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  #46  
Old 05-25-2006, 02:12 AM
superdeez superdeez is offline
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"ME" bike light-radio

Here's another neat radio--a bike light!

No idea when it was made (I figure late 60s?), but it's a bike light, "siren", horn, and AM radio. My grandpa found it on an abandoned bike in one of his rental homes.

The bike was junk but this little guy worked great. I snapped it onto the handlebar of my bike, and used it for entertainment/light, and even for the horn if a person was on the sidewalk. If it rained, I kept a ziplock bag and I'd put it over it with a rubber band to keep it dry. If I had to lock the bike outside (which I avoided) I'd unsnap this light and take it with me.

Fired it up for the first time in a couple years, amazingly the batteries I left in it (oops) still had good juice. The radio still works--somewhat, the volume control is iffy and it falls in and out of place, causing sound to cut in and out. I stopped using it because I got a driver's license and stopped riding my bike, and because the light developed a short through the speaker and cuts in and out after the bulb warms up. I don't remember which happened first. I might try to put it to some type of use this hurricane season.
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  #47  
Old 08-07-2006, 10:18 PM
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Charlie Charlie is offline
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New Toys... Hitachi

Recently, AK member OMI sent me a little box of goodies. In the box was four radios... three pocket and and little travel radio.

The first one is a Hitachi WH-761 7-transistor AM/SW 9V radio. A book I have lists the radio as being from 1962. I put a battery in, but only got static.
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Last edited by Charlie; 03-07-2010 at 11:18 AM.
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  #48  
Old 08-07-2006, 10:22 PM
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Charlie Charlie is offline
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Juliette

Next is a Juliette AK-6. It's AM and 9 volts. Still has the original box, instructions, earphone, and plastic carrying case. Fresh battery and plays fine!
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  #49  
Old 08-07-2006, 10:29 PM
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Charlie Charlie is offline
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Electra

This one is an Electra 8-Transistor Deluxe. There's no obvious model number. Still has the box, instructions, earphone and earphone case, and leather radio case. It even had the moisture-absorbing packet in the box... not paper, but a fabric packet that was sewn and stapled together! There is an old-style price tag sticker with 8 dollars on it. Put a new 9V in it, and it played just fine.

The little diamond shape at the top right is a window with a magnifying lens to view the station number on the thumbwheel.
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Last edited by Charlie; 03-07-2010 at 11:19 AM.
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  #50  
Old 08-07-2006, 10:36 PM
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Hi-Bunsonic

The last one isn't quite as vintage... this is likely from the 80's. But, it's small and kinda cute. It's branded Hi-Bunsonic, has AM/FM, and a LCD digital clock with alarm feature. There's a little antenna on the back for the FM. Runs on two AA batteries. It appears one battery is for the radio and the other is for the clock. I'd guess this to be a small travel clock radio. I'm willing to be it might have been some kind of "free gift" that someone got from ordering something on TV. Fresh batteries, and it plays fine.

A big thanks to OMI for these babies!
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  #51  
Old 08-09-2006, 03:42 AM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by superdeez
Here's another neat radio--a bike light!

No idea when it was made (I figure late 60s?), but it's a bike light, "siren", horn, and AM radio. My grandpa found it on an abandoned bike in one of his rental homes.

The bike was junk but this little guy worked great. I snapped it onto the handlebar of my bike, and used it for entertainment/light, and even for the horn if a person was on the sidewalk. If it rained, I kept a ziplock bag and I'd put it over it with a rubber band to keep it dry. If I had to lock the bike outside (which I avoided) I'd unsnap this light and take it with me.

Fired it up for the first time in a couple years, amazingly the batteries I left in it (oops) still had good juice. The radio still works--somewhat, the volume control is iffy and it falls in and out of place, causing sound to cut in and out. I stopped using it because I got a driver's license and stopped riding my bike, and because the light developed a short through the speaker and cuts in and out after the bulb warms up. I don't remember which happened first. I might try to put it to some type of use this hurricane season.

These little radios were very popular during the '60s and '70s. Radio Shack carried one for years that had a radio, light (I think) and an electronic horn activated by a little push button on the front panel. They may still carry an updated version today.

It's interesting to me that your radio's headlight somehow short-circuited through the radio speaker. I can think of only a couple of ways this can happen (perhaps others here can shed more light [pardon the pun] on it)--one of the lead wires from the lamp socket to the battery could be shorting against the metal frame of the speaker, or the loudspeaker itself could have some oddball short through the voice coil, causing the speaker to short to the frame. Since the sound intermittently cuts in and out when the bulb gets hot, it could even be some odd short in the lamp circuit itself that intermittently shorts out the speaker by way of shorting out the voice coil.

