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This Bengaluru museum is a dream for radio enthusiasts

Uday Kalburgi runs a museum with 150 functioning radios, some of whom are almost 100 years old
Last Updated 05 April 2021, 10:52 IST

Uday Kalburgi turned the ground floor of his four-storey house in Bengaluru into a unique radio museum that has about 150 shortwave radios on display, and they all work!

No matter how many slim and efficient smart devices come along, Kalburgi will always be fascinated by radio.

"There was a time when the radio was such a focal point of family gatherings. Around these sets, stories were woven, musicians from far away sang to us and good and bad tidings from around the world," Kalburgi told Hindustan Times in an interview.

Kalburgi, who lives in this house with his wife and two children, is running a radio enthusiast's dream, regularly maintaining, restoring and repairing the contents of his home museum where entry is free of cost.

From Ballari, Karnataka, Kalburgi took an early interest in shortwave radios and was often found at repair shops, peering at the dissected machines when he was nine. He began collecting the radio sets that he has now put on display when he was 15.

"Most radios at my museum are restored. As they have aged, it has taken time, patience and skill to revive each one," Kalburgi, an electronics and telecommunications engineering consultant, is quoted as saying.

One of the largest radios in his museum is a Philips BX998A from 1955 weighing 27 kg and the smallest is also a Philips, a 2802 from 1928.

"Those who repair such sets can’t usually restore them. They do not know the nitty-gritty of spare parts. I apply what I have learned in my years and now I look forward to sharing that know-how," he told the publication.

Since February, the museum has seen 70 visitors in total. Kalburgi hopes this museum will spark an interest in the new generation about this vintage technology.

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(Published 05 April 2021, 10:27 IST)

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