Just How Terrible Is A NEW Portable Radio???

[@jibojibo254]

I'm going on 78 years old, and still have my very first JC Penny transistor radio that I received as a Christmas gift when I was in 10th grade. I found the hiding spot and had my own batteries that I substituted so I could play it pre-Christmas.

[@jonathannelson209]

I bet there is no better memory for you

[@rc3291]

I recently found my first GE transistor radio. From the mid sixties.

[@charlesrichards5389]

My great-granddad used to order them by the case directly from Japan, and meet the boat at the dock in Miami. He gave them out as Christmas presents to all us kids. I sure miss PaPa.

[@canundrumsixnine6830]

I wish I still had my old Windsor Pocket Transistor Radio. That little radio made me feel special when I was a kid. the only kid on the block that had one.

[@Ndlanding]

@Swilly Billy That's one of the reasons I didn't want children. Oh, and I used to do similar things myself!

[@JerryEricsson]

As I become an old man, having reached the top of the hill, that being 70 I am now coasting down the other side, hitting 71 last month. I have been going back to my old favorite things, one of them being radios. I purchased one of that brand radios, but with FM Stereo and MP3 as well as Bluetooth and Shortwave and found the set very nice and it sounds wonderful to my ancient damaged ears from years of listening to loud rock and roll as well as the sounds of battle in Vietnam back in 1970-71. Well that set got me into others, Back when I was in Nam, I had an Hitachi AM/FM/Cassette recorder that I used both for entertainment and communications making cassette tapes and sending home to my wonderful wife who was rather pregnant when I left her for the war, and gave birth when I was half way through my tour. I went home when she was to have the baby, and while I was gone some thief broke in and stole my radio. Man I was pissed and began looking for another. I found one on Ebay a couple months back and had to have it. When it arrived (as is not working) I hooked it to my power supply and gave her 6 volts, she came to life. All the switches and controls were very corroded but my cleaner took care of that, and by god she worked once again. Now back when I was over there, I was on tower guard one night up a 40 foot steel tower, I was manning the M-60 and spotlight while my partner was supposed to be sleeping. I had my radio tuned to AFVN listening to rock and roll, my partner got up and bumped the radio sending it over the side, she landed in the white sand that surrounded the tower and was left with some distinct dents. The one I got off Ebay had the exact same damage. Now I doubt it was the SAME set but it sure does look like it. Having the set again really brings back memories. Oh I did buy another small radio by your manufacturer, this one Mono but with duel speakers that give it a very nice sound, it has digital display as well as an MP3 player built in. Both of these sets take Nokia rechargeable cell phone batteries and seem to last a long time. To add to my collection I bought one of those one chip MW/LW/SW/USB/LSB all band radio in a nice solid aluminum case with a color touch screen display the 3.5 inch, then found a cheaper board only for under half price with a smaller screen in a kit form and built it up as well. Now if I could just get my outdoor antenna setup I would be ready to go. Oh but my very favorite set is the lattest purchase from Odesa Ukraine an OLD (USSR built) AM/SW set. It was sold as is but just needed one capacitor replaced and she is running again. MAN is that set sensitive, and while all the Newer sets have SW on them, the old russian one is the only one that really tunes in Shortwave at night!

[@TheLuizzon]

Great history, thanks for sharing greetings from à Brazilian radio fan , Luiz 64 years old

[@RetroTVCentral]

Thank you for your service.

[@jimk8520]

“Turn it in reverse before turning forward to prevent double threading plastic.” This is such a simple yet important thing to learn if you intend to fix stuff. As a technician, this is 2nd nature to me but I shared it with a friend once who happened to be an ER Nurse who went on to show it to the rest of the staff at a major local hospital. This simple thing ended up saving them somewhere between 50 and 100k a year for replacement optic assemblies on their microscopes. They’d change magnification lenses not knowing this and strip the aluminum housings out requiring replacements routinely.

[@andyhowlett2231]

Yup. I've always done this for as long as I can remember. It just helps the screw 'find the thread'. You feel the screw (or nut or whatever) drop into place and then you start turning the right way and it all goes nicely!

[@richardwright2461]

Yes, it is a good idea!

[@harrywernsman9045]

I believe that. Most people are idiots, especially the folks who think they are smart because they went to school longer.

[@ПозывнойВега]

@@andyhowlett2231 привет котик!

[@billietyree6139]

It seems so fundamental that I never thought to mention it to anyone.

[@georgenish]

I remember a tiny schematic was glued to the back cover on my transistor radio. As a matter of fact, every electronics equipment such as TV's, radio's, stereos, tape recorders, test equipment that I bought in the 60's and 70's came with the schematic. Even appliances like refrigerator came with a complete schematic.

[@videoinformer]

When the vintage radios appeared, I had an instant and realistic memory of the *smell* of those old radios: metal and plastic, strongly so, very distinctive. It was so realistic, I would call it a re-experience, like it was under my nose, up close, though it's been decades since I physically experienced that scent.

[@charlesrichards5389]

That reminds me of the distinct smell of old military electronics... different from civilian electronics.

[@Dick_Gozinya]

Our sense of smell is strongly connected to evoking old memories, sometimes quite vividly, but it is usually a case of a smell evoking a memory, not the other way around, as in your case.

[@Ndlanding]

A bit like the smell of a fud.

[@Ndlanding]

@@USNVA-yn6cp Did you sniff them all before choosing? (I bet you bought pink.)

[@totallyfrozen]

Cassettes and cassette decks had a smell too. I remember it well.

[@mikemike7001]

Thank you for not allowing those horribly annoying mid-roll ads that the geniuses at KZbin insert at the worst possible places.

[@BDBD16]

What, you don't like watching a 5 minute youtube video with 5 ads, some that are like 20 mins long these days?

[@KostasAlbanidis]

I think KZbin made it clear that these ads will be included in ANY video bigger than 8 mins? Can you control this?

[@KostasAlbanidis]

@@evensgrey thank you for the info :)

[@TheSimonScowl]

All part of the gaslighting process!

