The fifty year old Talking Clock Radio

[@Beehashe]

My grandmother was blind, back in the ‘70s she received this exact model from Lighthouse for the Blind. I used to hit the button all the time to hear it tell the time!😀

[@AgentPepsi1]

Heee Heee... I would have done the exact same thing!! :)

[@captainsergeant]

Fun fact: The lighthouse for the blind has made a lot of equipment for the U.S. military over the years.

[@DocNo27]

@@captainsergeant Not just military - government in general...

[@jeffk7734]

I am also blind and I did that all the time as well on the first talking clocks/watches/calculators. Did your grandmother have one of the Sharp Calculators that came out in 1982 that included the clock and calendar? A neat trick with that calculator is that since the calendar would include the day of the week you could enter in different dates from 1901-2099 and you could find out what day of the week a certain date landed on.

[@jeffk7734]

@@DocNo27 This from what I have heard is mainly uniform clothes for the government.

[@greengolfkid]

"You're not all that interested in a box maybe that's just me" Who do you think is watching your channel, of course we are interested in the box.

[@SyntheticFuture]

WHAT'S IN THE BOX???

[@bsquared4604]

and the brochure!

[@ohnoitschris]

You don't see "Made in Japan" much nowadays

[@AbandonRule]

I came down here to comment I am interested in the box !! :-)

[@WaffenCashCash]

My thought exactly!

[@shazam6274]

I worked at Panasonic in my youth, when these and all the products in the mini-catalog were very popular. I was one of the few people in the US who were certified to service these at Panasonic. It is essentially a cassette recorder where the head moves along the two magnetic "tape" discs. Other than normal "wear & tear", the biggest problem came from people spilling drinks into it, which would "gum up the works". Literally, the spilled stuff would adhere the two disks, and sometimes even the moving head, which would wrinkle and rip the disks. A clean-up and replacement of the disks would restore functionality. The worst damage, usually unrepairable, was putting a plant above it with "Grow Sticks" for fertilizer. The fertilizer and resulting drip water would not only corrode much of the mechanism, but also the PC board below, and sometimes electrically short things out as well. FYI: The disks were available in several other languages. This and the TR-001 (which was made with Panasonic's own custom thick film hybrids and modules, $$$$ unheard-of outside the aerospace industry) were part of the philosophy of each factory having an outstanding top-of-the-line, unique product. The first two letters of the model number identified the factory, i.e. RC=Clock Radio, TR=B&W TV, CT= Color YV, SE=Stereo Combination with mini record player, etc. Yes, only either the wealthy or the disabled had these. Only the very, very wealthy had the TR-001, which was kind of impractically small and came with a slide-on 1.5x magnifier.

[@Arbiter099]

The 1970s will never stop being 30 years ago

[@DrPronghorn]

Truth.

[@KariIzumi1]

Same

[@Helladamnleet]

It's been more time between now and the premier of That 70's Show than the year the pilot took place in.

[@philismenko]

As someone who hasn't lived through when the 70s were 30 years ago, it always feels like 30 years ago

[@gogomonow]

Same, but I'm young so the 80s will always be 30 years ago for me.

[@bryede]

You've gotta think the engineer who came up with the concentric magnetic discs was pretty proud of himself. That's a very compact way of appending 2 recordings.

[@djosearth3618]

Ya, very half-way clever that but $130 is an insane amount even today, geez modernity sure went ahead and just spoiled us in tech-liciousness! ;] Sad that operational units are so rare.. no doubt due to the fact of all the physical wear to the magnetic discs not to mention being unshielded in that electromagnetically chaotic environment right above a 'light' bulb with equal practicality as a heater. I couldn't figure out where it was playing the O'CLOCK from, which I'm now doubting I even heard ;]

[@supermcflabberjabber]

@@djosearth3618 I would assume the O’clock part would be on the minute (outer) disc as there would be no minute to announce then.

[@uncleTedK]

His boss took credit for it. The engineer committed sepaku.

