most listened to radio? and my old Truetone

[Adam]

I was thinking about this late a few nights ago when I was listening to the radio. For some reason I really like to listen to this old Truetone. I keep it at the side of my desk and play Coast to Coast on it when I'm up working at my desk (or just reading internet forums) at night. I have higher-end radios, radios that are more sensitive, radios with a better sound, but for some reason I just like this one. There's just something I find very relaxing about listening to it. While I tend to alternate which TV I watch, with radios I almost always listen to this Truetone. It needs cabinet work and while it more or less works electronically, I haven't really yet taken a good look at it and recapped it. I was wondering if there were any similar stories out there, or let's see some of your favorite listening radios.

[gadget73]

I have two, my Philco 39-116 thats out in the workshop and the Norelco up here on my desk. The Philco I use because its a great performer and sounds good, the Norelco because it also performs very well and fits where I need it to. The Norelco is completely original, other than 2 bad resistors that I had to replace. No hum or any other funny problems, and it looks like its gonna be a PITA to recap, so I'm leaving it alone for as long as I can.




I don't think I've ever taken pics of the Philco in a completely assembled state. Not sure why, its a nice looking thing, other than my slightly botched grille cloth install. Its also completely restored electronically and works very well.

[Jeffhs]

I have two Zeniths, MJ1035 and C845, which get a lot of use around here. The MJ1035 is the one I listen to the most. Doesn't sound half bad for a radio that was new 43 years ago, even though the volume control is very intermittent. I listen to two oldies radio programs on this radio most every week, Gary Bryan's "Inside the Sixties" (Saturday nights, 7 p.m.-midnight Eastern time) and John Landecker's "Into the Seventies" (Sunday nights, 7 p.m. midnight EST as well) on Cleveland oldies station WMJI-FM, 105.7 (I also have the radio on this station most of the time during the week, though I do listen to another oldies station some 50 miles east of here on occasion also). Somehow, I think the old '60s-'70s rock and roll music sounds better when listened to on a vintage radio; probably because the older sets have better sound quality (larger speakers, better amplifiers, tone compensation; the better Zeniths all had true full-range tone controls) than many or even most of today's cheap portables. My MJ1035 looks exactly like the picture of the same radio in my avatar; probably the same model (MJ1035-1).

The Truetone radio mentioned earlier in this thread looks like it was originally from the Detroit area, judging by the stations the presets are set to (WJR, CKLW, WXYZ, WWJ), even though the author of that post (Adam) lives in Los Angeles. Adam, are you originally from Detroit or did you win your Truetone radio in an eBay auction, with the seller being in Detroit? Just curious. Also, do you get a lot of hash in the Truetone radio from the CPU in your computer? If the radio is on the same desk as the computer I would think you'd have so much hash it would be almost impossible to hear much of anything, unless the radio is very well shielded. I have my stereo system right next to my computer; when I am online the CPU puts out so much hash it completely wipes out everything but very strong 50kW AM stations; the same with FM. Oh well. I listen to most of my music when online on the Internet (much of the time from Pandora Internet radio, http://www.pandora.com) and through my Winamp media player anyway, so the CPU hash problem isn't an issue anymore.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by gadget73

I have two, my Philco 39-116 thats out in the workshop and the Norelco up here on my desk. The Philco I use because its a great performer and sounds good, the Norelco because it also performs very well and fits where I need it to. The Norelco is completely original, other than 2 bad resistors that I had to replace. No hum or any other funny problems, and it looks like its gonna be a PITA to recap, so I'm leaving it alone for as long as I can.




I don't think I've ever taken pics of the Philco in a completely assembled state. Not sure why, its a nice looking thing, other than my slightly botched grille cloth install. Its also completely restored electronically and works very well.

I never saw a satellite radio receiver hooked up to a Norelco radio before. How does it work for you? Any problems with hum or AC line isolation? Years ago, I had a Grundig 2168 multi-band radio to which I connected a 1950s Webcor reel-to-reel tape deck; it worked well, but that was all tube-type equipment.

What is so difficult about recapping a Norelco radio? Do these sets have the filter caps mounted in such a way that they are difficult or nearly impossible to replace, or are the capacitors a special type which would be difficult to find here in the U.S.?

[gadget73]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I never saw a satellite radio receiver hooked up to a Norelco radio before. How does it work for you? Any problems with hum or AC line isolation? Years ago, I had a Grundig 2168 multi-band radio to which I connected a 1950s Webcor reel-to-reel tape deck; it worked well, but that was all tube-type equipment.

What is so difficult about recapping a Norelco radio? Do these sets have the filter caps mounted in such a way that they are difficult or nearly impossible to replace, or are the capacitors a special type which would be difficult to find here in the U.S.?

The sat radio is just sitting there. Its actually cabled up to the Onkyo thats out of the pic. I could wire it up fairly easily if I wanted to. The Norelco has tape and phono inputs, and this particular receiver has line output only. I just never bothered to try it.

The chassis is just fairly tight, in typical Euro fashion. I could do it, I've been working on a '53 Philco TV set that would make this Norelco a walk in the park by comparison. I just haven't felt like messing with this because it works so well. I still need to find a proper main speaker for this. Its originally set up to have a 6x9" and a 4" speaker, but the 6x9 is bad. The hitch is its an 800 ohm speaker since this thing has no output transformer. I haven't had any luck in finding the proper speaker, so I may have to break down and wire in an output transformer to get it working.


