Luxury Radio from the 70s Restored: Blaupunkt Derby Commander

[@michalzi]

I actually started my professional career in 2000 as engineer at Blaupunkt headquarters in Hildesheim (Germany). They already belonged to Bosch company this time. Later, Blaupunkt was sold and me and most of the engineers transferred to Bosch. Blaupunkt still exists in Hildesheim, they still have their logo on the building, but only degraded to a pure buy-and-resell company. Nice to see, that you repair old Blaupunkt stuff. They have been quite competent in rf engineering in those times. 73 de Marc DL8ABE

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@EsotericArctos]

So many of the luxury brands end up with the name being bought by some import company, and then have the name plastered on lower quality items, selling based on people who remember the brand name and how good they use to be. It's such a shame to see that happen, but it seems to be the way of the world. Modern equipment with a luxury brand name is not the same as the original company.........

[@Peter-Günther-1]

@@EsotericArctos Beschiss nennt man sowas.

[@brunocosta8192]

Working like in the 70s! Thank you Manuel for this wonderful gift.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@jimgiordano8218]

Looks brand new. I remember when Blaupunkt was top of the line in the 60s-70s and it shows in that radio.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@gluteusmaximus1657]

This radio is on my bedside since decades. It is working fine. A decent machine!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@petersvan7880]

Fantastic portable radio & restoration!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Thank you

[@ralphj4012]

Another great restoration. I especially liked the multilingual pronunciation of Derby (horse race 1:12, city up t'north 27:46).

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Yes, things are going to be a little comical for a while 😊

[@fredfrickler2120]

Cool... Das gleiche Modell habe ich noch im Werkzeugkeller zu stehen. Jetzt weiß ich auch wie es von drinnen aussieht. Ist ein Erbstück von meinem Vater. Herzliche Grüße aus Berlin !

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍 Danke 😊

[@paolorams767]

hi Manuel I'm listening to you from Italy and I've always enjoyed listening to you in English to improve my understanding, but the fact that you've included multitrack audio makes the video even more enjoyable to watch, thanks

[@electronicsoldandnew]

😊 I was offered that by KZbin, but I’m still laughing after I saw the Portuguese version 😊 it has a few things translated incorrectly, and the reception tests don’t come through. Strange

[@Michlag]

​@@electronicsoldandnew no, yes, that automatic translator in Italian... Well... Couldn't hear your voice morphed like this... I prefer the original thousand times 😂

[@electronicsoldandnew]

I’ve picked up some really funny errors in the Portuguese version. Can only imagine what’s happening in the other languages 😊

[@donlunn792]

Lovely job. Lovely Radio.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@68CHUCKLES]

I love my Blaupunkt Riviera Omnimat !

[@HenrikG1963]

Got one of these for a year ago. All it need was cleaning the contacts and the potentiometers and a new bulp. The capatitors are all okay. Great sound of this radio.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@nigelbrockwell6237]

Looks great. I did the same as you with the dial lamp, super bright LEDs and resistor fit perfectly in the original lamp when the glass is removed. I also had a radio with an earth problem and had to fit a nut and bolt on the back of the radio, I'm not one for doing that , but had no choice.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Sometimes we just have to improvise 😊

[@JonRig]

Fabulous!! Very nice radio and a great restoration. I dare not even think about these as I can feel temptation kicking in. I'll try and focus and stick to the world receivers!!! 😁

[@electronicsoldandnew]

It’s a variant of the tube radio virus … we can easily catch it, so beware 😊

[@dieselten01]

Another excellent presentation! You have helped me on several occasions to service my own radios even though I am no where near being an electrical technician/engineer! I just picked up a Blaupunkt Supernova from the same era and it is a great radio as well, you may want to look into one of those.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

I will. Thanks

[@gerardcarson2779]

Superb radio Manuel. And yes, quite a few radios of that era (I used to use them!) featured an "auto" button which switched out the internal ariel (usually ferrite rod) whilst also switching through to whatever aerial connection was fitted to the car.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@xsc1000]

Yes, it was popular at the end of 60s and early 70s. Then car radios became cheaper, so this solution dissapeared quite quickly. I also have similar radio, Tesla Carina which is germanium based, but with similar design. There is no "auto" switch, switching is done automatically when you put it to the holder.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

@@xsc1000 In the UK we had to pay for a licence for a radio but it did not cover a radio fitted to a car, that required a second licence. This was got around by having a fitting kit that allowed you plug in a portable radio in to the car. But it had to have it's own power source so as to be a true portable radio, it could run off the car power when plugged in. I can't remember when the need for a radio licence was stopped and so the need for a plugging portable was no longer needed.

