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  #31  
Old 03-26-2006, 03:30 PM
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Got some photos back!

Quote:
Originally Posted by tomwil
It is a shame that most of the pictures on this thread do not show up ... It would have been nice to have seen all of your radios!
Tom, I've been given an opportunity to go back into some archives and dig out old photos one by one from some of the previous posts that were lost last year. There are still a few missing, but most of them are now in place. You can now go back and have a look... they're really cool looking radios! I also did the same in the Pocket Transistor thread and a few of the others.
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  #32  
Old 04-07-2006, 01:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie
I've been given an opportunity to go back into some archives and dig out old photos one by one from some of the previous posts that were lost last year.
Charlie, thanks for restoring the pics! They are a sure pleasure to view!
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  #33  
Old 05-24-2006, 03:57 AM
superdeez superdeez is offline
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Toshiba RT-7066

I don't know much about this set, except that it comes from the London area in the UK. It's a really good set, has all four European bands, LW/MW/SW/FM, and it works good.

Has dual cassette deck with dubbing, 5 bang EQ, 5 position memory, and scans for active stations.

Naturally, FM and MW (AM) are programmed for European frequencies 9KHz increments for AM, .05MHz increments for FM/SW (which is better than the .2MHz increments for FCC-spec FM radios!) I'm not at all surprised by the very fine tuning of FM, because in Europe, about 80-90% of broadcast radio is FM. I have been in some large metropolitain areas on the Contenent, and up in Scandanavia, where I could only pick up ONE AM station (and even then only at night!) but I could pick up eaisly 20 FM stations over the 88-108MHz FM band.

I really like the autoscan feature, because it's perfect for SW DXing, on a regular basis I pick up SW broadcasts from Mexico and Cuba, and probably even farther south, and occationally from contental Europe. Just a few minutes ago I got a Call in show from Bremen where the topic was how the East still lagged behind the West all these years after the fall of the iron curtain.

Eaisly, it's the best portable radio I've ever used since my old Mallory. It was an AM/FM/Cass. unit that has given me the most "professional" ability to record on tapes of any cassette player I've ever used. My Dad got it in 1970, gave it to me assuming it was junk in 1995, and it worked great until 2001, when it blew an outpit transistor (although that could have been due to my careless use of an ohmmeter to test my solder-job when the speaker wires crumbled. Even the tape deck still worked great after 31 years! I still have the manual. Anyone else have a Mallory like this? It had the knob tape control instead of buttons?
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  #34  
Old 05-24-2006, 12:41 PM
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Interesting... I've never seen a boom-box styled radio with shortwave!
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  #35  
Old 05-24-2006, 02:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie
Interesting... I've never seen a boom-box styled radio with shortwave!
I seem to remember a few Aiwa and Panasonic boom boxes with at least one SW band, though they are rare. Most garden-variety boom boxes/ghetto blasters were AM/FM/cassette only, though some of them were huge--they must have weighed 20 pounds (less batteries) if they weighed an ounce. It always amazed me how anyone could carry one of those on their shoulder while walking down a city street for any length of time. I bet a lot of kids all but cheered (and got rid of their large systems) when Sony came out with their Walkman headphone stereos.
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  #36  
Old 05-24-2006, 03:22 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaye-Halbert TV
Here's my daily-use radio... Zenith Royal 2000. I read somewhere that this was Zenith's first AM-FM transistor set. Weighs a ton, has color TV type rabbit ears antenna for FM, and has a metal chassis with transistor sockets. Uses 8 D batteries, and no AC provisions. This radio is the only one I have that will receive AM up here in the canyon. We can't get ANY FM or TV, and most AM radios will only pick up one or two fuzzy stations. This one pulls in Bakersfield, CA, and a few Los Angeles stations fairly well.

