1956 Jewel TR1 Transistor Radio Repair Baby Jane Movie Radio

/ shango066

[@nickb.8876]

Hi Shango, I'm very glad to see you got it working well in the end. We all break stuff sometimes, I've had my fair share.. That cracked core you found sure was interesting, maybe it was younger me who did that, who knows. I've finally had my first successful transistor radio repair. It was last month on a GE p-746a. All bad capacitors, bad driver, and bad output transistor. Currently working on a 1934 Gilfillan 4-T, going good so far. Power transformer checks ok. Perhaps I should make a video of repairing a radio someday. I'm also getting my first car, it belonged to my Grandfather. It's a 1987 Cherokee Wagoneer. I look forward to getting it on the road after our mechanic gets it running good! Needs a new radiator, fan, tires, etc. Take care and I look forward to more of your videos, Nick

[@randyab9go188]

The "interstage" yellow coated transformer with the stylized "L" was made by Lionel the model train maker. The yellow coating is MFP (moisture and fungus proof varnish) applied to electronics sold to the military for use in tropical environments. That radio was made with whatever Jewel could get surplus cheap. Not proud that the front of the case advertises "Made in USA". I would bet that the Lionel transformer cost the US Government more than the entire cost of the Jewel radio at retail! p.s. The case was made out of cardboard laminate with plastic leather coating. Cheap and nasty. 🤢

[@frankowalker4662]

Todays episode is brought to you by Xylazine, the perfect way to relax next to your radio.

[@Choober65]

😂😂😂😂

[@randyab9go188]

@@Choober65 Xylazine. The fastest and most targeted way to get rid of ugly fat while at the same time boosting your mood!

[@MattExzy]

'Don't touch that dial - because you're unconscious!'

[@EdgarsLS]

It's that a type of paint thinner?

[@andymouse]

Lol ! yeah Franko, thats switched on !.............RIP Calculon.

[@scharkalvin]

That audio transformer looks like a well known war surplus job that had 3 windings at 10,000 ohm CT, 2000 ohm CT, and 600 ohm CT. was popular with hams in phone patch circuits, and also was used in transistorized inverters to get low current B+ voltages for portable tube rigs. It would make a good replacement for transistor audio driver transformers, though a bit on the large size (ok in radios of this era though). That "Lionel logo on the transformer clinches my ID of it. The audio output transformer is attached to the speaker. Those IF transformers are as broad as a barn door. Those cans are too old to have silver mica issues.

[@skuula]

At 11:08, how many of you tried to kill that bug on the screen?

[@volvo09]

There are some things that they didn't make better back in the day.... And that radio is a prime example of that.

[@WolfmanDude]

Most things were terrible in terms of build quality back then. Also very expensive, I bet this POS would cost like half a months wage. Repairablility was better because of the simplicity, but parts would be very expensive and hard to get. Today the average person can go to digikey and order a bucket full of high quality, cutting edge parts for like 50$. I hate this "everything was better in the past" narrative when it comes to electronics.

[@jdmccorful]

@@WolfmanDude yea, just like early flight.

[@tarstarkusz]

That is made better than radios today, though it is kind of silly to compare them. The typical transistor radio even of the time had tiny speakers. At least this one has a reasonable sized speaker. But I agree there was a variety of quality. You could spend the extra coin and get something made very well or you could buy something cheap. If you lived in the city, did you really need a fancy DXer AM radio?

[@RJDA.Dakota]

@@WolfmanDudeA lot of things were done like that then. Collectornet laments over that as well. That’s about the same time that Panasonic and Sony started bringing their products into the USA market and also why they succeeded.

[@charlesmurphy1510]

And yet they are still around whereas today’s radios are in the scrap yards.

[@turle8645]

As a younger collector myself, I’m interested in what you have to say about us 😅

[@orinokonx01]

Damnit Shango! Its almost 2am here and now I want to watch this 😁 Love the videos, I've been watching for years!

