RadioActivity 2008
Old Equipment Contest Catagories
by Ed Lyon, OEC Commissioner
Remember the "good ol' days" when everything that wasn't bought at the neighborhood grocery, shoe store, or apothecary was ordered from the "WishBook." If you were in the East, you ordered from Sears, Roebuck & Co., Montgomery-Ward, or Spiegel's, and if you hailed from the deep Midwest it was Gamble's, and in Canada, there was Eaton's. All these mail-order houses sold radios, and some of the models sold were of the highest quality. Well, "MailOrder Radios," or "Wish-Book Radios," is the theme of RadioActivity-2007, to be held on 8-9 June, 2007.
In keeping with the theme, the Old equipment Contest will feature several categories dealing with mail order brands of radios, as well as some of the traditional categories. The rules are just like in prior years, and there are several "theme" categories of entries. For the theme categories, we want all entries to carry brand names of the relevant Catalog store, such as Airline for Montgomery Ward, Silvertone for Sears-Roebuck, and so forth. Wouldn't you like to see a Silvertone, restored to original condition, and carrying Defender tubes? Documentation, always necessary for a good standing in the contest, is especially important here, and one piece that is needed for the theme categories is a reproduction of the catalog page or advertisement of the radio.
This short article will serve as early warning to those of you who need some time to prepare your entries. We have traditional categories, too, and some of them call for extensive and careful restoration skills and patience, so this will be fair warning for those entrants, as well. Let's get out those Wish-Book beauties, and get them documented.
Notes and Guidelines:
Entries (except consoles) must be able to fit on a table and take up no more than 3’ x 5’ of table space. If your entry requires a display stand, you need to provide it yourself. No mountings may be fastened to the walls.
Should the contest room fill to overcrowding, the contest officials reserve the right to limit the items submitted.
Special Awards
1. Best of Show. The entry that, in the opinion of the judges, best represents the contest criteria.
2. People’s Choice. The OEC entry voted most popular by those who view the contest.
3. Significant Historical Merit. The entry(ies) that, in the opinion of the judges, has the most historical significance (for example, first of a kind, extreme rarity, influence on the industry, milestone event, etc.)
4. Preservation Award. Given to the entry(ies) that best emphasizes keeping the item original—no modern replacement parts, refinishing, etc.
Special awards 3 and 4 will not be given if the judges feel that no entry meets the criteria.
Contest Judging Criteria
The OEC judges use the following scoring weights.
A. [0-10 pts] General Appearance. Is item restored, cleaned, and generally presentable, or just “as-found”?
B. [0-10 pts] Item Rarity. Not as important as authenticity, but it counts for the item to be relatively hard to find.
C. [0-20 pts] Authenticity. How much of the item is demonstrably authentic and not modified? Documentation may be crucial.
D. [0-40 pts] Documentation. Critical to winning blue ribbon; impossible without it. Ads, journal articles, books, schematics, news clips, description of historical significance of the item all help.
E. [0-10 pts] Entrant Effort. How much was done by entrant, based on item appearance and documentation.
F. [0-10 pts] Qualitative Bonus. The bonus is based on judges’ judgment and experience.
Pictures from the 2007 Old Equipment Contest
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