[@boppin_bennie]

Didn't get any ads on this video myself but I have "adblock" don't really know if it blocks youtube ads but I know it does on plenty of sites ...

[@Richard-bq3ni]

My mother still own a beautiful Grundig Yaughtboy from the 60's. It has a wooden front, a gigantic telescopic antenna and sounds better then anything that you can buy today.

[@ulrichbodscheller2013]

Hello Richard, I understand and appreciate your comment. These radios were made for eternity. What type of Yacht Boy is this exactly? They still outperform today's portable radios. Greetings from Germany and stay healthy.

[@Richard-bq3ni]

@@ulrichbodscheller2013 Hi Ullrich. I have to check the exact type. It's at my mother's house. But is is Grundig, and sounds like gründlich 😉

[@jodyguilbeaux8225]

My grandmother had an old wooden radio chassis ( in the early 1960s) with a beautiful stain and a soft green light that glowed in the dark. the sound was very clear and warm. the tuning of the stations was very easy and no drifting. It had 1 speaker and the sound was fantastic. i really believe it was the wooden chassis that gave the radio that beautiful sound. My brothers and i would gather around and listen to the magical sounds it would produce. I miss those days and my brothers.

[@Richard-bq3ni]

@@jodyguilbeaux8225 The wood is indeed good for the sound quality. I remember the big TV's in a wooden housing also produced a better sound. The plastics radios and TV's are a lot worse. Of course you still buy good sound quality today. Quality speakers are more affordable than ever, but lots of people that I know just don't seem to care. For them as long as it produces sound it's ok.

[@realcomsolucoes7403]

I repaired lots I was working at Grundig I miss those Radios

[@eqlzr2]

Radio has played a profound and amazing role in my life. As a little kid, I had an uncle who was a real serious antique radio collector. His basement was full of them, and he knew most everything about how they worked and how to repair them. This influenced me considerably, and I ended up building my own crystal sets and staying up late at night and getting up early in the morning with a long piece of wire running out my bedroom window to listen to "mysterious" signals from around the world. As fate would have it, at age 14 I ended up working at the local radio station doing a teen show once a week for high school kids in the middle of Iowa. Within a year of my starting this, the program director of the station took ill and had to quit, leaving them short-handed. I had progressed enough by then to largely fill the gap created when the guy left, and by age 15, I was working full-time during the summers and part-time during the school year at the radio station. This continued until I graduated from college. I had been contacted by WHO, the biggest radio and TV station in the state, to be hired on as their weather man, but by then had decided on a science career and headed off to graduate school at the University of Iowa. While there, I studied and obtained an Extra Class Amateur Radio license, and this was a hugely gratifying hobby and added immensely to my electronics knowledge, enough so I eventually went into the biomedical electronics field which I recently retired from. It's funny what can influence a little kid and ultimately determine his destiny. Radio started me on my path, but frankly, given the way things are these days, I never listen to the radio or watch TV anymore. I guess I've seen and heard too much and have bigger frish to fy. Many thanks.

[@robertashton8069]

Came for the UFO's. Stayed for the radio! Love ya, Fran!

[@ant7699]

Found the chain through the UFOs... Watched the radio on recomended

[@jamesc2327]

Same

[@naes6843]

Me to. Dave in Phoenix

[@milobasque5373]

Holy shit! That's my comment. She's fun!

[@jonsymmonds1120]

Thanks Fran. I have followed you for years. I will keep my old transistor radios. Most are 60-80's vintage and they all still work fine. My favorite radios are still old tube radios. They can be a challenge, because of capacitor issues in the units in the HV supply.

[@ZXRulezzz]

Aha! I know this radio chip! @ 7:19 you say that chip marking is washed off, but one can barely make out on the video that it's KT0936M, made by chinese company KTMicro. It's a completely digital tuner with internal VCO, clocked from a PLLed watch crystal, with digital signal processing, ADCs and DACs. Apart from markings, what immediately gave it away to me is that unpopulated 8-pin IC footprint near it, that's actually for I2C EEPROM so that internal CPU of the tuner could read configuration other than default from it on startup. Otherwise, without all the digital bells and whistles, it could be hooked up to a bunch of pots and switched resistors to make up any kind of simple AM/SW/FM radio. It doesn't have smooth tuning though, you can sorta hear it mutes while stepping through channels, that's because tuning resistor doesn't go into VCO, but rather into ADC which is read by internal CPU, which then, in turn, adjusts VCO, and most likely keeps audio muted while frequency is out of lock. Greets from Russia :)

[@johnstone7697]

So, can this even be considered a superheterodyne circuit? I guess not.

[@ZXRulezzz]

​@@johnstone7697 Well, it still has an analog RF frontend inside the chip that does frequency shifting with VCO and mixer, so it's technically a superheterodyne. However, what kind of IF it has is a different question for which I don't know the answer. Depends on the kind of IF filters they implemented on a chip, if any. It's just that whichever IF stages come after, that used to be analog, are now implemented digitally and hidden behind ADCs. Which is nice and cheap due to precision and repeatability of raw math and complete lack of any expensive manual alignments during production, as opposed to analog circuits with their limited component precision and reliability.

[@Spritetm]

Oooh, great find. That looks like an interesting chip indeed. Found the datasheet, looks like the chip is half-digital: the RF gets mixed down to IF, but rather than doing any more analog operations on that, the RF signal immediately is fed to two ADCs and the rest of the decoding is all done in the digital domain. It can do a fair bit more than the radio Fran has does: it's fully stereo and can do a limited amount of audio DSP, for instance.

[@kevincozens6837]

I can just make out the KT093 part of the part number. You probably have found the right part. FWIW, the second line starts with B9 A5.

[@eDoc2020]

@@Spritetm Do you know if the tone control done digitally inside the chip or outside in the analog world? Also, I started this comment before noticing who you were. I love looking at all the great projects on your website and didn't realize you were on KZbin.

[@vwestlife]

I recently reviewed this model (the Retekess TR604) and discovered that if you carefully position the tone control switch so that it rests on the contacts in the middle between the high and low settings, you can get a medium tone setting.