[@billmyke746]

I love how you can be such a proper loon when it comes to date codes. Total deadpan delivery as well. Nice

[@frankowalker4662]

As soon as I saw Bette Davis, I knew which film it was. LOL. EDIT : Only Bette Davis could do a roll like that.

[@toddt6730]

According to the inside cover, you may be under warranty,lol

[@One-Crazy-Cat]

Only if you bought your cars extended warranty.

[@toddt6730]

@@One-Crazy-Cat unfortunately my mom bought one of those and I'm trying to get her to cancel it, there a ripoff

Great video. I am a man from the 50's so I grew up with valvular radios and early transistors. All my old radios still work, crude but still working. Cheers from Patagonia Argentina.

[@fredflintstone8048]

I work to recycling my Co2 directly by breathing right on the plants. I carry a small plant around in my breathing mask.

[@gavincurtis]

You should patent it.

[@Suddenlyits1960]

@fredflintstone8048,and they say cavemen aren't "progressive ",lol!

[@hellhound-si5oz]

Mosquito wants to drink synthetic blood

[@jimibrown1955]

Wow, bring back childhood memories. Fell asleep with a Regency underneath my pillow. Listening to KLVI in SE Texas. I’m 67 now, imagine the am transistor top 40 music in 1960’s. Would love to find another one.

[@tedcowart3647]

Very interesting early transistor set. Looks like they used war surplus parts where they could. I really enjoyed the "in the field" test. Maybe I need to dig out some of my GE stuff and get them going. Thanks for a very interesting video! Ted

[@MrPocketfullOfSteel]

Dude *always* delivers. If you have a GE P-780.....break it out! I've had mine since 1997. Incredible piece. I've yet to find anything that beats it.

[@tedcowart3647]

@@MrPocketfullOfSteel I've got 4 of them

[@MrPocketfullOfSteel]

@@tedcowart3647 *lol* I have 2.

[@seanobrien7169]

Looks like something an eighth grader built for the science fair.

[@bro.weaver1282]

I learned about culling from Jesse Venturas Conspiracy theories. Sad that He now promotes the jab.

[@eigos]

...what...? You found a commercial for that thing from 1962...??

[@volvo09]

Unless you are further along in the video that's a clip from a movie.

[@HughTVDX]

In the daytime, you'd expect a 77 KW station at the bottom end of the band to be copyable 200-300 miles away in a quiet RF area with a reasonably sensitive radio. Over a mostly ocean path it would be longer. In South West England North Spanish stations are just there in the daytime near the coast at the bottom end of the band only.. About 500 miles distance

[@MsCori76]

“Make My Pussy Pop Like Coca Cola” 😂WTF! Made me spit my coffee out when you said that. LOL 😝

[@Anddrew_]

Coming in the summer of 2024 the fentanyl vaccine.

[@kensherwood4866]

A reminder of the "good old days" when tech like this wasn't so cheap and not built to the most impressive standards. Its easy to see why the Japanese with their tight pricing and focus on improving quality became so dominant for so long

[@Choober65]

TOP TIP with those cores, add a little Vaseline (petroleum jelly) and use a VERY fine elastic band to lock the thread in place.

[@dkd1228]

Powered iron vs ferrite?

[@EarlofBaltimore]

I'm making an educated guess that this was recorded in May 2023. If that is the case that means it took that long for LA county to lift the mask mandate? I guess that shouldn't surprise me much.

[@jayguditis2102]

Saturday May 13 (on his phone) is from 2023. Remember the federal government dropped the emergency declaration 2 days earlier on May 11, 2023.

[@EarlofBaltimore]

@@jayguditis2102 You nailed it. I try to make inferences from general tidbits.

[@jimburns348]

Four hundred and ninety third week of 1957???

[@janosnagyj.9540]

Yes. On Flat Earth, it is counted that way!🤓

[@simonjones7727]

When Bette Davis was doing the publicity for "Whatever Happen To Baby Jane?" she would sometimes be asked where was her co-star, Joan Crawford. Gleefully, she would reply "She's dead, and lying on a beach in Santa Monica" to general laughter!

