GE Model 3-5253A Boombox

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Captainclock

The "Superadio Chip" that is being referred to here is a chip that contains the whole tuner except the front end, that's what everyone is referring to as a "Superadio Chip" and everyone on here seems to agree that they used that tuner chip on other higher end radio and boomboxes besides just the "Superadio" models.

Picture? Sure to be a rare one, as GE used transistors/JFETS for the RF amp, and the LA1201 for the IF/Oscillator, with bandswitching either by mechanical switch or a transistor-based switching arrangement.

The LA1201 was in many other products from Sanyo/Fisher, GE, and even a cheapo Pioneer tuner I have. The variants included a Narrow Band variety (used in the superadio and the Pioneer tuner) and others with less performance. A look at an ECG or NTE manual and you'll see all the variants cross to the same (wideband) NTE/ECG part, hence the insistence by GE to use their EA33X367 - the narrow band was key to the Superadio. I can think of only a few times ever replacing the chip - most of the warranty stuff was open power transformers, open emitter caps in the audio (.47uF 16V Rubycon Electros) and the odd switch pad on the Superadio clock radios - the carbon soft touch switches would fail.

We did a booming business in the antenna arena - EA83X### part-numbered antenna rods. The GE line of 1978-79 "Silver/Gray" military-looking radios had some cheapo antennas that we must have replaced a dozen or more of - the Russell replacements were all too thin in diameter, so we had to use the GE antenna rods. In 1984, GE started rebadging Sanyo boomboxes, as Sanyo used mostly Fisher-branded stuff outside of Japan. We'd get the year's service lit, with GE labels applied over some of the cover pages - the preliminary data was all Sanyo, and a month later we'd get the final GE manual with the GE EA or EW part numbers instead of the 13/14/16 digit Sanyo part numbering. On some parts, we'd order from SFS and get them faster or cheaper than through GE - a pleasant benefit of having the preliminary service lit....

Cheers,