[@andygozzo72]

in that case they could have fitted a 3 positon switch 😉

[@eDoc2020]

Yup, it reminded me of your video but I thought it looked different. Turns out I was mistaken.

[@hadireg]

cool I'll go and watch this! thnx VWestlife!

[@macrumpton]

@@andygozzo72 and not even connected the middle terminal!

[@jdraven0890]

So, sounds they could have put a potentiometer in there.

[@thrillscience]

When I was a kid (born in 62), we could do so many things with old radios. We could modify them for shortwave, or modify the FM tuner to receive the aircraft band (by removing the AM rejection circuitry and taking a few turns off a couple of coils or pulling a rotor or stator off an air-gapped variable cap. You could learn a lot about electronics back then by tinkering. Now you open a radio and there's one chip. How are kids supposed to learn anything?

[@kenzingzong6704]

Thrift shop, old electronics, let them borrow any tools, and encourage them while reminding them what is dangerous and what wires not to touch after letting them rip apart old junk just for tomfoolery, but if they do touch the wrong wire they will probably live like I have after all these years (mid 30s guy here). Biggest issue is getting them away from their phone though, it's going to take a lot of mentoring to get them to even care these days, but if the spark is in them.. they will. Our society wouldn't have engineers anymore if it were true that people no longer enjoy tinkering with things.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

Theirs still a lot to learn tbh

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

taking modern electronics apart got me into this hobby

[@singhpk99]

You still - needs a new config eeprom

[@1pcfred]

Kids could get on the intertubes to learn stuff. If they've a mind to.

[@TotalHealthTurnAround]

I have great memories of holding a very small sized radio in my hand listening to "I wanna hold your hand' or Washington Senators baseball games. It was magical back in the early 60's.

[@fiendishthingy1630]

Yes!!!!!! My older sister and I got tiny colored transistor radios (card deck size) for Christmas pre-Beatles, and by the time I Want To Hold Your Hand was all over the radio the next Christmas (1963), they were almost permanently attached to our ears. My sister even nicknamed me Transistor Sister, which she called me up until she died in 2002 at age 53. I wish I still had my little memory-making radio, but eventually the volume and tuning dials froze and it was trashed.

[@JohnBerthoty]

That tip on self tapping screws was worth the price of admission!

[@bushmaster777]

Till now I thought I was the one who invented this trick.

[@totallyfrozen]

@@bushmaster777 LOL! I thought I was a mechanical genius until she revealed my secret in this video.

[@beware_the_moose]

I bet someone though they were an absolute genius for making that rotating switch design.

[@larryscott3982]

And the two could’ve been identical knob and big rotating black levers. Why 1 knob, 1 lever, when you can double that AND complicate the assembly too!

[@kenhukushi1637]

probably told by the boss to use knobs to make it look vintage but couldn't source cheap 2 position rotary switch.

[@SeanBZA]

@@kenhukushi1637 Likely that switch adaptor was a part they had a mould for, so used it here as well, and yes likely the original reason was to replace an expensive rotary switch with a slide version. No other reason to use 2 different mould versions of the same switch, with the 2 different knob variants otherwise unless those are recycling existing parts. They would spend money on the front and rear case moulds, but even then the rear is likely a part common to a range, with only a different insert model plate. Moulds are not cheap, so you try to get as much out of them as possible. Even that battery cover is likely to be an existing product mould.

[@knarFkcalB]

The market for this radio is mostly the older generation, who expect a radio to have knobs.

[@Digital-Dan]

Unless you talked to their human factors types and learned how much thought and user preference research went into those decisions, I don't think you can conclude these were bad choices.

[@MeowdL]

It's a shame I'm only just discovering you. I absolutely love how I can hear the passion in your voice as you talk about things.

[@tracypanavia4634]

I just discovered Fran too! But its not a shame! Its awesome!👍🏼🤓

[@denverwalker9655]

Thanks for the self-tapping screw tip! Never heard that one before but makes total sense.

[@ThorstenWieking]

I learned that trick when I started collecting flashlight. The relatively soft aluminum can be doubled threaded by accident, even more easily when an aluminum head gets screwed onto a plastic body (Surefire G2 series e.g.)

[@stevenemert837]

I was impressed to see that tip. I'd somehow learned to do it years ago. Once when someone was watching me reassemble some device, they chided me, "righty tighty" when I started turning it CCW to drop the screw into the threads. I was able to teach him that small tip that day.

[@KOZMOuvBORG]

Slam dunk when fitting steel bolts with fine[r) threads into alumin[i]um. Had a jerk cross-thread one into a caliper mount on my bike and was a fiddly b#@%h when trying to thread back in later, kept trying to follow the wrong (imprinted) ones and needed to be lined up perfectly to fit the correct ones, takes many tries. Even encountered tire studs installed by air[head) tools[!?) 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 threading the lug nuts on 1st.

[@TerryLawrence001]

Diode gone wild shows that tip quite often during his tear down and repair videos :-)

[@pauljs75]

Back-thread so you don't cross-thread.

[@norman102745]

She is the sweetest most delightful eccentric genius you could ever hope to encounter..

[@MrEd-qg8td]

I love the old vacuum tube AM/FM radios. Such a mellow sound to them.

[@matthewwilson3202]

I second that emotion

[@michaelreece458]

Yes, so true.

[@ww8wv1]

Absolutely

[@Ndlanding]

My mum used to waken us for scholl by playing the news on the radio in the downstairs kitchen, in the opposite side of the house. Everything vibrated!

[@Fotosaurus56]

I have an old tube Motorola AM/FM with a mono phono input. Completely refurbished electronics with an RCA 45 record turntable plugged in. Warm? Oh yeah! My teenagers yell at me!

[@rarbiart]

PCB bearing for turn knob switches: I can not unsee this!

[@chrisg6597]

Cheap digital multimeters use exactly the same method for the main selector knob.

[@andygozzo72]

thats nothing, you should see the complicated reduction drive 'hack' used in a Bush vintage style 'reproduction' they did in the late 90s of their late 50's TR82 portable radio!!