[@JerryEricsson]

I hit 72 years haunting this big blue marble last May. I have been watching your videos for years now and have been tinkering with transistor radios for awhile now. Last month I hit the jackpot, so to say - every radio I bid on. I won so I had a quick influx of old transistors. I have been sort of disappointed. Nearly every radio had a power problem, either corrosion on the contacts or bad earphone plugs. I had all of them going in around 15 minutes. I did go through and test the caps, replacing a few on each set. Do you have such problem? I love watching you troubleshoot, perhaps I will find some to work on if I keep getting cheap sets. I even picked up a couple mobile tv's for cheap and even bid on and won a broken TI83+ calculator for 5 bucks, opened it up and it was a power problem, the place where the batteries touched a copper plate was spilled on with some coffee (I think) and when I cleaned the pads the calculator works fine as well. Maybe it is just a trend or something.

[@leetucker9938]

been out on the streets , just scored with a big xylophone

[@directcurrent5751]

I'm looking for an electric.

[@MrDoneboy]

Bette Davis...AND, Joan Crawford, as well!

[@Runco990]

Just what I need with my saturday morning coffee! Thanks Shango! 👍 That reminds me of a very crude kit radio.

[@pafoofnic]

That chrome faced G.E. is probably one of the best broadcast band radios of all time. They work excellent with the non-powered tuned antennas. Thanks for another great video...

[@LarryBlowers]

Fcc rules aside much appreciation for stations that don't play the safe versions.

[@reillypw]

I want to get my 1962 Standard TR 8 radio to you for repair. How do I do that?

[@bob9483]

Wow that looks like a kit

[@gammaleader96]

You know it will be a tough one when Shango posts a 1h plus video about an AM radio and uses both the scope and the HP generator in the first half. Great video as always.

[@leetucker9938]

gonna smoke my xylophone now

[@leetucker9938]

I love this channel

[@aerotro]

shango066 Core materials are very rarely identical more dense iron in core slugs for lower frequencies and low iron content for high frequencies, it's something we all catch onto eventually you can test them using and Rf dip meter in a coil to find their resonance not sure you can find a DIP METER ? I have one by MAPLIN mine is model YN48C I wouldn't call your video a dead video anything that learns something new is good 😃

[@kevtris]

is that maybe a 262KHz IF like the regency TR-1 is?

[@JCWise-sf9ww]

For a 1956 transistor radio the Jewel TR-1 it works good for what it is, the parts inside looks like parts ment for a AA5 tube radio. GE usually makes good radios, I have that same old great performing GE radio mine is call "Eight Transistor".

[@Jeff-cu8mv]

I believe the cores have different permeability , I remember reading it somewhere years ago , I think that's what it's called, the amount of iron in the core makes a difference , someone could correct me if I'm wrong, love the transistor radio videos !!!!

[@blitzroehre1807]

You are right about the different magnetic properties of the ferrite cores

[@Desert-edDave]

5:46 "this is probably the 493th week of 1957... so that makes sense." I am dense and undoubtedly have the head-cocked confused dog look going on currently.🤔

[@davepike6170]

"Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" one of my most favorite Betty Davis - Joan Crawford movies! I remember that scene with the radio, and I guess I didn't notice it was a "Jewel" and I've seen the movie a few times.

[@bro.weaver1282]

Could you not use the new IF can inside the old gutted IF can to preserve the look?

[@danhubanks554]

Nobody's been culling me. 😂

[@josepheccles9341]

The difference in the cores is permeability

[@lookylook570]

The herd definitely needs more culling.

[@batterymakermarkii2654]

They didn't stay in business long after that. Gov't got them for scamming people with those punchboard games--supposedly you'd win a Jewel radio if you won the game.

[@dontknowbrian]

Don’t you just love it when you realize that somebody else with a bigger screwdriver was under the hood before you got there to fix what they did? Can you say frustrating boys and girls?

