My favourite spot in the house with my books, radios and computer..

All I try to do is to provide some fun by sharing my hobbies. Not too many model numbers and technical info. If you need any you can email me and I will try to help you. So just pictures and general info on this site.

What am I collecting?

Well, most you can see on this site. Not everything is actual, since collecting spans almost 4 decades for me. In my early teens I started with radios. I bought my first cathedrals in the late fifties for a dollar or so. Most I fixed and sold again to friends of my older brothers. I even built radios to order. Almost nothing is left from that time. In the late seventies I discovered the antique jukebox! For the next 10 years I spent all my spare time searching and restoring them.

It brought me virtually almost all over the world. I was one of the very first Europeans who came to the US to buy jukeboxes. I brought some of my friends too and everybody who knows about jukeboxes knows what happened next. Since that time they went and still go by containers full to Europe. Although Jukeboxes always remained only a hobby for me, several of my old friends changed their hobby into a substantial business by importing Jukeboxes and most other Americana from the US.

My hobby brought me in fact to the US and in the late eighties I was able to move there. To my own surprise soon after settling down I changed my interest to antique radios again. I scaled my jukebox collection down from ten to three. But I kept all wallboxes and speakers! Several wireless remotes are still around in perfect working order. Radios aren't that heavy and that on itself is probably a good reason for my change in collecting.

And why?

Sometimes ofcourse I wonder myself why I do all this. I just don't have an answer. I restored my first jukebox without a manual, just did it successfully. I still remember the joy of that first restoration, how an old machine came to life again and looked again as if it just came out of the factory. That same joy repeated itself numerous times with every new restoration while becoming an expert in the field.

The same feeling repeats itself now with the antique radios. Bringing them back to life remains one of the nicest things I can imagine doing in my spare time. Only when I'm able to make them look like new again they deserve a permanent place in my collection. So I think I do all this just for fun. Not to forget the other fun part, searching for them!

Enjoy!

erik@prins.net - Copyright Erik Prins

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