[@Chris_the_Muso]

It's not that silly - mostly those knobs will be set to the required position and hardly ever moved again. I agree with Fran though - the tone control should have been a pot. I bet she modifies the resistor/cap in one of the positions to give a better sound (I would). Next video maybe?

[@andrewakrause]

It's actually genius from a VAVE perspective. Neither of these settings are going to get used very much, so there will be negligible wear and stress on the PCB. This is a consumer radio, so the choice of knobs was aesthetic, not practical. This is a $30 radio meant to steal customers from a higher quality radio like the Panasonic RF2400D.

[@klafong1]

@@andrewakrause At first, I thought that using real rotary switches would have made more sense, but for most settings, these knobs will be, "set it and forget it."

[@deped-cebucityrolandoarane5913]

I can't believe how things have changed in the last 20 plus years. When I opened my granny's radio, I had sweats of anxiety thinking I won't be able to fix it because of the complex things inside.

[@klif_n]

Glad you are back!! Somewhat unrelated, but this reminded me of an old "pen radio" I got as a kid from the back of a comic book. I waited weeks for that thing to arrive and it was an old passive crystal radio. For some reason I remember clipping it to things that were grounded like water pipes. I have no idea how they worked but it was fun for a few days. Cheers.

[@Charonupthekuiper]

I had one, in the shape of a rocket. The earpiece was really uncomfortable, but it worked well when set up.

[@wadebarnett2542]

@S P Clark Gable died in November of 1960.

[@tonyrandazzoe8210]

What I love Fran is hearing you sing "In my lab ....is where I work ....!" Its hilarious and cute !

[@vonzigle]

Thanks!

[@EEVblog]

In other news: You can still buy portable radios.

[@zyborg47]

You can in the UK, but most are FM and DAB, very few with AM. DAB is awful to be honest, even on a decent radio the quality of FM is better, so much for digital radio. Not that digital radio is the problem itself, the problem is DAB.

[@matthews4159]

any kind of radio,, The BBC used to review SW radios on the BBC world servics Shortwave Radios 124 videos kzbin.info/aero/PLdx4wjfRGJ8GJpbVN_tAWmrC4FqWHeM1g

[@stephenwabaxter]

Ive had a DAB radio for about 7 years. Its replaced everthing else.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

@@zyborg47 In the UK they used DAB, in other places that were slower to pick up they use DAB+ quite a difference in sound quality. But yes, DAB+ is decent, not perfect. DAB is not good. And yes, AM and LW have a lot of radio stations you can't pick up locally. The quality is of course questionable but, how longer the wave, how further it goes. On LW you might pick up a russian radio station with luck.

[@mchagnon7]

@batterymaker Depends on what you want to spend. It took me 30 seconds to find this. www.amazon.com/Sangean-WR-16SE-Anniversary-Bluetooth-Charging/dp/B07ZLCNXF8/ref=sr_1_20?dchild=1&keywords=portable+radio&qid=1598925351&refinements=p_36%3A1253506011&rnid=386442011&s=electronics&sr=1-20#customerReviews

[@michaelwilson2340]

I remember plastic was heavier and sturdier when I was a teenager in the 80's. That radio looks like it would shatter if you drop it.

[@DefinitelyNotaCyberCat]

Michael Wilson it’s because it’s cheap af

[@mil-fpv4931]

@Captain Brandon Punk & Horror Lover When Soviet Union was destroyed capitalists just didn't care anymore.

[@Wildeheart79]

You might actually be mistaking bakelite resin for plastic which was prevalent on appliances in the 70's and early 80's. Remeber the classic rotary telephones? These were often bakelite and weighed about as much as a brick and were stronger than said brick too.

[@michaelwilson2340]

@@Wildeheart79 I've noticed that the toys I had as a child in the 80's and even basic tools such as screwdrivers (the plastic grips) seemed to have a certain hardness to them. It seems like those particular items today have that lighter, less resistant to damage feel. Remember the good old days of the Sears Craftsman Tools? Guaranteed for life. Things you could pass down to the next generation?

[@TexasCat99]

Might break if you look at it too long.

[@godfreypoon5148]

The "rotary" dials are to deceive people into thinking there are fully variable controls (eg the tone).

[@user-ut9ln4vd5m]

Maybe they'd trick some non-english readers with the tone knob... kudos for printing the dots at least, that highlights the binary choices like high/low and AM/FM. Probably some factory had a surplus of those rotary-to-switch adapters and thought it would make a different looking (aka "new") design they could unload for a couple... bucks? yen? yuan? renminbi?

[@sugarpacketchad]

They're always trying to "put one over on us!"

[@MrJest2]

I don't know that it's "deception" so much as a design decision to give it a "retro appearance". Some 20-something kid fresh out of design school probably drew it up.

[@grumpy_ken]

the enginerds never get the industrial designers and ux people

[@totallyfrozen]

@@MrJest2 I think it is deception when you put in context. This radio is cosmetically extremely similar to the old GE Superadio. Some unfamiliar person might think, “oh, my dad had one of these and it was great. I’ll buy this one.” Marketers consider those things. They make things as cheaply as possible and try to convey the image of vintage quality.

[@ghimmy47]

The offset knob to linear switch thing does have an advantage in keeping mortal enemy dust out of the switches. I like it.

[@RichardFreeberg]

Thanks Fran. Nice Vid. I find it very relaxing to watch your electronic autopsy and escape for a while. Good tip about the ubiquitous self-tapping screws and plastic cases! I hadn't thought about that - reverse first, then forward. And never over tighten ...

[@TinkerbatTech]

I collect and restore late 50's and early 60's transistor radios. Back then they sold for several days worth of salary, and were built accordingly. Many of these still sound great after 60+ years! Were I work now, we use SDR radio chips (Software-defined radio?) which work great, but have even fewer parts then that radio, and are very boring to look at! I like the big caps, IF cans, discrete transistors, transformers, all that stuff. (And a few of the hybrid radios, with submini tubes for the RF circuits, and transistors for the audio!) This radio actually sounded ok for a modern cheapie. Most are far worse. Tho they often don't handle strong/many signals well. (Tuned circuit? What's that?) I like my oldies...:) Thanks, Fran! stay safe! Stu

[@volvo09]

Yeah this one has more than a 1" speaker, so at least it'd be bearable to listen to. I like the classic look too. But nothing beats a real, old portable radio. It just sucks that broadcast radio is dying.