[@edgardargotte3280]

UNA BELLEZA DE RADIO!!!!!!❤

[@W1RMD]

Interesting as always! It feels like we're living a flash mob version of Charlton Heston's "Omega Man". Remember that "outside the family there's nothing at all". Great radio produced in the 50's to survive into the apocalypse.

[@drfalcon4102]

Baby Jane,, Great Movie.

[@ayrplanes]

A clear case of over twiddle.

[@The_Studioworkshop]

You can tell they just pulled off tube radio parts from the production line, to get this out as quick as possible. Almost looks like a magazine kit.

[@connorm955]

GIVE US YOUR HOUSE 😂

[@turle8645]

Even the American made stuff did the “transistor diode” thing to get the count up

[@alphabeets]

Would it be a good idea to maybe lube the core threads with some wax or something?

[@1112223333111]

3:00 holy inductance batman!

[@paulseymour]

Absolute gold @shango66 22:39 "maybe it needs some xylazine that would maybe get the selectivity dialled in.." Radio repair coupled with topical commentary. Who could ask for more?

[@bones007able]

The movie was intense as Davis and Crawford hated each other in real life and it showed in their interactions on the screen

[@2davydo]

Does anybody remember . KDAY 1580 AM years ago? I can remember getting the bounce at night from Sacramento Ca. on Saturday evening when they used to have there hip hop marathon .

[@CATech1138]

no but i remember KLIT.....

[@aerofart]

Being familiar with the common denominator in the history of RCA and Santa Monica (possibly the beach where the intro clip scene was filmed, if not, the cultural element is appropriate in any case), and comparing all of that in a scattered way in my mind with the defining nature of the respective eras of the late 50’s and today, the rot of the mind and the rot of the flesh seem to conspire in an uncanny convergence, as planned. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but right now that’s just how it seems. And sadly, we are not allowed to hear of the demise from our traditional news-bringer, the news man on the radio. Very much enjoyed the bittersweet video, SHANGO. Your insights into the soul of radio and TV gear never ceases to entertain and enlighten! Thank for being you.

[@goofyahhslimjackson1942]

If you’re saying what I think you are than I agree we’ve really fallen

[@waltschannel7465]

This was not a video that went nowhere. Yiu said yourself you learned somnething about ferrite vs iron core. The differences in the IF slug core material makes sense. We sell surplus toroid cores that have very different frequency response and loss characteristics for switching power supply applications vs. RF for ham radio antenna impedance matching, for example. We get customers that want very specific cores and ask for them by number.

[@georgegonzalez2476]

That big bold "L" on the audio transformer looks a lot like the symbol for Lionel, like in toy trains. It's in an expensive hermetically-sealed can so it might have been military surplus. A lot of companies you wouldn't think of made mil-spec components. THere even was a run of R-390A radios made by HELENA RUBENSTEIN. Weird. Also weird, that three-legged capacitor. Good intuition that the radio was running as a TRF for a while!

[@rocket625]

im a 1963

[@robinsattahip2376]

Sad they have the freedom not to censor garbage music in Mexico but we don't in America.

[@_-_Michael_-_]

493rd week of 1957 😂😂😂😂 you had me dead in bed on that, I tell you that 😂😂😂😂

[@mohinderkaur6671]

reconfigure the diode detector as a transistor detector - was known as the "power detector" . That should make it much better.

[@gregbouchard414]

At looking relly good u do a relly good job on KZbin keep up there good work on KZbin keep up there good work on KZbin well done u do a relly good job on KZbin keep up there good work on KZbin

[@cjmarsh504]

I'm glad that you're problem-solving the historical Jewel radio. The xylazine (Tranc) mixed with other opioids is not a surprise.

[@captlarry-3525]

52 weeks in a year...493rd week...what a hoot ! shorted caps wont yield to being bridged. germanium transistors seem to have lasted for ever... combo of bad caps and golden screwdriver?

[@sarah1390]

Hahahaha. @ 1:06:40 listening to the fox commercial I think I recognize the voice as Pete Gustin - The Blind Surfer. He is more famous for voice acting and being a radio/tv announcer on multiple channels. His KZbin content is Hilarious.