[@dakotathacker3821]

very cool for sure

[@Crusader1089]

@@djosearth3618 in the seventies there was less electric interference than today, so it would be less of a problem. For the blind that price tag would have been worth it, I'm sure

[@veganguy74]

I wonder if the woman who recorded the lines ever imagined her voice would still be heard on one of these things all these years later.

[@olmostgudinaf8100]

It would be super cool if she were still alive. Even cooler if she watched this video.

[@Helladamnleet]

@@olmostgudinaf8100 Even cooler if she still uses one of these. Although I don't think even if I made the literal only talking clock ever I'd want to hear myself announce the time for the next 50 years.

[@bumboclat]

@Jante Le-Man google does not find a single result for that name

[@EllaBananas]

@@bumboclat Not a single result? come on theres always some unrelated thing that comes up. *googles it* Wow. Thats impressive. Exactly 0 web results. actually just tried without the period there is one result about where to buy clean big dogs (wtf?) But still thats like borderline conspiracy theory fodder. A name which returns 0 results as if it were purged from the internet. Or more likely its just not a real name.

[@mackpines]

We’ll have to dig her up to find out. 😊

[@stephenkayes8981]

I'm from Buffalo. I used to get vacuum tubes from that store back in the 90'S.

[@vincebarnhart8290]

Fellow Buffalonian here. Amazed that place made it as long as it had! Really went through some tough times in Bflo as a specialty shop.

[@Highrollinhunter]

I need some vacuum tubes when I get a guitar amp that requires tubes

[@gordontaylor2815]

@@vincebarnhart8290 It probably benefited from being right next door to the Tonawanda GM plant (at least if I'm looking at Google Maps correctly). Nowadays that address is home to Pooley Inc., which Google lists as an industrial equipment supplier.

[@bloccoaspirale1867]

Has there ever been a more modest marketing statement; *"just slightly ahead of our time"*

[@rich_edwards79]

That's Panasonic for you. The Volvo of consumer electromics. Quality, reliability, but not too much by way of excitement. I've always had a soft spot for their stuff.

[@gavincurtis]

Even in this video, it still is ahead of its time. Almost one hour in fact.

[@watershed44]

@@rich_edwards79 Same here, back in the 60s through the 1980s, Panasonic was really a very high quality brand with very long lasting durable, and innovative items.

[@brentfisher902]

@@gavincurtis Just wait for 6 hours in the UK an it will be on time...

[@ricksandstorm]

8:21 "That would announce the time every hour on the hour if it is depressed" A metaphor for how awareness of the passage of time is linked with depression...

[@mjouwbuis]

Reminds me of Marvin the depressed android.

[@mcswabin207]

I am amazed on how well that packaging aged over the decade.

[@stevec00ps]

Is that a birthday reference? Happy Birthday if so!

[@rocka3743]

If so, happy birthday Mat! .. or should I say, hope you had a great birthday!

[@Blasterxp]

Congratz!

[@needfortweed8734]

'appy birthday indeed... According to the interwebs his birthday was the 18th of January...

[@Boojakascha]

Happy Birthday, Mat. I love you

[@paulmathison2906]

Happy birthday Mat!, whenever it was. Another interesting video thanks for sharing.

[@DanVR001]

Ah yes, the good old days where the radio/clock would only talk to you, unlike today where they also listen in to everything you say.

[@santajimi]

That's kinda creepy. Alexa! Play The X-files theme.

[@Lucien86]

That's one technology that's not actually improved that much. It didn't work then and it basically doesn't work now. At least when I try to use it..

[@devinthierault]

@@santajimi I can't do that Dave

[@mrb.5610]

I don't mind them listening ... it's telling others that bothers me ...

[@burnttoast111]

@@RSCOZZY Imagine a version of 1984 where people purchased electronics for Big Brother to spy on them...

[@AlexiBexi]

well, I love boxes

[@j.harbottle8928]

Yep a well made box ! not like modern everyday boxes at all lol

[@lulzwhatehphuxor3341]

thought the same thing, luckily there was already a comment going :)

[@sidefish8362]

I was interested in the box, particularly the old Panasonic logo.