[@tinecrinec4769]

@@glasslinger please upload

[@andygozzo72]

@@glasslinger radio in the uk certainly isnt dying, they've recently announced they've put back any decision on scrapping analogue radio for at least a few more years, dab is in many areas here , rubbish, and lots of compression on some meaning worse than fm quality ,

[@hadireg]

I guess most of us found their motivation to learn electronics from those discrete components on a radio circuit board. and yeahhh those huge great air gap moving capacitors and complex threadings to have a wide moving range tuner panel :D... just awesome!!!

[@MoraFermi]

These old radios were built that way because there was, literally, no other way. If these engineers had access to our technology, they'd be cranking out two-chip radios within a month too. On that note, software defined radio is mind blowing. A fast analog-to-digital converter with an antenna hooked up to it and nothing but a bit of math to filter out the frequency. Yes, they look boring, but their applications are almost limitless.

[@Dingomush]

You seem to have a bit more of a delicate touch with the items on your bench than the other channels I’ve been watching ( BigClive, AVE, ElectroBOOM). Kind of soothing not having the explosions, fires, and general mayhem. 🤠

[@every1665]

Yes - I've seen other techies obviously break things while dis-assembling them and conveniently never show them being re-assembled!

[@HuckBowlt]

I've noticed that for what is unknown to me that it seems almost impossible to by a basic AM. FM that even functions adequately.

[@donned4260]

There is an old standby AM FM Portable radio, made in the same basic box and configuration for 30 years, with some mods along the way. A very good workhorse..decent all arounder..not a super performer but good price..there are better radios for more money..but nothing close to it for the price..FRAN PLEASE TAKE NOTICE..this Hershey bar of the radio world is the PANASONIC Model RF 2400D..(2400 is the key ID historically) Sold throughout the world for $25 to 35. Everyone from Walmart to Mom and Pop stores sell it. Uses 4 AA batteries. It ain't no classic Grundig. Never will be nor pretends to be. Comes with AC wall plug in cord..internal AC adaptor. Made in Indonesia. Mucho better build, knob, manual tuner, speaker quality than that black cheap piece of China junk. Nice carry handle. Yup..the VW beetle of the portable radio world. I use it 4 hours a day. Gets 15 to 20 days on a set of AA alkaline batteries that way. And that's dollar store batteries. Fancy Bunny rabbit or Dura batteries do not last that much longer in this radio. The AC cord works 100%. Panasonic did not fix what was not broken. Idiot proof operation. Had mine 2 years bought at a big box store in CA.

[@rimckd825]

I bought a "High End" Teac and it was a piece of shit, not mincing words... and I'm not apologizing either. The AM band was totally useless. I consider Teac to be a fraudulent organization.

[@donned4260]

Please try the Panasonic RF 2400D...Made for many years ans still sold throughout the the world. The AM is decent and very usable. I live 150 150 south of San Francisco and Sacramento and and can pull in AM station from this towns. About $30,,Walmart, Target etc all carry them. Google it. @@rimckd825

[@stuwylam342]

I don't know if its just me getting older or the entertainment quality of radiostations have turned to crap. I had a Pioneer Centrex portable that I just loved in the very early 80's.The reception,tuning,quality feel,and good sound was great. I don't think radio entertainments is worth a quality investment now. I purchased a very low end Sony portable and thats as much as I care to invest. I was in thrift store and ogling the home receivers /amps from the 70's and 80' and remembering how I adored the sound from my Sansui. Now its digital music with ear buds.😒

[@KOZMOuvBORG]

You're having a BigClive moment 8:15 as a mechanic, I would backspin nuts and bolts until the threads seat to avoid cross-threading when tightening

[@ajaugenti1976]

Well done! I am a 44 year woman with Autism and Aspberger Syndrome. I have fixed my Mom 's RCA stereo system that I had broke almost two years ago, and had decided to rewire the speakers back together. Unfortunately, both speakers had one of those stupid little small black connections you can only plug into, the back of the stereo system. RCA was pretty cheap in it's set up back in 2012 or 2013 when, I got it for her as a Christmas present. I had only wished when I had reconnected the speakers together, I had only one small black tiny black connector since, I was unable too rehook up the other speaker. I had to rewire the speakers to another speaker and used the only one connector for both speakers to work. I had use paper boxes for the speaker covers and labeled them as RCA speakers since, one of them was missing and had to throw it away. Thank you for posting a video, it was awesome!☺

[@deniswauchope3788]

That was most enjoyable, since I spent some 40 years repairing all types of transistor (and tube!) radios, as well as hi-fi & stereo gear. I still remember being delighted when I found a "cheap" set that was well-designed and well made (which made them so much easier to troubleshoot & repair.) Thanks for the blast from the past!

[@capnzilog]

I appreciate the extent they went to make it feel like a classic analog radio (aside from the tone control.) It could have been a pocket calculator kinda thing with LCD display and rubber keyboard-type PCB buttons and no rotary knobs to speak of.

[@tedhaubrich]

I really do prefer knobs. Toggle switches with an actual lever are fine too. I really dislike small, (physically) non latching momentary buttons used to control things that are not momentary. I especially hate buttons used to control analog things like timers or volumes or tuners or brightness. Microwaves are the worst offenders. I love my cheap early 80's microwave. It has two knobs. One turns it on and sets a mechanical clock type timer. The other knob is the power setting. A handle to open the door and that's it. The control panel section takes up less space than typical microwave and you could use it just fine wearing a blindfold and oven mitts.

[@Gassit]

@@tedhaubrich I think in general most people expect radios to have knobs so that's why they did it this way. It definitely would have been easier, cheaper and more reliable to just have the switches poking through the front of the case but quite often form is more important than function.