[@captlarry-3525]

if the IF is off ...then shift the oscillator and it will work just the same. the assumption of 455kc rather than 565 kc is probably wrong.

[@captlarry-3525]

When did Regency bring out the worlds first transistor radio? It used hand made transistors from Texas Instruments... it was a few years before the Japanese had mastered making transistors... and early american efforts were very expensive. I remember seeing a Bulova labeld transistor radio in a jewelry story window with $75 price tag when that would buy 300 gallons of fuel or 1000 hamburgers. I am pretty damn sure this Jewel isn't 1956.

[@radio-ged4626]

What's the phrase? "You can't polish a turd" More jazzle than jewel. So yes, they made crap back in the day too. Interesting that the IF core material changed the response characteristics. I guess it had different permeability to the lower frequency core.

[@1112223333111]

the slugs do have different "mixes" same as ferite chokes for rf and linear amplifier "transformers". palomar-engineers has a page with some info. You gotta use nylon wands to not crack them

[@TheRogey1]

No screwdrivers !🤨

[@aprules2]

I can't believe that literally everything was wrong with this radio

[@Badger_Watch42]

That looks like it was made in Hong Kong in the 1970s or China in the 2010s

[@ricardosalesdemello4130]

Oh! hello friend shango, oh good night my friend,, I'm going to start watching a video of you from a portable radio, a jewel

[@scharkalvin]

That radio looks like a model made by Heathkit (which had the knobs on the front, not the sides), in a similar fake leather case.

[@ricardosalesdemello4130]

I'm already watching your video friend shango I love your videos

[@pcno2832]

4:15 Does silver mica disease even happen at 9 volts? I've always associated it with line voltage tube radios.

[@defaultuserid1559]

I need some output transistors for my GE chrome face. One of them is overheating but the radio is still working good. I was never good at biasing germanium so I might leave it alone for now.

[@lambdaprog]

Sure, this is not an SDR but way more fun to repair and align.

[@captlarry-3525]

if you cannot align the if by ear for good bandwidth you have problems of your own assuming the if cans are good. golden screwdriver before you got there.

[@greengrayradio1394]

I admire your will to get "hopeless" circuits working, and succeeding! There are many types of ferrite (and iron powder) cores for different frequency ranges. The weak one you tried could be off a coil for an RF frequency stage

[@mackfisher4487]

You certainly have a lot of birds chirping in the background, Much nicer than listening to traffic and emergency vehicle sirens.

[@geraldhaggard1018]

I had a similar radio, it was to badly damaged to fix unfortunately. Saved many of the parts.

[@EdgarsLS]

You could take apart the mystery capacitors, measure the plate area and the insulator thickness and calculate the capacitance that way

[@michvod]

Bit hard to do that with electrolytics...

[@davidhollfelder9940]

Xylazine male trans backlash .. loaded stuff.

[@captlarry-3525]

alignment 46 is slicing the sidebands... clean it up by ear.

[@fireantsarestrange]

I don't know man... I watched the whole video and enjoyed it.

[@grfeld84]

Get it running, and let it go! Don't fix it till it's broken again!

[@AiOinc1]

Apparently this just got featured on hackaday

[@markmarkofkane8167]

Learned something. Different cores make a difference. 👍

[@xsc1000]

I remember there were 5 different cores to those standard coils marked with cyan, red, green, blue and yellow color. Cyan/red were used for FM, green for SW, blue for AM and yellow for AM IF and LW approximately. On FM you can also use core from aluminium, that lowers the inductance.

[@sabbath7081]

Culling.

[@jackevans2386]

1:09:30 "A dude in a swimsuit" Only in America !!

[@filthylucreonyoutube]

4:30: I think you're right about the long leads being for heat protection. When I was a kid building kits from Allied and Lafayette back in '63 and '64, the instructions demanded we put little clamp on heat sinks on each lead when soldering. Brutal movie, great radio vid!

[@clifffiftytwo]

How about “I hate to do this but I don’t hate it bad enough not to…”