An interest in radios and tinkering

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I know that several people around here remember the vacuum tube radios. I've recently become much more appreciative of how marvelous they really were, and some of the transistor types also. With either type you had a box of convenient size, maybe one built in speaker or connections for an external single speaker or pair. Even the cheap cheap "Jap Crap" worked like a dream compared to the radios you get today. It's strange and ironic because it seems like our ability to build good working technology has increased, but too much of the off-the-shelf stuff isn't that good.

I used to have a combination AM and Shortwave radio with turntable, all tubes, maybe a 1940s model, that could pull in a radio station from Czechoslovakia (before the split, and I lived in Kansas), loud and clear with absolutely no noise, no whistles, and perfect fidelity. The sound was as clear as the sound from a good CD player. It may seem like a primitive power-guzzler to some, but I have to ask myself, why put up with stuff that doesn't sound good and can't be made to sound good?

Even when I got a relatively cheap standard AM radio the sound was usually as clear as a bell and it could tune in stations from 1000 miles away really easily. If someone can find one that still works, and automotive radios are usually much more durable, compare the reception to what you get now with a radio from Wal-mart. Yes, you can get these nicely packaged channels from XM or whatever they call it, but this isn't like being able to tune across the dial and dig out a signal where maybe someone is still playing old Lum and Abner shows with their high hopes on shoestring budgets. There was a real connection with other realities then that was like nothing you can get in a digitized world where the subtler sounds and realities are filtered out, mercilessly stomped out in the name of clarity, parts of ourselves that are cut out and become an aching numbness like a missing limb or ear.

There was some kind of reality and some kind of clarity back then that seems to be missing now.

Well, being a disc jockey, I thought I would "jump in" to this one. I got so excited when my area's last Arbitron (ratings) book came in and our oldies FM beat out the local hip-hop station that had a big ego and until recently, big numbers. The music of the 60's and 70's is once again gaining momentum in my region and broadcasters are realising the value of persons in my age brackett. I don't believe "vaccum tube" radios will ever make a comeback (although I loved the sound of good old 6L6 tube type stereo amps), but I'm fortunate enough to have the facilities to transfer vinyl to CD for preservation, and I do.

My dad was a radio enthusiast and so I do remember those radios. I still have (dating myself) the promotional material sent to his electronics store when the first transistor radios came out.
I have similar interest myself and at one point considered getting a ham license but the studying defeated me - at the time I was writing my dissertation, taking A+ and MSCE classes and working about 50 to 60 hours a week.
I have a ham radio and a shortwave (its a crank radio). I can at least listen on the ham radio and I have the shortwave in my attic where I get a better signal. For some reason where I live there seems to be a lot of EMR interference.
I think we live in a society where volume is confused with quality, hence a lot of R&D into making speakers that can render hearing loss in a few months vs clear good quality sound. I had a coworker gush over her Bose radio and the sound was good but the reception sucked.
I miss some of the music from the 40s - 70s, but there is still some good stuff being produced now. Its pretty hard to find, but every once in a while a gem is produced.

I have been wanting to get into HAM for years. My moms dad was a ham nut.
As far as the getting stations from the moon, my oldersister used to take me to school when I was a kid. She had this OLD orange matador that has a radio in it that was phemonimal. I think it had an 8track tape player too.... Any how we were in SC and could pick up stations in Ohio on a regular basis. A couple times we were even able to get stations from beyond the Mississippi. (the K verses the W) Anyhow, I loved listing to the ads for things in places I'd never seen. Like a shop in Texas, or a car dealer in ohio. You're right, Remnant, they really dont make things like they used to.....

Looks I enjoyed messing with the TV as much as you all did with radio. Back where I lived a big chunk of my childhood we had a 35 foot TV tower with a rotating antenna at the top of it and I used to spend a lot of my summer mornings trying to pick up "skips" from far away places. On TV VHF channels 2-6 I actually pulled in stations as far apart as Toronto, Canada and Monterrey, N.L. Mexico. Even on the harder-to-get UHF dial (14 and up), I actually pulled in stations two states away a couple of times. I wish we had VCR's back in those days so I could have chronicled some of my "finds". I also had a cousin living on the east coast who managed to find a PAL TV set and she used to enjoy trying to grab transatlantic broadcasts, writing me letters about her accomplishments, and even sent me a still picture once or twice.

You're my hero! that is awesome...

Remember? Some of us still use them! I got my first valve am/shortwave radio from my step-grandfather, who was going to throw it away because it didn't work. I managed to figure out what was wrong and repair it (just a huge electrolytic capacitor in the PSU that had failed and was drowning everything out with 50Hz hum). I was 12 at the time, and I've still got it 25 years later

Keeping some of the old radios running is getting harder. I have a 60's Robert's transistor radio. Its Ge transistors are failing and it is becomming almost impossible to find directly compatible replacements. Before too long it will end up being a completely different circuit housed in the same box...


There are some good radios still made. Better yet, you can also build your own, although digital technology such as DAB means that increasingly you need to rely on specialised ICs (or build your own baseband SDR!).

Thanks, but I used to get really obsessed with the TV signal thing. It kept my family members as well as our neighbours "scratching their heads" as to why a kid like me would take this sort of interest when all the other boys my age would spend their summer days playing baseball or soccer or even summer camp.

I fondly remember my parents two piece tuner/amp pioneer stereo system they bought back in 1975.

When I was little I use to find fascination in spinning the tuner dial back and forth all day long.

Anyway, when I got a little older, I fell in love with that thing. The tuner was an over engineered masterpiece. The AM side had almost as much fidelity as the FM side did. The FM side had a meter that allowed you to precisely center in a station.

The amplifier died on December 12, 1992. My dad bought a JVC to replace it and got a discount on the still working tuner.

To this day my dad regrets getting rid of the tuner - However I was lucky in the fact that three weeks before it died, I recorded an audio cassette, one side 30 minutes of WOMT AM, the other side WQTC FM to preserve forever the wonders of 1970's all transistor radio technology

I cherrished that tape - then my mom got to close to it with the vacuum cleaner and partially degaussed it!

Today I'm still hanging on to a 1986 vintage magnovox boom box. I'm gonna be attempting to re-cap it sometime over break as the amp has developed a nice hum to it and the cassette player has a very poor S/N ratio to it.

I think that www.mouser.com or www.web-tronics.com carry a lot of GE transistors as NTE replacement parts. That's worth looking into.

If I ever take on the project or restoring an old shortwave radio again, as in one of the mass market ones, I'm not even going to diagnose it. If it is not working, I am going to replace every electrolytic in it with new ones, hopefully with more durable types. Then I might replace very transistor too. I thoroughly regret throwing away the one I had. It could have decoded SSB stations if I could have got the AGC working right, which I never did. It had the maddening habit of receiving very well for the first few seconds,then sending the AGC voltage too high, then not being able to receive anything.

One ambition is to build something similar to the old designs with maybe some modernization and to use components that don't age, like the newer tantalum electrolytics that are becoming suitable for audio use, and silicon transistors without a doubt.

Jeez I envy you people. All I fantasize about is the ability to solder. Then, to be able to diagnose anything more complex than a cassette belt. And if you need yet ANOTHER forum to waste time with, I heartily recommend AudioKarma. LOADS of vintage gear and the peolpe who love it. Tell 'em colortrakker sent ya.

I envy myself last year for having a laser printer and the ability to print PC patterns to transparencies so I could custom build some really good circuit boards. Every decision I made last year was wrong, it seems.