older LED clock radios
 

I'm getting tired of noisy clocks. The '62 Zenith I got a year or so ago that was quiet, is now getting noisy. And I'm thinking about just giving up on using mechanical clock radios all together.

So I'm just wondering what are the higher quality or more interesting models of 1970s or early80s LED clock radios?

I put this in the transistor forum, as I doubt anyone ever made an LED alarm clock with a tube radio. Never seen a nixie display in a clock radio either.

The older S0nys (VFD) were sorta nice:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-Dream-D...item336d301bb8

not affiliated,
jr

I've got a GE I purchased in 1985 with dual alarms, slide rule AM/FM tuning, battery backup and a dimmer switch for the LEDs. It's been running on the same bedside table for 21 years without a single problem. The dual alarms came in handy when I was in the Navy - I used to have to call just after midnite to check back in off of leave, and then I had to get up at 5 to go back to work - problem solved with two alarms.

When the power goes out, the clock gains a few minutes, so you'd get up early, but other than that, a solid performer. Saved my a$$ 1 week after purchase in '85 during Hurricane Gloria - it went off early, and I made muster, only to find out I was the only one on-time that morning. I got to go home while others went around picking up limbs and debris.

Cheers,

I think the Zenith "circle of sound" digital clock radios of the '70's were decent.

I believe I have a circle of sound set, though I didn't think that it dated back to the 70's.

Hard to find, but you could try to find one of the "Lumitime" clocks. I have the standalone clock version, but clock/radio versions do exist. Basically it's a "fake" digital clock, the segments are backlit by NE-2 lamps, and the whole works is mechanical, but boy does it ever run quiet, and the "sunburst" pattern used for the seconds counter is fun to watch.

http://aho.ddns.net/misc/SANY0343.jpg

The Circle of Sound is from the 70s, I think there were some LED and some flip-down. They were made by Gold Star; I fixed one for somebody a few years back, and I think I still have one myself upstairs. Biggest issue I saw were touchy controls for setting the time. A neat set overall. GE had a series that I think came out in the late 70s, sometimes with a built-in phone. They always looked like an 80s Bearcat scanner at first glance.

I had a Zenith Circle of Sound AM/FM clock radio in the '80s that was given to me by a relative after the main power switch lever broke off. I removed the clock (backlit tape, no flipdown digits, definitely not electronic) and installed a pushbutton switch for on/off. The radio worked very well for me through the '80s, then got lost when I moved in late 1999.

I also have a Zenith H480W AM/FM/stereo-FM radio which I purchased new in 1980. The clock is digital (the real deal, down to the persinickety time-setting buttons) and still works, even now, 31 years later, even though the power reserve backup battery for the clock is long gone (dead). The radio, on the other hand, worked extremely well and sounded great for the first 25 years or thereabouts, then I made the mistake of trying to clean the slide pots for volume, tone and balance with Radio Shack contact cleaner (didn't know about Deoxit in those days). The radio now works very well on AM, but is extremely weak on FM; that is, it receives stations, but I have to run the volume all the way up and hold one of the speakers to my ear (the speakers are built into either end of the cabinet) to hear anything. I mentioned this problem once before in a post to this or possibly another thread; the suggestion was made that perhaps the function switches are dirty and need cleaning. I am hesitant to try to remove the chassis from the cabinet because of the dial cord stringing arrangement; I don't have a service manual for this radio, so couldn't restring the dial if the cord came off the tracks/pulleys or snapped.

You can usually use fine grade oil and drop a few drops into the Telechron element (that round can thing held by the coil and laminations, it has a spinner inside). The original oil slowly evaporates. Remove the element and turn it with the protruding gear up, and drop a drop of oil and let it soak in, via gravity, then a few more drops. The oil I used is "LIquid Wrench" brand lubricating oil, got it at Ace hardware.

I've fixed a lot of those noisy clocks in the past just by running them upside down for a week or two to redistribute the oil already in them.


.

Very clever!:scratch2:

Got a noisy clock???
 

Check out post number 12 on this page from a couple of years ago....

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=246106

The idea this guy talks about works great! I've done this to several clocks since he made that post. I did it very recently to a really cool little Truetone... just a week ago... and now I can't hear a thing!

To add to what that post says... I find using a small sauce pan and a shot glass on the stove works great. Here's how i've done it....

1. Sauce pan on stove
2. Drop your motor in the shot glass... try to keep the gear to where you can see if from the top.
3. Place two toothpicks in bottom of sauce pan
4. Fill shot glass enough to cover motor
5. Place shot glass on top of two toothpicks in pan
6. Using a glass, slowly pour water in pan... at least enough to submerge half of the shot glass.
7. Turn on fire... if you're using gas, turn on just enough to keep the flame going. If you're using electric, you'll want to be just a notch above the lowest setting.
8. Wait about 30-40 minutes, come back an see if you're getting bubbles coming out of the motor.
9. Once you get some bubbles, keep the fire going another 15-20 minutes (or until the bubbles stop).
10. Turn off fire and allow to cool slowly for at least 10 minutes.
11. Using a small ladel, remove some of the water... perhaps half... and then pour some cool tap water in there. Let sit for another hour.... longer if you like.
12. Remove motor from oil and wipe off completely.
13. Shake motor around a bit, and then put back in clock.

