[Jeffhs]

In the mid-'70s, I had a Grundig model 2168 table model radio with AM, FM and shortwave. It worked quite well on all bands, and the sound was excellent, even though it had only one speaker (the other two were missing). I used it mainly as an amplifier for an old Webcor tape deck. The FM worked well enough in my area (I lived in a Cleveland suburb at the time, some 30 miles from the stations' transmitters), but the tuner in this radio only covered from about 88 to 106 MHz. (Where I live today, this radio may not have worked well at all on FM without an external antenna, since this area is even further from the stations than the suburb where I grew up.)

I understand many of these German all-band radios had FM from 88 to 104 MHz or so, but since mine went to at least 106 it may well have been an export model. I don't know what the actual FM tuning range was, since the dial glass was missing when I got the set.

I replaced the missing dial scale with a piece of wood the width of the radio's cabinet, and used two knobs from the junk box on the volume and tuning control shafts (when I got this radio it was in pieces, and a lot of parts, such as the dial glass I mentioned above, were missing so I had to improvise). I left the tuning indicator tube, an EL84 if memory serves, flopping around loose in the cabinet, although I was able to stand it upright on the leads to the socket. Not the right way to do it, I know, but it worked, so I didn't worry about looks.

The FM finally quit a couple of years later, after I got a new Zenith stereo system, so I junked the Grundig and forgot about it. Thinking about it now, though, I think perhaps the only problem with the set may have been that the RF amplifier tube may have been weak or even dead; however, since I had the new stereo system by now, I had no further use for the Grundig radio, although it sat in my basement for some time before I junked it for good.