I wouldn't use the radio too long in this condition, as the short will cause the entire unit to draw much more current than normal; a new battery may not last more than an hour or so, if that long. I once had a multiband portable radio that drew so much current it kept blowing the fuse in an external power supply I was using to test it; I never used it with batteries, and it's probably just as well, as the thing probably had a shorted or leaky transistor creating a huge power-hogging short. The set sounded good at first, but the tone worsened as the radio drew more and more current from the supply until the fuse blew.

I would try a shot of Deoxit or standard contact cleaner in the volume control pot as a first step towards curing your radio's intermittent volume problem. A radio which has been sitting, unused, on an abandoned bike for who knows how long may be full of dust and dirt, both on the outside of the casing, inside the box, and on the PC board containing the radio (I would be amazed if I found a radio like this, even of 1960s vintage, with a metal chassis; these things were made to sell cheaply, so the radio is almost certainly all on a PCB). The volume pot may be and probably is extremely dirty, which would cause scratchy and/or intermittent audio.
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  #52  
Old 08-25-2006, 06:44 AM
superdeez superdeez is offline
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Concerning my bike light radio, the volume pot is bad and always has been, so sometimes I have to tap it to make the sound work.

As for what happens with the light, after running for 30-45 seconds, the light begins to flicker on and off, and when I've held the speaker up to my ear I can hear very brief clicks, or pops as the light turns on and off. That's where I got the speaker part from.

I couldn't find anything obvious when I took it apart.
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  #53  
Old 08-25-2006, 08:26 AM
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Cleve Cleve is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie
When my neighbor first told me about her little radio, i thought she was mistaken telling me she had a solar powered set she bought in 1958! After seeing it, I was amazed!

I'm not at all surprised that she bought this radio. Even at her age, she's one to like the latest in technology. Buying a solar powered set in 1958 would certainly be high-tech!

That was also a VERY expensive toy in its day. I just used an on-line inflation calculator - $75 in 1958 = $491 in 2005 dollars. But obviously very high build quality, since it still works 48 years later
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  #54  
Old 09-09-2006, 03:09 AM
millerdog
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Charlie, you sound like me. I once bought am radios on ebay.
Doesn't anyone here remember the Panasonic Ball radio? Or the toot a loop?
AM radio rocks! how else are you going to listen to sports radio like ESPN?
aloha,
jeff
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  #55  
Old 09-10-2006, 10:44 AM
Haggis Haggis is offline
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A few tiny Sonys

If I get this right, you should see a picture of a few of my faves. 3 Sony ICRs, L to R: - an ICR-120, an ICR-200 and an ICR-100.
In the foreground is a rechargeable battery as used in the 2 small ones (the ICR-200 also uses rechargeable batteries, a little bigger). Both the ICR-120 and ICR-200 were supplied with a "walwart" style charger but the ICR-100 has an ingenious case which the radio fits into. When the case is closed, two pins fold out for insertion into a US type wall socket. An example of the charger is in front of the radios.
The volume of these radios is remarkable and for an idea of size, the little medallion on the end of the chain is about the size of a nickel!
Cheers! Haggis.
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  #56  
Old 10-12-2006, 10:51 PM
vjf2549
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Hello,
Vic here, (vjf2549@optonline.net)
I just recently found this site and am beginning to try it out.
I collect transistor radios They can be viewed at geocities.com/vicsradios .
I am currently in need of a hopefully FREE copy of a Zenith Royal 85 schematic. If anyone can help, please e-mail me a copy????Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
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  #57  
Old 10-13-2006, 04:57 AM
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Fisher-Dave Fisher-Dave is offline
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I have my mothers old RAC Victor,can't make out the model as the battery corroded at one point in time and I cant read the label inside the rear cover.It still has the serial # and says it was made in Indianapolis Indiana. It also calls for a replacement battery thats a RCA VS 149 4 Volt..
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  #58  
Old 12-12-2006, 09:51 PM
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OMI OMI is offline
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GLAD THEY FOUND A GOOD HOME
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  #59  
Old 02-14-2007, 01:15 PM
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aj_chicago aj_chicago is offline
Spin 'em if ya got 'em
 
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Just found, cleaned up, and LOVE this little jewel. This is 60s high tech. It's a Panasonic 10 transistor RadarMatic. Takes 4 AA batteries. You wind up a spring loaded mechanism with a pop-up key on the back. You then push the lever on the top and let go and the radio slowly "scans" the dial for the next station and automatically stops on the next station. When it stops it is always very clear. Pretty amazing. A single wind lasts forever! Everyone who picks it up just can't stop scanning the dial. Lol! The only drawback is that it is AM only. FM wasn't much back then.
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  #60  
Old 03-19-2007, 01:33 AM
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Zenith Royal 16

Last edited by Adam; 09-13-2009 at 10:37 AM.
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