Mende 315W radio (1938)
The Mende 315W is a rather large radio from just before WW2.
It is a stern, square radio. But this is a still a radio for the well-to-do,
with its walnut veneer, tuning eye, large speaker and 7 valves.
I bought it through Internet in 2008.
Mende was one of the larger German radio manufacturers before WW2.
Their logo was a very simple letter “M”, consisting of three
vertical lines bridged by two semicircles.
On this radio, the logo is also used for the ornamental bar
in front of the speaker,
Here, the Mende logo is stretched vertically to form a vertical bar.
The front is divided in three equal parts by the woorden bar separating
the speaker from the tuning dial and the logo.
Mende used their logo like this in many of their models.
The 315W is a robust radio offering some modest luxury.
It has a large speaker and a tuning eye.
It has connections for a record player and a taperecorder, really
a rare object for the time.
According to the Staleman radio guide it should have three wave bands:
short, medium and long wave.
The tuning dial is a bit peculiar.
It has two columns of stations. The left column seems jump from MW to LW.
It contains most of the stations.
The left column seems to be SW.
On the inside, coupled to the tuning capacitor,
there is some kind of switch that is activated around the jump.
The waveband switch has a square knob, but it really
has only 2 positions, labeled 200-2000 and 18-54.
The 315W is rather heavy, the weight being casused by the large electrodynamic
speaker, large power transformer.
The power electrolytic is a large block positioned beside the chassis.
It contains all P-base (side contact) valves with 4 V heaters:
- ACH1 triode/hexode as frequency changer,
- AF3 RF penthode as IF amplifier,
- AB2 double diode as detector,
- AC2 triode as AF pre-amplifier,
- AL4 penthode as output amplifier,
- AZ1 rectifier, a pear-shaped one,
- AM2 tuning eye, very rare!
It seems that Mende had a close relationship with Philips and was more
dependent on Philips technology than e.g. Telefunken.
The reason why I think this is the use of P-base valves and
two “Licensed by Philips” stickers, on the chassis and back panel.
Maybe the stickers were only because the radio was sold in The Netherlands
where Philips held the so many radio patents.
I bought this radio through an Internet second-hand-stuff site in
september 2008.
The price looked nice, but there was a missing knob and the case has some
scratches and cracks in the lacquer.
I haven't yet tried it.
I expect some work to replace the electrolytics, that are not hermetically
sealed, and the inevitable paper capacitors.
And I will need to polish the case a bit to make scratches
and cracks disappear.