[@j.harbottle8928]

@@sidefish8362 won't see them again in our lifetime, used to like their radios a lot

[@FesixGermany]

Meow! Oh look, Alex is here too!

[@nibblrrr7124]

9:38 It's like your very own creepy number station, from home! Love it!

[@garywatersjr8959]

A little inside to Panasonic. My Grandpa used to sell their products, according to him and the sells person from Panasonic USA who set him up to sell products, those names were the code names used between the US and Japan before the product was sold. This was so competition couldn't figure out what new products were coming to market. Those names are names of people who worked in Panasonic or random names of other people.

[@spam7797]

No. I *AM* that interested in the box. Never doubt your instincts!

[@interstat2222]

We all are! Never doubt the Techmoan viewers!

[@AtheistOrphan]

Somewhere, in a recording studio long ago, a woman sat down and recorded all those announcements. I think of that whenever I hear the infamous ‘Lincolnshire Poacher’ numbers station.

[@BBC600]

I wonder who was the voice behind this device and if the master copy of her time announcements still exist somewhere?

[@jamesslick4790]

@@paulhorn2665 In Pittsburgh, PA (USA) you can still call a local number and get the current time and temperature. It's provided by our local electric utility.

[@MrDuncl]

It's still a trade. Think of the men or women who had to record all the Satnav announcements. I saw a funny clip on a program looking back at the last twenty years over Christmas. A voice actress was paid to do all the Satnav announcements for Volkswagen. When he wanted a new car her husband, who up to that time had been a Volkswagen fan, said there was no way he was having her telling him where to go all the time and bought a Volvo.

[@renemunkthalund3581]

7:18 That "Touch'n Call" button looks so contemporary!

[@mal2ksc]

It was the inspiration for the Staples "easy" button. (It's a joke, please don't sue me)

[@dpfreedman]

Brilliant out-of-the-box thinking by Panasonic's engineers! Concentric magnetic discs read in an arc, an impressively clever and non-intuitive way to implement existing technology in a unique way to solve a challenging problem. Very impressive. Another big "thank you" to Techmoan for bringing us these obscure devices.

[@simonbeasley989]

Very nice piece of technology, looks years ahead of 1971. And if I'd bought it and found that catalogue in the box I'd have been very happy!

[@MattGamesYT]

Can't believe that has a full colour brochure in 1971! I've got loads of equipment from the 70's and 80's and not one of them has something like that in colour! I think that's probably worth more to history than the clock radio 😅

[@SuperScottCrawford]

It's because they were available in color, not colour.

[@MattGamesYT]

@ScotSpeed In England we like to spell things incorrectly 😄

[@DesandSam]

I think he means because they were aimed at the American Market (perceived to be rich) rather than the UK (perceived to be a smaller market with less affluent customers).

[@stonyrerootkit1013]

I see your Colour... and raise you some Aluminium!!! 💎🖤💋🎩🤓

[@ethelryan257]

@@DesandSam That might be part of it but, being old enough to remember, it had more to do with Panasonic trying hard to prove their products were better quality and more technically advanced than the (still important) American electronic companies' offerings.

[@northeden8661]

This video is your signature series. That little box is pretty much the very heart of your channel. Don't stop.

[@fredbloggs5902]

Interesting that this came out in 1971 and the TI voice synthesiser chip came out only 7 years later in 1978. The pace of technological development is truly astonishing.

[@VulpesHilarianus]

They had the technology to do this for about two decades before this device came out. Back in the late '50s and through the '60s some schools being built new in the U.S. were outfitted with a magnetic tape system like this that would play the bell sound or time announcements. I remember that an elementary school I attended, built in 1962, used an automated system like that. It was just that nobody thought it was worth scaling that system down from something that was the size of a fax machine until 1971.

[@fredbloggs5902]

@@VulpesHilarianus - not for $150

[@VulpesHilarianus]

@@fredbloggs5902 $150 was still quite a bit of money back in 1971. Adjusted for inflation that's around $960 in today's money. You could buy an entire living room wood furniture set for less than $150 in 1971. Without those speakers and wiring going all through the building they could cut down the costs, but the pricey part was always going to be that magnetic disc and the read head.