Adam: Next time you get up north, try 740 CHWO. Its a Toronto station, but they play a lot of music from the 30s-60s. They also do old time radio at night. I listened to the Lone Ranger earlier.

[truetone36]

Mine would have to be my DX-160 which I listen to Coast-To-Coast every night on with my headphones.

[OvenMaster]

Originally Posted by gadget73

Simply beautiful.
That said, I think that I would have to admit that the radio I listen to the most is... a Sony ICF-C112 clock radio.

[Sandy G]

I don't listen to th' Radio...Damfool waste of time, if'n ya asks me...That being said, the ones I listen to the most are a dreadful little RatShak DX-440, otherwise known as a Sangean 803 that sits on the back of the uhh, erm, "Throne", & a Magnavox boombox that's on my nightstand, tuned to Coast-2-Coast.

[ponderbear]

I listen to the news every morning on my l'il Grundig YB-400. Fantastic audio for a radio the size of a paperback.

For more concentrated RADIO listening, for instance if I want to scan the shortwave bands or try to pick my favorite Canadian AM station, I'll pull out my Panasonic RF-3100, which has nice audio too and great audio via a good set of 'phones.

here's a stock pic

[Adam]

I have a Zenith Royal 16 next to the "throne", and use this old plastic Motorola clock radio: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...1&d=1197097547

I did get the Truetone from an antique store in Ann Arbor Michigan. The computer sits on the floor on the opposite side of a 5' metal desk with drawers (one of my better curbside finds) which does help somewhat, and the station I keep it on, KFI, is local and 50kw. If I try to listen to weaker stations interference from the computer becomes a problem.

There are no AM stations playing music around here (unless you like the mexican stuff), and not much in the way of music I like on FM, so if I want to play music I usually just put on a record (or if I'm being lazy I have some stored on my computer) I remember when I was in Michigan a few years ago and I bought this radio there was an AM station I really liked, it said it played "oldies", but set itself a bit older than most oldies stations, focusing on the music of the 50s with some 40s and early 60s, while laying off of the late 60s and 70s stuff, unfortunately I don't remember the call letters, WHNY? maybe. Last time I was there I couldn't find it again.

[NowhereMan 1966]

I use a Philco 53-656 a lot, it's from 1953. I also use a DX-440 from Radio Shack, a Patrolman SW-60 from Radio Shack, a Sanyo RP-8700 and an 8 transistor Magnavox from 1965. Sometimes I use a 1980 vintage novelty 6 transistor AM radio in a Heinz bottle.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Adam

I have a Zenith Royal 16 next to the "throne", and use this old plastic Motorola clock radio: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...1&d=1197097547

I remember when I was in Michigan a few years ago and I bought this radio there was an AM station I really liked, it said it played "oldies", but set itself a bit older than most oldies stations, focusing on the music of the 50s with some 40s and early 60s, while laying off of the late 60s and 70s stuff, unfortunately I don't remember the call letters, WHNY? maybe. Last time I was there I couldn't find it again.

That station may well have been what was WHMD, 560 kHz, in Monroe, Michigan (suburban Detroit). It was then an oldies station, but operated daytime only (500 or 1,000 watts, IIRC). I lived in a suburb of Cleveland at the time (some 30 years ago) and used to listen to that station quite a bit, as I like oldies. The suburb in which I lived at the time was perhaps three miles or so from the south shore of Lake Erie, so I could hear stations from Detroit and across the lake in Ontario very well, including CKLW in Windsor.

WHMD probably dumped the oldies some time ago and flipped to some other format, as have most other U.S. AM stations; they may be operating full-time as well, taking advantage of FCC rules which now give daytimers (broadcast engineering lingo meaning "daytime only", i.e. sunrise to sunset) the option of staying on the air full time, with reduced power and, in most cases, directional signal patterns after local sunset.

I live somewhat closer to Lake Erie now than I did 30 years ago (I am about a mile from the south shore), so I can hear quite a few Detroit stations, as well as stations from southwestern Ontario, Canada and northwest Ohio when the FM band opens up in the summer. On my MJ1035, I get so many stations during band openings (seems as if the entire dial is wall-to-wall FM during openings [!], using only a 6' length of zip cord as an antenna) it makes it difficult to find one of my favorite oldies stations (102.5 WZOO-FM, which is probably being wiped out by a Detroit or SW Ontario station on the same frequency; Buffalo, NY has a station on 102.5 but I don't think that station is swamping the oldies station, as Buffalo is a bit too far from here for their stations' signals to reach me, although I do hear at least two of the city's AM stations now and again when I tune across the band.....ESPN sports WGR 550 and all-news WBEN 930).

[Sandy G]

I've threatened to fire up ALL my boatanchors at once, just to see TVA go "Chug !" when I do...

[mr_fixer]

My 2 most listened to radios are my Western Electric made r-392 and my National Panasonic RF-5000 radio, I will turn on one of them for background sound depending which room i am in.

[Dynacoman]

I use my DX-390 to DX different stations with a longwire ant. Usually looking for Coast to Coast.