[@hadireg]

@@Gassit In the 90's when digital display radios emerged, I was dreaming to own one of those I see in catalogs, thinking of the precision in tuning the frequency and later on getting older, I do appreciate knobs classical feel for volumes and tuning, then came the era of those receivers have the best of both worlds, 5 ways to tune a station lol, a know, a keypad a +/- buttons and a full scan button thing... grundig, sangean made great radios like that

[@klafong1]

The tuning control on these radios has a very annoying "stutter" behavior that does not feel like a real analog tuner. The video doesn't expound on this, though.

[@Georgew2777]

Yeah, its not really analogue. When you turn the dial it tells a chip to tune to the frequency

[@CarlVanWormerAE7GD]

Thanks for your comment on the reverse-twist first step of the process of re-threading screws into plastic. I try to teach that process to all the kids at "take apart" parties.

[@Zero_Ego]

Yes, it's just good practice. Saves butchering the thread.

[@biswajeetsingh4994]

Yeah, I always follow that.

[@phs125]

What a coincidence, youtube recommends me this 2 hours after I open up my own radio. I have a Tecsun PL310ET one of the buttons was not very responsive, so I opened it up. Very simple circuit, (but the performance is worth it) It has one board for all the important circuits, a main chip, and everything, Another board for the buttons, display, and tuning controls. They probably split the board just to make the radio smaller. Everything is arranged so efficiently inside, like a smartphone, (not THAT compact, but still) I don't see much of wasted space. I just blew Air on everything, cleaned the buttons with some alcohol, and closed it right back up. Interestingly, it has a tiny button cell inside, which is specifically there to keep the radio alive even if you remove the AA batteries. So you don't lose all the EPROM stuff...

[@lochinvar00465]

One of the best radios I had was one I pulled out of a 1958 Chevy. It had tubes and the power supply had a vibrator. It pulled in stations better than anything I've ever seen since. Even my DX-160 couldn't compare. That radio kept me up many late hours into the night listening to stations all over the country.

[@totallyfrozen]

The power supply had a vibrator? What is that and what is it’s purpose?

[@williamjones4483]

@@totallyfrozen The vibrator is a coil of wire and electrical contacts in one unit. The coil is set up to vibrate and move the contacts open and closed in a rapid fashion so as to create an artificial alternating current as required by some components.

[@poglong]

Imagine the meeting. The engineer and the marketing peep. Marketer: "We want knobs - it'll look cool". Engineer: "OK".

[@blueyonder1233]

To accompany that analogue scale. You can never have too many knobs!

[@annaplojharova1400]

Actually although it adds some complexity to the radio chip, it is still cheaper for the final radio maker to make the knobs and a few plastic pieces than deal with a display, some buttons and encoders and program the microcontroller.

[@mychevysparkevdidntcatchfi1489]

@@annaplojharova1400 Software is the enemy.

[@moopet8036]

This is honestly how most websites are coded too.

[@RijuChatterjee]

lol spot on pretty much

[@l3nny47]

Fran nice thumbnail, very nice picture and you look well. Always superb content - long live Fran Lab

[@MyDailyUpload]

Looks like they tried to make it resemble a GE “Super Radio”. I bought one of those about 20 years ago. While they weren’t hand crafted like sets of years gone by, they were supposed to be some of the last radios with the sensitivity and sound quality that the discerning listener would value.

[@BCThunderthud]

I was thinking the same thing, my "Superadio III" has gotten quieter over time though so I've retired it. If I decide I really need a radio in the bathroom again I guess I'll go vintage.

[@rocketcab]

@ MyDailyUpload.... still have mine.... still in mint condition.... only use it when the neighborhood power goes out.... sound quality is still superb....

[@Fotosaurus56]

I've owned two SuperRadios, both lost. I found one on eBay, still great sounding.

[@74HC138]

I have one I bought in 1995. Unfortunately since then I've moved continents, and it's 110v only (now live in 240v land) and I've never got round to changing the transformer, so I've not used it for years.

[@stevesmith3890]

I have two of them. The older one has a single large speaker, the other has a separate tweeter. The case designed changed as well. Both still work great.

[@WideWorldofTrains]

Probably as bad as the radios i used to make on radioshack breadboard kits LOL With a copper coil over PVC pipe tuner!

[@scotttait2197]

We're glad you don't run ads Fran ... thanks for the entertaining content

[@joegonzalez1778]

Good job on the blues riff, “At the lab”. You got some chops! Great tone. Keep it up, Thanks!

[@TheNeonRabbit]

I had to laugh when you turned it on and your own music was playing

[@charleshutchings5853]

I have one of these and I am pleased with it, it tunes in well and I leave the tone on low. Plenty of volume for me.

[@dorothygale5896]

I have an AM tube radio from about 1950. It's got a gassy 12BE6 and can pick up any signal out there. The selectivity is also very good and the noise floor is way down there.

[@johnellison3030]

WOW. That's an original 1979/1980 TI calculator behind you on the desk. I had one of those when I was a child. The numbers were red.

[@carldawson5069]

I remember a cafe in the late 1970's. Their "boom box" radio had in raised letters "1000 mw". Yes the "mv" was a very small font.

[@Mike_Hughes]

Fran! - I thought it was just me that loved and appreciated the masterpieces that were the old transistor stuff!, thank you. I collect all that stuff too... 'Super Hetrodyne', etc, still excites me... As for that steaming pile of horse manure you stripped down... BIN. Thanks again, Mike Hughes, MKH Engineering

[@osseo9947]

I refer to these as "City Radios" because after just a few miles from the radio transmitter they are useless.

[@eminusipi]

Still they work better than my dental fillings on close stations!

[@alvinfreeman8838]

Old radios was garbage so many stupid parts. Why people don't like a simple excellent radio. They was big and heavy. Simply you forgot TECSUN PL-880 extremely powerful radio. With smaller chips we can make better radios if we want.

[@_Vinayak18]

@@alvinfreeman8838 For me, a radio is excellent only when it can receive long distance station on MW band and for that it must have long internal antenna which is not possible in small radios.

