The Stolica tabletop radio receiver was manufactured in 1955-1959 by Zakłady Radiowe im. Marcina Kasprzaka (ZRK), located in Warsaw’s Wola district. It is a six-circuit superheterodyne designed to receive long, medium and short wave in the amplitude modulation system (AM), powered with alternating current. The Stolica is a modernised version of the Syrena radio – the first radio fully developed and manufactured by ZRK.
The radio was installed in a box housing made of wooden parts, plywood, and fibreboard. The entire device was covered in a mahogany, clear-coated veneer. The front was slightly arced, with gently profiled side edges. The side walls and parts of the front wall are decorated with inlays of rounded, modelled strips of thin sheet metal, close to the top and bottom edges. There are also decorative cutouts on the front wall. Edges of the recess are also emphasised with metal strips. The name emblem of the radio is placed at the bottom in the middle, under the cutout. The inside of the front panel is divided into two fields. The broad upper area is made of a light-coloured fabric, behind which there is the speaker, mounted directly to the housing. There is a magic eye tuning indicator in the upper right corner. The narrower, bottom field is made of black plastic, separated from the upper area with a metal slat. The scale, located in the centre, is made of delicate yellow lines, and stripes with white and grey fillings. There are two symmetric rotary switches on either side. A different technical solution for control was adopted for the Stolica than for the Syrena. The knob of each switch is designed so that it consists of an outer ring surrounding the knob and a slimmer shaft, protruding outside of the ring. This allowed adjustment switches to be located coaxially. On the left there is a volume and tone switch, while on the right – a tuning knob with a range switch. The tone adjustment used in the radio, together with the bandwidth selection, is an advantage of the system as it allows fuller reception of musical broadcasts.
The radio was manufactured in five model versions. Apart from the base version, with no Roman numeral in the name, they were: the Stolica II 3262, Stolica III 3263, Stolica IV 3264, and the Stolica V 3272. The devices differed mostly in shape and profile of the housing, as well as the range of available frequencies. The ranges differed depending on the foreign market to which the model was to be exported.

Author: Filip Wróblewski