Charles
Those older Zeniths are indeed sensitive, which is why the company used the phrase "Long Distance" on their older tube radios until, IIRC, the '70s or so. I have a Zenith Royal 1000-1 TransOceanic that also has a metal chassis, socketed transistors, sounds great (like all Zeniths) and which picks up AM/SW stations like a magnet. The dial cord broke a few months ago, though, so I'll have to go in and restring it one of these days. My other Zeniths do a great job of pulling in distant stations; even my small R-70 portable (1980 vintage) gets stations 80-90 miles away on AM (in the daytime) regularly, and the dial just lights up with stations at night on every one of my sets. Now, if only the noise level in my apartment weren't so high, I'd have a few AM music stations to listen to. The one station I can hear halfway decently is about 80 miles from here (no AM music stations in Cleveland anymore), but the noise is often so high it comes close to drowning it out.

Man, you must be in a canyon if you cannot receive FM or TV where you are. I don't know a heck of a lot about the Royal 2000, but it must have a very sensitive AM section if you get stations from Bakersfield and Los Angeles.

I don't know just where in the Los Angeles area you are, but it obviously must not be in the immediate metropolitan area or even in a suburb if you are blocked from receiving any FM or TV at all. I know this happens in places like West Virginia and up in the mountains in other parts of the country, but even most of those areas get at least one FM station. Even if you were able to pull in one NPR station it would be better than nothing.

What on earth do you guys do for TV reception in that canyon? If antennas don't work, the only other thing I can think of is that you have cable or satellite. If you have either you can get 24-hour music with their digital music channels; even if you cannot get any FM in your area you can still hook up the audio from your cable box or satellite receiver (or the audio output of your computer's sound card) to your stereo system and still get all the music you could ever want. I did that here a long time ago and have never regretted it. Internet radio and digital cable music channels offer much more variety than regular FM radio does today, or probably ever did. No reception problems or commercials either. I still listen to one oldies station and a classic rock station on FM occasionally, but these days most of my music comes from digital cable and Internet radio, not to mention my own music collection stored on my computer. I have never enjoyed listening to radio or music more; I often wonder why I didn't discover Internet radio sooner than I did.
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  #37  
Old 08-22-2006, 03:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drh4683
This is a royal C52Y, which includes AM FM and PBS (150-174mhz) This receiver is from 1972, however its made in Japan, so its really not a true zenith IMO.
Doug,

I have two Zenith radios (R-70 and H480W), made in 1980, that were also manufactured offshore, in Korea and Taiwan respectively, so these technically are not "Zenith" sets. Neither radio has plug-in transistors or metal chassis (in both the entire receiver is on one large PC board), which is a dead giveaway that the receivers were manufactured when Zenith's audio division was starting to change--I regret to say for the worse. By the '80s the company's televisions had had circuit boards for about three years, more or less; a small Zenith b&w solid-state portable I bought in 1978 had everything except the tuners, speaker and control cluster on one large PCB. My point is that Zenith was already using circuit modules in TVs by the late '70s; their audio line went fully to PCBs from about 1980 going forward.

The company's radios (including your C52Y and my two solid-state receivers) made from 1980 on were branded "Zenith" probably because they were built to the specifications of the Zenith Radio Corporation of Chicago on Korean or Japanese assembly lines. In the early 1980s I owned a four-mode Zenith integrated stereo system which had been manufactured in Korea to the ZRC's specifications, as a notice on the back panel stated. The unit had a Zenith nameplate just to the left of the metal tuning knob, on the front panel, but no Zenith "crest" emblem (the company probably did away with the latter some time around 1980).
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  #38  
Old 08-31-2006, 07:54 AM
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Sony TFM-1000W

Just got this one from Universal Radio. It's a far cry from being *mint*, but is in good, serviceable shape. Four band: AM-FM-SW1-SW2, 14 transistor, backlit dial with tuning meter, 4"x6" alnico speaker. Has a antenna input on the rear and jacks for DC in, Record Out, Aux In, Multiplex Out and Earphone. The case is ivory plastic with a heavy chrome front bezel and chrome bands on the rear panel. More than anything, I was surprised at the clean, strong audio. Not sure of the manufacturing date, but I'm thinking mid 60's. Note the dial is marked in kilo and mega cycles, not hertz and the FM band is slightly extended to 86.5 MC.