[@alvinfreeman8838]

@@_Vinayak18 You can make it even better. Make it more bigger and heavier like a radio telescopes then you can hear even more distance. But I am sure it can receive MW band very well.

[@Stephen2846]

@@eminusipi Very few people anymore realize this was a real thing back in the day.

[@Rocketman88002]

A view like that vintage unit you showed us with the 365 uF variable tuning capacitor, and the A.M. and F.M. I.F. strips is exactly what started me on the road to my electronics career 59 years ago. I was fortunate to know somebody who explained to me how the radio signals were converted to sound. The wonders of it all! A transistor was somewhat of a mysterious device when everything still used vacuum tubes. Semiconductor theory was very different from vacuum tube theory or so it seemed at the time. Thanks for sharing with us. Cheers!

[@John-cj7et]

Fran, how is the sensitivity? I bought a portable radio several years ago but it only picks up the strongest stations. I live outside Philly and I only get a few AM stations and about 5 FM stations. There is silence (static) between them. Back in the day, I had a tube radio mfg by Zenith. Was able to pick up WOR in New York and listen to Jean Sheppard at night with very little static. Came in loud and clear. Now. The receiver I have as part of myaudio system doesn't pick up much of anything. Miss that old Zenith.

[@greytimberwolf68]

I bought the smaller version of that radio that has a 18650 cell. in my opinion works well enough to keep me entertained while at work.

[@archerpiperii2690]

"Reverse before going forward method..." That is brilliant! Thank you for teaching me something new. Peace.

[@victorvodka]

thanks for the self-tapping screw tip. i've been doing this sort of thing since i was a ten year old in the late 70s and this is the first i've heard of that

[@Zero_Ego]

So many great minds think alike. No one taught me to do this. How extraordinary.

[@larrygenedavis]

Could you tell me the brand and model of the first radio you show . Had it when I was a teenager .

[@WiliiamNoTell]

Nice video! Here's a question for you. Why is it my cheap FM work radio that's 40 years old picks up better than my dedicated tuner for my home stereo system.

[@jeffking291]

Digital Signal Processor DSP-based radios , especially the “ analog dial” type, tune differently - they “Step-Tune” in increments. And act differently, as stations do nod fade-away. Once the signal drops too low , the radio looses the lock on the the station and you get nothing. It’s strange. It’s been a while, glad to see you in your “new” Lab. 📻🙂

[@silverywingsagain]

It makes sense if you think of it from a manufacturing point of view. They want the least number of components to save cost. The logic is designed on a FPGA and programmed into the chip on the board, replacing dozens of components in the process. The tuning sucks because the algorithm sucks. This type of radio will get better as the programming gets better.

[@jeffking291]

silverywingsagain Yes, basically, the entire radio is in the chip. All a company has to do, is build the case, and buttons for whatever features you want. Ultra simple - ultra cheap. 📻🙂

[@annaplojharova1400]

@@silverywingsagain Actually it is not an FPGA, it is a hard wired logic (logic gates, with d-flip flops and a single bit full adder being the most complex cells, plus maybe a RAM for signal buffering; that includes the readout of the optional external configuration EEPROM in case of this exact chip). There are two reasons (coming from the same cause): The FPGA has a ton of overhead to be programmable. So it would be big in silicon area (so cost) and power hungry. Neither is acceptable here. However the FPGA's are for sure used for prototyping...

[@izzyryder2003]

Love the video and love old radios too.. Im a old Ham Radio Operator so i do have apreciation for the well built radios. you are my kind of girl!! Keep up the good work.

[@jjameson3035]

I enjoy vintage audio equipment as well!

[@charlesrichards5389]

Hey, where did you find my TI-30 from my 1979 high-school electronics class?

[@MrRocky1405]

I learn something every time I watch one of your videos - Thank You for your clear explanations. Kudos!

[@ABCEasyas--]

VWestlife reviewed this radio not too long ago. Personally, I'm not a fan of the digital step tuning from newest radios.

[@Prestonesfpv]

Yet another good video, and a cup of coffee, that made my day 😊 why have you started shaking so bad, are you okay ?

[@ulrichbodscheller2013]

Interesting clip, I thought they were as simple as that. The sound quality might be acceptable, but the older transistors were more sophisticated and had much better reception.

[@guyfellows2293]

is the voltage controlled potentiometer set up in a way that you could tune outside of the normal US FM band, say, Japanese FM (below ours)?

[@damocsell]

How was the selectivity? it seems to me that radio just does not work as well as it used to especially AM.

[@theGADGETSplaylist]

I was coming of age when transistors were coming of age. A 8 transistor AM radio was a BIG deal. I remember trading a week of babysitting the neighbor's brats in exchange for one.

[@annaplojharova1400]

Well, meet a 1million transistor radio... :-)

[@jandirairtoncarre2390]

I love all these vintage electronic stuff and your amazing channel came across !! I used to manufacture guitar tube amps and I loved it. And it is indeed almost impossible to find a brand new radio set with air gap capacitor for tunning, wich is terrible. Congratulations for your amazing channel!! cheers from Brazil!!

[@アスパラトマト-p6u]

だから今で言えばスマートフォンなどで間に合っていますので忘れません。余計な倉庫などにさよなら！さよなら！さよなら！さよなら！さよならしましょうね。

[@eljeffo2871]

You put your own music? Ain't you awesome! :)

[@mikemraz8569]

Have you checked out the CC Crane radio’s I have three 😊

[@RGMadu]

Hey! 8:25 I do the same backward turns to avoid double thread plastic! Awesome !!

[@billbright1755]

I still listen to my 70 Panasonic panapet 9 volt daily. Still works great after 50 years.

[@lordmuntague]

Cool radio station that, love to see that band play live some day. ;o) Cool video Fran. Out of interest, is the audio any better on high tone through decent headphones or an amp?

[@tonycalow708]

Regarding adverts. I, and possibly many others use ad blockers which stop the ads. I don't have a problem with you having as many ads as you can to keep going. You need to think about this as we need you on here for a dose of sanity! I would rather you had mid video ads than not be on KZbin at all. Even without an ad blocker, I`d be happy to put up with ads in the middle of your vids as it keeps a revenue stream for one of the better channels to survive. Put the ads in Fran!!!