[@fredbloggs5902]

@@VulpesHilarianus - a chest of 5 drawers alone would cost you over $100 in 1971.

[@TheOzthewiz]

@@ohioplayer-bl9em Well we have had "Space Lasers" being shot at us forever, but we had been told it was just lightning! Kudos to Marjorie Taylor Greene for setting us straight!

[@eskee1]

5:20... those names are extremely meaningful and helpful to people "in the know"

[@nvo7024]

Love the sight of that dark-grey Hitachi tucked into the corner, as discretely as possible. The ultimate elephant in the room.

[@jaimiehorton9669]

This was fascinating, thank you for sharing it. I'm from Buffalo actually and I've seen that building before, never open though. I imagine people who were blind really appreciated this new technology.

[@LeftoverBeefcake]

Hello there, neighbor! I'm from Lockport NY and I'm sure I've been past that building many times. I'll have to keep an eye out for it the next time I'm in the area.

[@hunterdavis3003]

Fascinating. Ya know there’s really nothing quite like a techmoan Saturday

[@danieldelonge6002]

A Techmoan Sunday is quite refreshing too🙂 Greetings from the Baltic Sea island Ruegen, Germany..

[@michaelfrench3396]

What an amazingly ingenious mechanism! My dad retired from the Navy in 198 2 I think. He retired as a master chief and he was an electronic warfare officer. He designed radar dammers and stuff and when he got out of the Navy he ended up running and then owning a custom fishing rod business and wholesale place. And I remember asking him when I was little why he didn't stay in electronics when he got out of the Navy and he said because once everything went solid state it got boring because you had chips for everything. I kind of understand what he's saying now. It's amazing the ingenuity and just how clever these engineers were to make things happen that we can do today with a little tiny chip.

[@平-o2n]

It depends on how you define electronics. Once everything went solid state hardware was separated into material science and software. My department chair told me before but I was too ignorant to believe.

[@michaelfrench3396]

@@平-o2n The point my father was trying to make was that he used to have to make his own board s by the vacuum tubes wire everything design your own circuits figure everything out and not just have to be either on the software side or the hardware side. You had to be all sides.

[@平-o2n]

@@michaelfrench3396 Being on both sides... Actually I used to think this way but this old school method wouldn't be able to accomplish today's systems complexity. That's why it had to be separated, layered, modulized. Previous engineers were clever but today's engineers can focus on more sophisticated things. Look I'm saying what's right or wrong. It's just an evolution. I'm saying maybe you could look electronics in a different way. :)

[@michaelfrench3396]

@@平-o2n Oh it didn't have anything to do with anything other than it was more fun for him when he had to solve all the problems instead of just some of them. So instead he built fishing rods. 😂😀👍

[@sjhart14]

That is such a gorgeous display, wow.

[@gbso692]

"It seems that the tinfoil hat wearers are actually on to something." - Techmoan, 2021

[@71dembonesTV]

I've been hearing a lot of that the past 5 years or so. Validation is nice even after years of being told to get my head checked and stay away from sharp objects... 😳

[@michealpersicko9531]

I've been recommending they check into a psych hospital seems like they might be a little beyond outpatient help ;) lol jk.

[@ericpode6095]

I'm going to wrap my smartphone in tinfoil so "they" can't spy on me.........

[@michealpersicko9531]

​For the best effect you need to wrap it in 3 layers of tinfoil then put in your microwave twice once on 60% for 9 seconds let it cool down then put it back in for 40% for 20 seconds.