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Last edited by Celt; 10-21-2009 at 11:45 AM.
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  #39  
Old 08-31-2006, 11:35 AM
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That Sony is freakin sweet! I dig how the knobs look like something off a TV set. That was back when you didn't find Sony's at places like WalMart, KMart, or Woolco.
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  #40  
Old 08-31-2006, 01:55 PM
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Your Sony was probably manufactured some time before 1967, which was when radio manufacturers started putting MHz and kHz on the tuning dials rather than mc and kc.

As to the low end of the FM tuning range beginning at 86.5 MHz rather than 88.0, I would guess this radio was originally made for the Japanese market. Note as well that, with the extended range, if you have a channel 6 television station in your area you might be able to hear the sound carrier on this receiver as channel 6 is 82-88 MHz; as a matter of fact, the sound carrier for TV channel 6 is exactly 86.50 MHz. You may also be able to hear aircraft radio above 108 MHz, as most of these radios (even modern ones) will tune slightly above and below the actual FM broadcast band.

The input jacks on the back of the Sony would suggest to me that it could be used as an FM tuner in a modest hi-fi system; the MPX jack allows the use of a multiplex adapter with the receiver for stereo FM reception. The tape output will allow recording independent of the receiver's volume control, and so forth.

All in all, I think you have a very sophisticated piece of equipment there, not worthy of being referred to simply as a radio. Sony obviously built this receiver to exacting standards, and to last; it wouldn't surprise me if it sold for well over $100 USD when it was new. Clean up the front panel (it should shine up nicely unless there are deep scratches on it) and you will have an excellent multiband receiver.
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  #41  
Old 08-31-2006, 03:06 PM
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Thanks guys. The plastic has deteriorated a bit (as plastic tends to do) having become a bit yellowed and brittle. Anyway, I spent part of the day cleaning her up. There's one scrape on the left side that I can't polish out and probably should leave alone and the band selector knob was really scratched up on the top. I've managed to get that looking fairly decent. Spent most of the day listening to it. The AM section has more bandwidth than you normally see these days (thanks to the dial being so damn crowded). Music on AM and FM sounds very nice. Its 14 transistor circuit is marked as "Super Sensitive" and that she is...selective too!
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  #42  
Old 05-12-2007, 10:35 PM
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Thumbs up My previous and current portable radios

Hi everybody,
I have read the complete thread and I'm full of nostalgia.... you guys have some nice radios...
My first radio worthy of mention was the Nordmende Globetrotter 6001 (loaned it to one of my friend and both vanished... )
then I got a Grundig Stereo Concert Boy Transistor 4000 that I still have to this day (bought it new at the time) it still plays quite good but I will have to DeOx-it one day soon and leave it on my computer table to enjoy it again...
I also have a Grundig Elite Boy but I have to change the volume control on it because it's damaged (still plays but is tricky to adjust...)
I know I had a few more but unfortunately I saw so many repairs in my life that I cannot remember them all...
Thank you all for sharing some fond memories
Maurice
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Altec:ALC-20,(4x)3154,(4x)6X9-4A,(2x)9440A,9446A,9444B
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  #43  
Old 05-19-2007, 04:24 AM
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Smile back on the skip wave

Just picked up 2 Sony CRF 320s still working have pics soon. but what great fun.
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  #44  
Old 06-06-2007, 10:26 PM
radiokid1
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I grew up in Chicago one of my best friends mother worked at the Zeniths main factory in Chicago yet the Grundig was a much better radio even though I wanted Zenith to win the Grundig was just better,
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  #45  
Old 06-09-2007, 10:13 PM
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Looks like a few new additions came in while I was at sea! Those are some cool looking sets! Reece, can't ever say I've heard of a SpaceMaster, but, as of now, I think that's the coolest name I've seen on any multi-band set! That burger rocks as well!
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