Toilet radio

[Hemingray]

although it set me back $9 at the Flashback's shop in Mtn Home, AR, I just couldn't pass up this little 60s era transistor radio. Fully working at that, runs off of 1 9V battery (under the bowl). The speaker itself is IN the bowl, and the radio back in the tank.

(The device it is sitting on is a Ramsey AM-1C AM transmitter, which I use to play music back to my old AM only radios)

[Sandy G]

Awwww, that's CUTE ! Another question-How well does that Ramsey gizmotron work ?

[ponderbear]

Dang, I thought this thread was about whether you take a radio to the potty, and if so, which one.


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Grundig YB-400.

[Sandy G]

I GUESS I COULD somehow lug an R-392 into De Can, but...(grin)

[Hemingray]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Awwww, that's CUTE ! Another question-How well does that Ramsey gizmotron work ?

The AM-1C actually works very well and is easy to assemble. I got mine from Hobbytron for $44 (plus shipping)

[dew042]

Looks pretty crappy to me.

[ha! I kill myself]

dew.

[AnalogDigit]

For someone on the go who has to go...

Anyways cute radio.

[Jeffhs]

That radio is a real gem. I've never seen anything like it until now, and I've seen quite a few novelty radios in just as many shapes and sizes (Coke bottles, vending machines, even one in the shape of a Polaroid film pack, etc). The speaker in the toilet bowl (!) looks awfully small, though, on the order of about two or three inches around at best. How does it sound? I would think it wouldn't sound too bad for talk radio or news, but speakers that small don't do very well with music. I have a Midland all-hazard weather radio with FM that has a speaker probably not much larger than the one in your toilet radio; the sound is absolutely awful on FM (tinny, no bass whatsoever), although it is passable for voice reproduction, which is after all what the radio was designed for in the first place (the FM coverage was an afterthought; the tuning is analog, although the radio does have a digital readout on the front panel). Sounds much, much better on voice and standard FM broadcast through headphones, though.

Does your little set have an earphone jack? For music reproduction, anything would sound better than that tiny speaker, IMHO. Then again, there really isn't much music programming on AM these days anyway, so the lack of bass in these small novelty radios really isn't an issue, and these sets weren't designed for hi-fi sound in the first place, as inexpensive as most novelty radios are.

[Tapehead47]

Exactly what do you mean by "Fully Working"?

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Tapehead47

Exactly what do you mean by "Fully Working"?

I had the same thought. Don't flush it, Ethyl.

[wa2ise]

From what I've heard and seen, Ramsey kits belong in the toilet, not under it...

[Hemingray]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

That radio is a real gem. I've never seen anything like it until now, and I've seen quite a few novelty radios in just as many shapes and sizes (Coke bottles, vending machines, even one in the shape of a Polaroid film pack, etc). The speaker in the toilet bowl (!) looks awfully small, though, on the order of about two or three inches around at best. How does it sound? I would think it wouldn't sound too bad for talk radio or news, but speakers that small don't do very well with music. I have a Midland all-hazard weather radio with FM that has a speaker probably not much larger than the one in your toilet radio; the sound is absolutely awful on FM (tinny, no bass whatsoever), although it is passable for voice reproduction, which is after all what the radio was designed for in the first place (the FM coverage was an afterthought; the tuning is analog, although the radio does have a digital readout on the front panel). Sounds much, much better on voice and standard FM broadcast through headphones, though.

Does your little set have an earphone jack? For music reproduction, anything would sound better than that tiny speaker, IMHO. Then again, there really isn't much music programming on AM these days anyway, so the lack of bass in these small novelty radios really isn't an issue, and these sets weren't designed for hi-fi sound in the first place, as inexpensive as most novelty radios are.

There isn't an earphone jack, and the sound quality is okay, no real tone to it but it sounds good.

[Hemingray]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

From what I've heard and seen, Ramsey kits belong in the toilet, not under it...

LOL. Actually this one really isn't all that bad. Makes my AM only radios in the house happy :-D

Exactly what do you mean by "Fully Working"?

There were no major electronic problems with this radio. The only repair it has had was the reattachment of a broken speaker wire.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Hemingray

There isn't an earphone jack, and the sound quality is okay, no real tone to it but it sounds good.

Hmmm. It's interesting to me that your little toilet set doesn't have an earphone jack. Most small portables had them; why your novelty radio, and maybe most other novelty sets, were not equipped with such a jack is a mystery to me. After all, how much more would it have added to the price to put a 0.25-inch phone jack in the speaker circuit?


Now my imagination is running wild. I wonder if anyone ever thought of putting a full-size radio in an actual toilet, using the bowl as the baffle/enclosure for a 10-12" or larger speaker, and the chassis in the toilet tank. The flush lever could be the power switch. Don't know where the tuning/volume controls would go, though. This could be the be-all and end-all of novelty radios, although I seriously doubt if anyone would want to put one in their living room. If it were line-operated I don't think it would be welcome in a bathroom either. Don't get me started on what might happen if someone mistook a toilet-mounted radio for a real toilet.

[Bogframe]

I bought one just like that in 1974. I used to listen to Jean Shepherd on it.