[@xsc1000]

@@TheEmbeddedHobbyist I think this solution was quite popular in Italy till 80s. Not because of licensing, but because car radios were magnet for thieves.

[@lyntonprescott3412]

Great stuff.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Thanks Lynton.

[@Th0rnblade]

Hi! Congrats on the restoration, the radio came out nice. The lightbulb in question is a 6-7V/1W auto/moto type (for dashboards). It was quite common in those days. I actually have some 30-40 pcs around, I could spare some for you if you'd like. And, as another challenge, from the 60s, I'd recommend you the Blaupunkt Riviera Omnimat as well. It is a very interesting radio, with 3 MECHANICAL FM presets (like in the 1950-60s car radios). The frequency is not changed by varicap diodes controlled by potentiometers as in other radios with presets but by the strength of your button press; the scale dial also jumps to the preset frequency in a rather violent and surprising way. Also, it has a tuning indicator microampermeter, but unlike the regular ones the scale of the instrument moves vertically in front of the dial. A mesmerizing and ingenious radio. Also weighs A LOT due to the metal preset mechanism, the wood/metal case and the D Cells it uses. Sound quality is quite nice (10x16 cm speaker) and reception is good (more or less the same electronics as all the blaupunkt portables of the era). Quite reliable as well, mine only needed an oiling of the mechanism and new electrolytics. One last thing - like in many comments, if the radio will be used on the mains I would HIGHLY recommend replacing that selenium bridge rectifier. Nasty surprises with those can pop out of nowhere. I've lost track of how many broken radios or receivers with destroyed selenium rectifiers I've seen.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

That model sounds interesting. I’ll have a look for it.

[@vicmabus1532]

Very nice!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@jeffreyhickman3871]

Another BEAUTIFUL 😍 radio 📻. Does this have AM or FM, Shortwave or Longwave? GREAT 👍 restoration. Your friend, Jeff.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

SW MW and FM

[@paulperano9236]

Wont the DIN socket have a ground pin ?

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Yes, it does. That seems to be the easiest one to access. 👍

[@1962speiche]

Als Blaupunkt noch Bosch war,war es beste Qualität!

[@ІштванДодої]

Respect 🎉🎉🎉

[@xsc1000]

There is usually ground connection avaiable in the bottom car connector.

[@DavidTipton101]

Wonderful radio and video Manuel. Well done😊 Edit: I just noticed 'Auto Dubbed' is working. It must have activated in the last few days. 👍🙂

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Thanks Dave. I’ve had a good laugh about the auto-dubbing: I listened to the Portuguese version and some of the terms that it translated are quite funny 😊 I’m looking forward to being able to really understand some of the German restorers’ videos. Some of those guys are real pros, and I feel we’ve been left out 😊 I’m sure we’ll have a few laughs at their versions’ translations but it’s better than nothing.

[@bofor3948]

Wow translates English into Aussie as well. Fair Dinkum! 🤣🤣

[@electronicsoldandnew]

😊

[@s.szorokin2001]

Thanks for the film. It's fantastic radio, 1972- 1975, were installed in expensive German cars such as Mercedes, Porsche. It's very sensitive in FM, which in my case is important. I use it as bedside radio, without the case- I reckon this way sound is better.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍 Yes, it really sounds great on FM

[@mgsee]

I bought one of these from a car-boot sale here in the UK about 20+ years ago in perfect condition. The sound quality of FM in particular was superb with very good clarity and excellent bass. I think the aerial broke so I stopped using it and I am not sure what happened to it eventually. After watching this I have to rummage among my pile of bits to see if I still have it!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

And if you look around, I’m sure you’ll find a replacement aerial too 👍

Agora sim. Funcionando em Português do Brasil. Está ótimo!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Pois, mas há cortes no áudio durante o teste de emissão, e alguns erros caricatos 😊 traduziram ‘mini-whip’ como ‘mini-chicote’ … creio que está mal, mas geralmente é uma grande evolução.