You should notice a significant difference. I did this to several clocks, and either it reduced the noise by at least half, or completely!

Below is a pic to show what I would have set up on the stove (minus water in the pan and motor in the oil).

The reason for the toothpicks is just to keep the glass from sitting directly on the metal pan. The fire is just below, so I dont want to chance cracking or breaking the glass of oil. It may not anyway, but it's just an idea I thought was good for safety sake.

Also is a pick of the Truetone I did recently.

Wow... been a while since I seen one of these! My grandmother had one of these back in the early 80's... I remember the starburst pattern on the right. I remember it was really cool.

Well, on the Zenith, I was turning the gear on the telechron unit, and something broke inside, so wound up replacing that unit with another one entirely. Works quiet now. - But next time I get a noisy clock, now I know several things to try! - Still thinking I might pick up an older digital clock though...

I found the sort of thing I was looking for. It's a GE model C4390B. It's the earliest (electronic) digital clock radio I've ever seen, it uses those vfd tubes, check out the pics.

Wow, now that is cool! Will have to keep my eyes open for one.

Holey cow! I've never seen VFD's in tube style cases before, or an electronic digital clock that primitive before for that matter.

One cool thing I didn't notice until I turned the radio on in the dark is a blue electroluminescent dial scale. Although it's very dim, really only noticeable in the dark. I'm not really sure how bright it's supposed to be.

I also noticed a very soft very high pitched ringing (you have to put your ear right up to the unit to hear it at all), that either goes away, or changes pitch depending on the setting of the brightness control for the clock.

I actually can't find much on this radio, other than a few other pictures online. This model's not even listed in my sams index.

Hey Adam, that's cool! Awwwww I want one!

That is definately cool! I guess that's what came after nixie tubes.

It may have been designed that way on purpose -- so that the radio dial wouldn't light up so bright it would wake a person up. If the sleep timer were being used (and if this radio had one), the user would want the radio to put him or her to sleep with music; any kind of bright dial scale would defeat the purpose of the timer, unless the user was one of those rare people who could sleep through anything, including bright lights (!).

I didn't realize there were VFD tubes, either. Dieter's Nixie World has plans for a VFD tube clock:

http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nix...l-100/sylv.htm

Phil Nelson

Wow, that VFD clock is very cool. Too bad you can't find a model number, I'd love to search for one.
And thanks for the mention of the Tamura Lumitime clock. I looked on Ebay for one and there were no clocks but there was a seller with an NOS Lumitone clock radio. Brand new in the box.
I was outbid on the auction, then the seller contacted me and said he had another new one from his uncles storage locker. It arrived last week, expensive but looking great as I took it out of the box. Everything looks new and works perfect, not bad for an item sitting around since 1974.
Thanks for mentioning some very cool early digital clocks in this thread, they are a favorite of mine as well.
A GE/Telechron was my first digital clock radio when I was growing up and man was I disappointed when I saw half of the display go dead and found 2 lightbulbs and a mechanical movement. Wish I still had that one too.. lol

The model number is C4390B. I just couldn't find any schematics or other service information for it, or figure out the year it was made.

Looking at the different vfd tubes on that site above, this clock radio uses the GE Y-1938 http://www.tube-tester.com/sites/nix.../y-1938-bl.htm You can see where the tubes I have used to have the blue coating which is mostly worn off now.

Does it have a 4-digit date code sticker somewhere on it? Second digit is last digit of the year it's made, last two digits are the week number within that year. I'd bet it was made in the 70s unless the year digit is 7 through 9, then it was probably made in the 60s.

I just did a Google search for "GE C4390B" and this was the top result:
http://books.google.com/books?id=XgE...page&q&f=false

The Popular Science article with a picture of your clock radio is from 1971. And I'd love to have one of those Scott tuners with the Nixie frequency readout!

There are two sets of numbers stamped on the sticker on the bottom: a purple 719 in a circle, and a black 2302. - I guess if the 2302 is the correct number (it has 4 digits), then it was made in the 2nd week of 73.

It looks like according to that article this actually was the first electronic digital clock radio. If the C4390 was made in 71, it makes since that the C4390B might show up in 73. (Although they look the same. - maybe that 719 stands for 1971?)

Heathkit came out with an FM tuner featuring a Nixie-tube readout in the late 1960s-early seventies. It could be "tuned" with a ten-key (0-9) keypad on the front panel or by means of preprogrammed cards for each of the 300 FM radio channels (channel 201 was 88.1 MHz, going to channel 300, 107.9 MHz). The station's callsign could be written on the card corresponding to its frequency.

I don't know whether or not Heathkit got the idea from HH Scott; in fact, until I read this post, I did not realize the latter had a programmable FM tuner with a digital readout. My best guess, however, is the Heathkit tuner was modeled after the HH Scott design.