B-battery in the next days, but I am very happy, that my efforts were successful.
 
I attached another photo of the cleaned chassis of my set as an appetizer for more. I will now clean the cabinet and when I'm finished, you'll get more pictures - promised !! Now the only thing I have to work on is to get any spare part for the spindle plug to connect the loop with the cabinet - of course it's missing ... but this problem should be quite more easy to solve, than the damaged RF ....
 
Thanks again very much for your kind help !!!
 
Best wishes to the USA and
herzliche Grüße aus Deutschland
Michael
------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: Trav-ler works !!!!!!!
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:05:10 -0400

Hello Joe,
 
thank you very much for the photos you sent to me - unfortunately my loop antenna is build totally different (like the one on the additional picture at RMORG), so I had to improvise another solution (as you can see on the photos). Now the set works very fine !! I am using two 2V / 5AH batteries in series as A-battery and 90V (amp) / 27V (det) as B-battery.
 
If I pull up the volume and the "battery", it begins to oscillate. I am able to control this by reducing the vol or batt voltage (or both) and when both are in balance, the receiption is very clear and loud. I added some (first!) pictures for your information - they were all done with flashlight on my writing desk. Better ones will follow in the next days !!
 
My very best regards
Michael
------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Trav-ler 5-Tube final photos
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 12:08:07 -0400
Hello Joe,
 
I tried to make some pictures without flashlight outside this afternoon ... have a look to the attached ones. Please choose the photos you find suitable for RMORG and post them under your account as I am not a member there (maybe in the next time, but until now an access is possible for me over my friend who is a member actually) - note: I was listening to the set, when I took the pictures :-)!!
 
Please allow me one final question: would it be possible to get a nice scan of the advertisement flyer, you posted on RMORG for this set ? It would a very nice additon to my radio ... !
 
Refering to your statement about the production time of these radios I think, our two sets were made quite "near by". I watched another Trav-ler (same model) on ebay recently, but this one showed a battery plug on the chassis, which neither your not my radio has - so I think, our two sets are older, because this plug would be a great invention to remove the chassis without strangling the cables through the little hole in the upper half. It also had the "C"-battery located on the back of the chassis, so that you would not have to remove the whole radio, if you just want to change it !
These are inventions, which speak for a later production circle, because I don´t believe, that the handling went "from easy to difficult" ... If you like, I can send you pictures from this set; I copied them from the ebay-auction on my PC.
 
Thanks again for everything - your help and your hints were very useful !!!
My very best regards
Michael
As Michael asks, I don't have a good reproduction of the instruction sheet that was originally pasted in the back lid of the radio. It would be good if a member could take a good photo of his instructions for upload and reproduction.
 
As Michael promised, he sent some very nice photos of his version of the 5 tube portable Trav-Ler:

Thank you Michael for sharing your very good photos. We look forward to your joining RMORG.

-Joe

Joe Sousa, 31.Oct.10

Weitere Posts (1) zu diesem Thema.

Hello Radiophiles,

Ross Hoff has posted a useful method to work around an open untuned RF transformer primary. Ross made his repair on a Crosley 127 Superhet.

As Konrad Birkner points out in his reply to Ross, the ideal approach would be actual replacement of the transformer.

Sometimes, a replacement can't be found.

I had good luck repairing the two open untuned transformers transformers in my Silvertone Trav-ler portable radio.

Part of what made the repair easy is that the exact number of turns is of no importance because the transformers are not tuned. The other aspect that made this repair easy is that the number of turns is not too large.

Often the fault is corrosion right at the coil wire solder connection. I have fixed a few audio and RF transformer just by resoldering the end wires.

The two transformers of the Travler were open and had opens in the middle of the winding that were caused by corrosion. I found the open spots, added a similar ammount of fine wire, and got the transformers working again.

In my case the RF transformers offered a modest amount of step-up gain around 1.3X per transformer.

The transformer load also eliminates plate resistor drop, which reduces plate voltage on a triode and therefor, it's transconductance. This is particularly important if the plate supply is a modest 90V.

click to enlarge photos

The second transformer shown on the right has a wood core, and only need to have the internal wires reconnected. They had corroded open at the point where they exit the transformer.

Regards,

-Joe

Joe Sousa, 13.Oct.09

Weitere Posts (1) zu diesem Thema.