@@electronicsoldandnew Sim, tem coisas engraçadas, mas acredito que vai melhorar ao longo do tempo! "Tampas Eletrolíticas" no lugar de capacitores eletrolíticos. Mas está ótimo! Sucesso!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

😊

[@MarcelHuguenin]

Hi Manuel ! I don't know the exact name of the Blaupunkt model we had in that same era but it definitely had the same car adapter, which we had in our family car. It was a metal sled the same width of the radio and the backside was the length and width of the radio as well. The black rail on top had to slide into that sled. It was just a huge thing under the dash compared to modern radios, but hey, we had a great radio outside of the car and the sound quality was amazing. I have memories of various songs from that time, one of which was Popcorn 🤣Great radio!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@pit2314]

Nice radio, from portable radios you should try to get Tandberg TP41, its awesome

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Oh no!!! Here I go again! I’ll start looking right away. I can’t resist the suggestions 😊

[@retro_tech]

What an awesome radio. Looks wonderful and very modern actually. Doesn't look out of place with today's electronics. Very far ahead of its time in terms of design. By the way: does the DIN socket have a ground? That would allow a very easy way for you to make an adapter for your antenna. Looking forward to the follow-up.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Yes, the din has ground, and us probably the easiest one to reach 👍

[@michaelwitas9482]

I once had a US specification Blaupunkt Derby DeLuxe which a friend's father had purchased in the late 1960's. It worked but had spent a lot of time in storage and its plastic parts felt like they were slowly decaying. I thought it would be an easy project, but the more I worked on it, the worse things got. The wires were extremely thin and the speaker cone was decayed at the bottom. I could not find a replacement speaker that fit that small space. It had a metal chassis inside but was sort of a brittle radio where parts were easy to break by accident. After a while, I just sold it at a ham radio fest for parts. I currently have two Blaupunkt Supernova radios and two Blaupunkt Riviera Omnimat radios which I will someday hopefully restore. These units seem a little bit sturdier in construction and have less wear on them. As with collectable automobiles, it's always best to start with a radio that has minimal cosmetic wear because some of those parts are difficult to repair, polish and clean, especially if brittle, rusty or moldy. The unique battery holders of the Blaupunkt portables make them more of a challenge to restore if they are broken or missing. It is usually not just a flat plastic plate with tabs as is true on some Nordmende radios and others of that era. When looking at Blaupunkt Derby portables on e-bay and other online sites, it is important to verify the FM frequency coverage. Even many radios advertised by North American sellers only go up to 104 MHz on the FM band. I suspect most of these 104 MHz sets were brought over by Europeans who moved to the US or by military soldiers who returned to the US.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Agreed: brittle plastic is always a problem. They need to be treated very gently until you know where the weak points are.

[@stevepelham9010]

My parents got it I think it came installed in a German made Ford Consul as mounted in a string bracket. Me a small boy where as proud my parents keept that radio for years my mum where as particulary found of it looking after it, Blaupunkt German top quality she used to say.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@ricardoaliasdelatorre6836]

Nice radio Manuel, Blaupunkt was the most desired at 70's, at home ,at streets and also mainly at cars.How a lot good memories about that time. Those two( Ge) guys ,at final push-pull ,seems very aphonic😅.Let's see what it brings.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@piwex69]

My parents had quite similar tourist radio (albeit with more wood grain and thin play wood case). It was called “Jowita”, was of polish production, and also had those AC180 germanium transistors in the power stage. You would have liked it. Unfortunately I dismantled it for parts by 1980 ;)

[@electronicsoldandnew]

😊 yes, I dismantled quite a few great radios myself years ago

[@EsotericArctos]

I found with model railway (another of my hobbies) that items and loco's from the 1950's and 60's lasted a lot longer, and a lot are still running today, than more modern items. Sure, modern items can look more realistic and plastic technology has improved somewhat, but they just don't last from an operational perspective. How many radios built now will still be working in 50 years? I've got valve/tube radios dating back almost 100 years that are still going strong. Some even have the original valves/tubes. Can't really say that about anything built more recently. The "auto" adaptor feature is really genius for the time. The very early version of those removable face radios that were all the rage 20 years ago lol :). Seriously though, I think this clipping in a portable radio to be your car radio is a great idea. You don't need the radio in the car when you are not using it, so you get multi-purpose use, a radio for home, for the beach or whatever that doubles as your car radio.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

True, these devices were investments, rather than spontaneous purchases that get set aside after a few weeks.

