The Radiola Super VIII came out in 1924. It was RCA's first console radio. It used 6 UV99 tubes and had a single horn speaker. Later versions added a second horn.

When I obtained the set, it was in decent condition. I had to make some minor repairs to the cabinet, and the grille cloth needed to be replaced which was a major task, having to take the radio almost completely apart to get to it.

Before going further I needed to test the catacomb which contains all of the components imbedded in a waxy resin. It had a break in the circuit which necessitated my opening it up. I've described this process in my article in the Flash!.

This radio was also missing an important part-the speaker driver. I had a Utah driver that I thought I could use, but needed to make an adapter to attach it.

The Utah driver threaded end and the end of the horn were both the same diameter, 7/8 inch, however the threads were quite different. Using a thread gauge, I determined the Utah at 18 threads per inch (7/8-18) while the horn was 36 TPI (7/8-36). Just as a note, RCA must have been fond of 36 TPI, as I was missing a few screws elsewhere and they were also 36 TPI-not an easy one to find.

I bought a cube of brass on Ebay and gathered the necessary drill bits and taps to tap opposing sides of the cube, while trying to keep the costs down as I'd probably never use them again.

One task remained-repairing the barrel antenna.

The antenna rotates using a dial on the faceplate. It has brass rings on the top of the spindle which connect to the ends of the antenna wire. 2 brushes ride along the rings and connect to the catacomb. The top ring had worked loose. It had actually been forced off when the spindle expanded over the years (the spindle I believe was made of bakelite or something similar). I lightly sanded the top of the spindle enough to get the brass ring back on.

As stated earlier, this set uses 6 UV99 tubes. It came with a few good ones, but I needed to find more. They're not easy to find, and not always in the best working condition. I patiently built up my stock from Ebay.

I also made a set of reproduction batteries.