[@geralderdek282]

I like your style Fran! I like my old cars and my old radios for the same reasons. Great styling and most important, i can understand them better and repair them!

[@glenbirbeck4098]

Thank you Fran. Yes, the evolution of these products is interesting. The early transistor radios were very packed, a challenge to the designers to fit all in a palm sized case. Keep up the good work!

[@Arnie10101]

The most surprising thing about that radio is that it still uses a string-powered tuning indicator!

[@sbalogh53]

They were probably trying to make it look retro.

[@bill392]

Yeah, a simple needle pointer on the tuner resistor and a printed rotary scale would have been just as good. In fact, they could have made the needle stationary, like a line through the center of a plastic window, and printed the scale graphic onto a large diameter plastic wheel and you would turn that wheel to tune it. The string is okay if you want to make a linear scale, which they did, who knows why. However, these days it would have been easy to use a cheap plastic worm gear to carry the needle across. Less complicated to assemble than a string and less likely to ever break. They likely used the string to avoid the steps of designing gears and manufacturing them. The string solution likely meant that they could make several case models that all use common parts.

[@BryanTorok]

@@bill392 Wow, back in the day, I had a number of cheap transistor radios that used the large knob on the tuning capacitor with a scale printed on the knob and a small window to see the numbers through. Those were always a bit tricky to tune.

[@klafong1]

I think that makes a statement regarding how cheap labor is in China. It cost less to have low-skilled workers put that indicator assembly together than it would have to put an LED or LCD display on the circuit board.

[@G56AG]

Back in the old days the string not only ran the indicator but turned the tuning coils as well.

[@CharlesVanNoland]

"In the lab... yadda yadda yadda"

[@THE_DOC_RAD]

Nicely done Fran. The idea of “converting” a PCB mounted slide switch into a rotary control switch is a very old idea. General Electric started doing that back in the 1960s. Sadly, today’s radios are just an afterthought. If they can receive a few “flamethrower” local stations, it’s good enough. Back in the day, even when outsourcing, a company still wanted the build quality of radio to reflect their corporate reputation.

[@hadireg]

"...to reflect their corporate reputation." so true that competition effort back then to set a brand image through their products!

[@gerardcarriera7052]

When thinking cheap..Think of GE.

[@bill392]

@@gerardcarriera7052 Certainly now, that's very true. But there was a time, many decades ago, when their stuff was considerably better quality. GE products are garbage now. Same with Samsung. Total junk, from exploding phones to exploding washing machines. I'll never buy anything with that name on it again.

[@ssgtmole8610]

Thanks for the breakdown. I just bought a new no frills CD/AM/FM combo (no tone control at all), and the sound is very muddy. I'll going to take it back and break out one of my old stereos, and hook up a CD player to it.

[@pinq9973]

Hi, Enjoy your show! Very well presented n explained compared to many others I watched. Shows you know the design n construction evolution very well from the early days of transistor radio! Rgds! Tony. 👍👍👏👏👏

[@nerdyorganist]

I’d love to see a video of you improving this radio/tone control

[@Radfordperson]

+1, I have my own ideas, but probably not as good as Fran would come up with.

[@joshuacoppersmith]

Put 1/4 plugs on it so she can attach a pedal!

[@chetpomeroy1399]

They sure don't make 'em like they used to, that's for sure!

[@Digital-Dan]

Should they make them like they used to? Things aren't like they used to be either, but of course they never were.

[@harrkev]

@@Digital-Dan Well, she buys a budget brand and gets budget quality. I am shocked. There are much better portable radios out there.

[@chetpomeroy1399]

@@8vsb1994k About 10 years ago, I had a Superradio III, and it had *excellent* sound quality and nighttime AM DX. It cost me about $70 new.

[@kathrynwhitby9799]

i never really appreciated my old transistor (as a kid) until now.

[@ww8wv1]

With that conglomeration of a tone switch how hard would it have been to solder in a tone pot?

[@rocketcab]

.... just found your channel today.... and sub'd instantly after you showcased some of your vintage radio collection.... I've been tinkering with radios most of my life.... and it pleases me watching others get just as enthusiastic about radio as I am....

[@makeminefreedom]

Young Doc: No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan". Marty McFly: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan. Young Doc: Unbelievable.

[@calbob750]

For the past forty years the label says..made in China.

[@ausmartin1]

@@calbob750 And you soon throw it out even if it works initially. We all need to stop making and buying Communist China products.

[@Phills69]

Hey Fran! Can you look into some radios by C.Crane? Considering buying the C.C. EP Pro. I’d be interested to know what you think.

[@pauldionne2884]

7:27 There's a solder splatter across a couple traces. Not hurting anything but could've been removed while you had it apart.

[@ErichH68]

What do you think of the vintage 1975 Panasonic RF 900 radio?

[@ripleyleuzarder630]

thank you sweetheart for the reverse thread trick for self tapping screws. that is awsome of you to present that in your video. keep going girl!!!

[@Wa3ypx]

At first glance, I thought your shirt had a Heathkit logo. The battery in the first radio, reminded me of a battery I would buy for my grandma's radio. I think it was 45 volts. A Simpson 260 used the same battery

[@OregonDARRYL]

Your suggesting to turn screws counter-clockwise until they "drop" into the thread is something I have wanted to share forever... thanks for getting that out. Subbed. Keep rocking...

[@antongromek4180]

The most sympathic Presentation i've ever seen😘 And the Knowledge of Fran is absolute obviously👏👏👏⚡

[@erintyres3609]

Fran, those speaker wires have a connector on the circuit board. You can just disconnect the speaker to get it out of your way. The radio doesn't look terrible at all. Does it work as well or better than the old ones? The first tests that I can think of are selectivity and sensitivity in both AM and FM modes. Then for FM, listen to a music station with headphones to get a sense of how its audio quality compares to your home stereo.

[@travismoore7849]

I wonder if a piezo speaker would work with either a high value resistor or a high ohm value coil from aroung 300k mh.