[@andrewpitt6870]

excellent work. I have that set and agree it is a superb radio and looks great. What did you use to polish the cabinet? thanks

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Just normal plastic polish … normally used to polish car bumpers 😊

[@andrewpitt6870]

Ah, great. I will give it a go. 👍

[@ivanigorpollick6690]

i owned this radio years ago,,very nice,pleasant avdio you should add in your collection Telefunken hifi studio 1,or 1m-an amazing avdio,the best in 80th

[@electronicsoldandnew]

That’s also on my list 😊

[@boriskolev9513]

What do you know about the colour dots on IF cans?

[@electronicsoldandnew]

There is a code, but I’m not familiar with it without doing some searching 😊

[@boriskolev9513]

@electronicsoldandnew maybe this code is actually if frequencies?

[@electronicsoldandnew]

@boriskolev9513: it is and also relates to the breadth of the pass-band.

[@vcdios]

hi wonderful job. I have the same too, only the rod antenna is not perfect. Can you provide me the information how many rods has the antenna? I counted 5 the 6th is brocken. Thanks

[@electronicsoldandnew]

It has 7

[@Keithf1]

We have a very similar but earlier model. Near the telescoping antenna it has a tuning meter, in place of the blue plastic lens on your radio. We thought that perhaps Blaupunkt had replaced the tuning meter with a tuning bulb, behind the blue plastic lens. Is the blue plastic lens merely decorative/nonfunctional?

[@electronicsoldandnew]

I guess they decided to save on the meters on this model. That space is actually covered with this Blue plastic logo, which isn’t a lens at all. Underneath you can see the hollow where a meter would go so they obviously used practically the same chassis.

[@carlveilleux5744]

I just got a Koyo 8-band transistor radio from 1965. Beautiful unit with wood case. It runs on 6V (4 D cells) or AC from the mains (120V here). The power supply has a transformer with center tap and a two-diode rectifier to provide 6VDC. The schematic shows a 2.2M resistor that goes from one on the 120VAC lines to the +6V side of the circuit. Can you shed some light on the purpose of this resistor? I don't understand why they bond the 120VAC and 6VDC circuit in the power supply like this. This is my first radio, planning to replace the electrolytic caps on the board. Thanks!

[@electronicsoldandnew]

That is a really strange one. The only explanation I can find is that they were trying to reference the DC voltage to the neutral line of the mains, which is actually connected to mains earth. This may have had noise reduction properties, but I honestly can’t see any advantage to doing this, and actually a real danger is introduced. Depending on how you plug in your mains (if you don’t have a polarised mains plug) you could end up with your 6 V DC actually being at mains live potential. In restoring it I would remove this resistor completely and use the 6 V DC as an independent isolated supply. I may be missing something basic in my quick analysis, so if anyone has an explanation, feel free to step in.

[@carlveilleux5744]

@@electronicsoldandnew Thank you so much for responding. Feels good to read you because I'm fairly new at this and I had the exact line of thought: it may be dangerous (the plug is NOT polarized) and it might be there for noise suppression. I'll follow you advise and take the resistor off, I'll see if it affects the radio in any way. If you want to look it up, the radio is a Koyo KTR-1661, the schematic can't be found but I have found one for a Lloyd's 9N11-120 that shares the same internals (this radio was sold under different brands). Thanks again, your channel is awesome, as your teaching ability, I really appreciate. I'm from Quebec City, Canada.

