View source for Utility Radio

{{Short description|British radio receiver made during World War II}}
[[File:Wartime civilian receiver.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Wartime civilian receiver, 1944-1945]]
The '''Utility Radio''' or '''Wartime Civilian Receiver''' was a [[vacuum tube|valve]] domestic [[Superheterodyne receiver|radio receiver]], manufactured in [[United Kingdom|Great Britain]] during [[World War II]] starting in July  1944. It was designed by G.D. Reynolds of [[Murphy Radio]]. Both AC and battery-operated versions were made.<ref name="Miller2000">{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Charles Edward|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_DJZf2P0gFoC|title=Valve Radio and Audio Repair Handbook|publisher=Newnes|year=2000|isbn=0-7506-3995-4|pages= 144–151}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vintage-radio.com/manufacturers-and-sets/wartime.html |title=Wartime manufactuerers and sets |publisher=vintageradio.com |accessdate=2014-12-26 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233134/http://www.vintage-radio.com/manufacturers-and-sets/wartime.html |archivedate=2016-03-03 }}</ref><ref name="Street2002" />

==History==
When war broke out in 1939, British radio manufacturers devoted their resources to producing a range of military radio equipment required for the armed forces. This resulted in a shortage of consumer radio sets and spare parts, particularly valves, as all production was for the services. The war also prompted a shortage of radio repairmen, as virtually all of them were needed in the services to maintain vital radio and radar equipment. This meant it was very difficult for the average citizen to get a radio repaired, and with very few new sets available, there was a desperate need to overcome the problem.<ref name="ClassicWireless" />

The government solved this by arranging for over forty radio manufacturers to produce sets to a standard design with as few components as possible consistent with the ability to source them. Earlier, the government had introduced the "[[Utility clothing|Utility]]" brand to ensure that all clothing, which was [[Rationing in the United Kingdom#Clothing|rationed]], was produced to a reasonable quality standard as, prior to its introduction, a lot of shoddy goods had appeared on the market; the brand was therefore adopted for this wartime radio.<ref name="Street2002">{{cite book|author=Sean Street|title=A Concise History of British Radio, 1922-2002|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7jo0IcUZeoC&pg=PA78|year=2002|publisher=Kelly Publications|isbn=978-1-903053-14-0|page=78}}</ref><ref name="Miller2000"/>

The Utility Set had limited reception on [[medium wave]] and lacked a [[longwave]] band to simplify the design. The tuning scale listed only BBC stations. After the war a version with LW was made available and modification kits to retrofit existing sets were marketed.<ref name="valve">{{cite web|url=http://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/wartime/mains/warmains.htm |title=Wartime mains |publisher=Thevalvepage.com |accessdate=2006-03-04 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192706/http://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/wartime/mains/warmains.htm |archivedate=2016-03-03 }}</ref>

About 175,000 sets were sold, at a price of £12 3s 4d each ({{Inflation|GBP|{{£sd|l=12|s=3|d=4}}|1943|r=-1|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).<ref name="ClassicWireless">{{cite web|url=http://www.classicwireless.btinternet.co.uk/warciva.htm|title=Wartime Civilian Receiver|publisher=ClassicWireless.co.uk|year=2003|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011231913/http://www.classicwireless.btinternet.co.uk/warciva.htm|archivedate=2012-10-11|accessdate=2017-01-11}}</ref> The set is sometimes characterized as the British equivalent of the German [[Volksempfänger]] ("Peoples' Receiver"); however there were dissimilarities. The ''Volksempfänger'' were radio sets designed to be inexpensive enough for any German citizen to purchase one but higher quality consumer radios were always available to Germans who could afford to pay higher prices. By contrast, the Utility Set was the only consumer radio receiver available for purchase on the British market for much of the latter part of the war.<ref name="Ross2010">{{cite book|author=Corey Ross|title=Media and the Making of Modern Germany: Mass Communications, Society, and Politics from the Empire to the Third Reich|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxytXTsadScC&pg=PA1805|date=6 May 2010|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-161494-1|page=1805}}</ref> Starting in June 1942, manufacture of consumer radio receivers in the [[United States]] also ceased due to military production needs.<ref name="McGregorDriscoll2016">{{cite book|author1=Michael A. McGregor|author2=Paul D. Driscoll|author3=Walter Mcdowell|title=Head's Broadcasting in America: A Survey of Electronic Media|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m6dYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT77|date=8 January 2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-34792-7|page=77}}</ref><ref name="Kennett1985">{{cite book|author=Lee B. Kennett|title=For the Duration...: The United States Goes to War, Pearl Harbor-1942|url=https://archive.org/details/fordurationunite00kenn|url-access=registration|year=1985|publisher=Scribner|isbn=978-0-684-18239-1}}{{pageneeded|date=November 2020}}</ref>

== Specifications ==
The sets used a four-valve [[Superheterodyne receiver|superhet]] circuit with an audio output of 4 watts at 10% total [[harmonic distortion]]; they performed as well as many pre-war sets. The valve complement consisted of a [[Pentagrid converter#Hexode|triode-hexode]] [[frequency mixer]], a [[variable mu|variable-μ]] RF [[pentode]] IF amplifier and a high slope output pentode. A "Westector" solid-state [[Metal_rectifier|copper oxide diode]] was used for [[demodulation]], which saved one valve and allowed use of an available type of pentode for the audio stage.<ref name="Miller2000"/> The [[HT (vacuum tube)|HT]] line was derived from a [[full wave rectifier]]. All valves were on International Octal sockets apart from the rectifier which was on a British 4-pin base. There were minor variations between set makers; for instance [[Philips]] used [[intermediate frequency|IF]] transformers with adjustable [[ferrite core]]s (so-called slug tuning) rather than the conventional trimmer capacitors.<ref name="Street2002" />

== Manufacturers ==
More than 40 manufacturers, such as [[Pye Ltd.]] and [[Marconiphone]], made Utility radios. The manufacturer of a particular set was not readily apparent to the general public, although each manufacturer stamped a code letter on the radio to identify themselves to dealers. UK makers often used different designations for the same valve (tube), while octal tubes might be of USA origin. All valves in the Utility radio used standard designations prefixed by BVA (for [[British Valve Association]]). They were produced by valve makers such as [[Mullard]], [[Marconi-Osram Valve|MOV]], [[Cossor]], [[Mazda (light bulb)|Mazda]] and Brimar. Dealers, knowing the maker of a set and which valve manufacturer that maker used, could easily deduce which pre-war types these were and make warranty claims on the manufacturer.<ref name="valve" />

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/reports/1943-23.pdf Technical review] by BBC Research Department, 1943
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080612040843/http://www.thorneyhill.freeserve.co.uk/othersets.html Utility Set(1)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192706/http://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/wartime/mains/warmains.htm Utility Set(2)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303174342/http://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/wartime/mains/manufact.htm Manufacturers and valve complement]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303195853/http://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/wartime/mains/surpad.jpg Government Surplus advertisement]
*{{YouTube|id=f9gYHnEI4pg|title=Civilian Wartime (Utility) Radio – Restoration}}

[[Category:Types of radios]]
[[Category:Radio electronics]]
[[Category:United Kingdom home front during World War II]]
[[Category:World War II British electronics]]
[[Category:Models of radios]]