'70's GE AM/FM & 1980 GE table radios

[radiotvnut]

Here's an early '70's GE solid state AM/FM table radio that I recently picked up (model T2215A) at the flea market. After an aural alignment touch up, it works fairly well; but, it would probably work better if I aligned it with the signal generator.





It does not say on the back where the radio was made; but, I suspect it was assembled in USA with foreign parts. Like other GE radios, it is a hot chassis set with a high voltage (about 90V on the collector of the output transistor) AF output stage.

I saw what I thought was a '71 date code on the speaker; but, the code on the model number sticker says 2034B. Some sources say that the second digit of these date codes is the year and some say it's the first digit. I'm pretty sure that on the later GE's, the second digit is the year. So, this one could be either a '70 or '72 model.

BTW, GE must have really liked using dropping resistors instead of step-down transformers. The other day, I picked up this 1980 GE AM/FM (model 7-4115B, date code 1048) that was built in Singapore and it also uses a dropping resistor. However, the entire chassis is a low voltage chassis. Surprisingly, this one has a good FM section that is better than the older GE. Several years ago, I opened a late '80's GE LED clock radio and it also used a dropping resistor instead of a step-down transformer.