[@nicholasroberts6954]

Clearly more enduring than the stuff of today and a more inspiring case design. Like the British Hacker radios of the late 60s, something that could take pride of place on the side board or occasional table. In those days you paid a premium price for things and you were guarenteed that the item would be through-and-through quality. Nowadays, its a lottery, largely determined by marketing men, with the majority of western manufacturers stuff being made in China with famous name badges stuck on. And you find that price is no longer thr consistent indicator of quality of design and manufacture it once was. It can be random, you can purchase an expensive item badged with a once famous name and find that its is poor and then be unexpectedlyand pleasantly surprised by the performance and quality of a cheap item with an unknown badge. Thank you marketeers. And don't get me going about PLL tuning and battery longevity or the less than universal niche audio compression protocols that some content providers have decided to adopt without adequately informing the manufacturers, leaving them and radio users out in the cold. Very annoying. I now wish I had held onto the my late 1960s Mitsubishi tranny. Only, MW, LW and SW, but the sound and the finish were so good. Anyway, very nice job on the Blaupunkt.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@mackfisher4487]

Brilliant, just out of curiosity how many hours do you have in the set? So you mentioned this portable will be a Christmas present, I'll guess for your daughter, so will she give the other radio back to add to the collection? Thanks for a great Video Manuel.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

I think about 8 hours or so. It tends to drag on when you’re doing it as a hobby 😊 Lucky I don’t have a boss clocking my time - I’d get fired 😊 Actually, this one is going to an in-law of mine, if he can convince me that he’s going to use it 😊 If not, he’s getting socks 😊

[@jeditoto3441]

Nice! How did clean the antenna?

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Water, soap, and then wd40

[@jeditoto3441]

@ thanks!

[@SimonEGab]

Salve, non hai sostituito la lampada della scala parlante, un saluto 🙏

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@tubeDude48]

👍

[@jeditoto3441]

Did you wood glue?

[@electronicsoldandnew]

On the speaker? Yes

[@jeditoto3441]

@ thanks- good tip

[@deepblueskyshine]

Another old transistor that is still younger than me 😐

[@electronicsoldandnew]

And me … 😊

[@birdy356]

And now on downloaded videos, Manuel is speaking German, I hate that not the video 😉

[@electronicsoldandnew]

You can easily change it to the original language.

[@birdy356]

@@electronicsoldandnew no way that does not work, download is all ways the same, and on German videos now I get it in English, not the original 🤔 has nothing to do with your videos, but very 🤮

[@electronicsoldandnew]

That must be fixed. I can’t imagine having to watch Dave Tipton speaking Portuguese 😊

[@birdy356]

@@electronicsoldandnew that's a nice one ;-)

[@michelelectro3486]

Dommage que la bande son soit une voie de synthèse. On dirait une voix de robot. Bien entendu je ne suis plus tout jeune, j'ai du mal à comprendre pourquoi on utilise ce procédé. Malgré tout merci pour cette vidéo qui me fait remonter des années en arrière.

[@electronicsoldandnew]

👍

[@LiaqatAli-z6w]

❤❤🌻🏵️💮🌸🌸🌺🥀🌹🌼🍂🍁🍄🌾🌱🌿🪵🪨☘️❄️🏔️🍀🌼💐

[@microled2012]

Spanish ...? 😲

[@electronicsoldandnew]

Don’t know what you mean? The stations, or auto dubbing?

[@anandarochisha]

At the 23 minutes..FM. Continental Portuguese

[@anandarochisha]

Great job ..

[@electronicsoldandnew]

@anandarochisha : I’m in madeira, so that’s the norm, but I also pick up stations from the Canary Islands. Hope the auto-dubbing doesn’t mess it up 😊

[@DE-iv8if]

The Auto-Dubbing is funny. It tottally speeds up and than it slows down and the Words used are sometimes just totttallly wrong. So that everything sometimes just turns into complete Nonsense... But maybe good for People, that do not understand the Video. :D But if someone reallly will understand it with the Dubbing, I am not so sure..

[@electronicsoldandnew]

😊 hope it improved with time

[@LiaqatAli-z6w]

I'm video downloader German Diya film Philips company news Pakistan live meri mummy LAQT 🌸🌺

[@LiaqatAli-z6w]

😅 I'm p ink M k