[@DOCTOR_SONG]

Well either im a genius or a nutter because in my old house i had a pirate radio studio and to sheild out the 3000 watts of RF from the antenna from the audio chain i used 3 layers of tin foil rolled out on the floor walls and celing and even sheilded the windows . which was a bit tricky since i wanted to be able to open them so i used conductive computer case stripping to make the contact around the window sections. Well what i ended up with was an EMF faraday sheilded room which not only had noticeable physiological benifits but some very interesting properties due to the variable capacitance that would occur between the 3 layers of foil. Now i should mention that many functions in the station were controlled by means of toggle switches and momentary contacts linked to various relay banks to interconnect remote and local functions. And indicator lights ,temprature control,timing and multi stage selectors All electromechanical . what is peticularly interesting to me was how something i might call electromechanical logic effect would happen where once the system was in operation for a few hours of broadcasting certain functions like mic switching and air monitor muting and record play triggering would automatically activate at the proper times without having had the actuating toggles or buttons pressed. In this highly unorthodox and rule breaking configuration of relays, switches, earth ground,power supply grounds, + supplys and - supplies and insaine ammounts of "mix and match consumer and commercial grade devices,transformers and you name it homebrew sensors all interconnected as one neural network so to say it would appear that or at least seemed that the studio could learn how to perform switchings at the proper times on its own. I do not understand how it could be possible. The only theory i have is the layers of foil were distributing charges in specific ways that were influenced by the pressure applied by my feet depending where i was standing and throwing switches on one of 3 panels. Its a mystery and required further investigation but most unfortunately that whole machine as well as my lifes work was destroyed by what turned out to be arsonist fire. One day i hope to reproduce the system and possibly continue the research but i just wanted to share this with everyone. Maybe there is a " logical" explanation that im overlooking or perhaps something greater. Its hard to believe i know but im not lieing or exaggerating. Some sort of memory logic or ghostly intervention? Im a scientific type so i doubt the ladder. Tin foil its not just for conspiracy theories anymore.

[@petraoleum5816]

I can't be the only one that sees you turn on an old radio and expects it come with period audio!

[@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou]

The song at ~9:32 dates back to 1983, and this is as close as it gets. If personal FM transmitters are legal in the UK, he would be able to do it. This would be an interesting way to do it going forward.

[@dcfuksurmom]

Nothing more annoying than firing up an old radio you're working on and hearing cardi b (it's name is not worth being capitalized)

[@olmostgudinaf8100]

@George V Cohea, personal FM transmitters ARE legal in the UK, as long as they are limited to (IIRC) about 5mW (translates to about a10m range in open space). I had one in my phone (Nokia N900) and used one in my car for playing music from another phone through the car radio before I had Bluetooth.

[@tinplategeek1058]

Just like Marvin, the talking clock speaks when it is depressed

[@BertGrink]

"I have this terrible pain in all the Diodes down my left side"

[@jasonblalock4429]

Life? Don't talk to me about *life!*

[@timelordtardis]

@@jasonblalock4429 No one did! 😁

[@steve0592]

@@BertGrink Has TM checked those?

[@Matt47247523457]

Here I am, brain size of a planet and I can only converse with a talking clock

[@ChipGuy]

I enjoyed that new looking packaging as well. Even the design of that clock would appeal again to people these days. Very good find.

[@aromalrays6530]

“Congratulations, Jacob, yes, of course you can have cake.”

[@Havron]

Jacob had taken care to ensure that he had eaten his meat. He understood that it was impossible to have any pudding otherwise.

[@collinhunter9792]

@@Havron if you dont eat your meat, you wont get any pudding. you wont get any pudding if you dont eat your meat courtesy, pink floyd, billy connolly

[@calico9046]

@@collinhunter9792 “you! Yes, you. Stand still, will ya?”

[@Novel_Poe]

@@collinhunter9792 also if you don't eat meat you will die

[@asafschneider3395]

So at least now we know how those spooky number stations voices were produced

[@lunakoala5053]

Techmoan is like a cat. More interested in the empty box than anything else.

[@CaptainZuurpruim]

I hope he doesn't go and sit in it though. ;-)

[@Scodiddly]

That's pretty much a mandate for a secondary Techmoan channel - the boxes are shown in loving detail, and there's always a cat sitting in them.

[@hdofu]

Wow that little booklet was the insanely good magazine-style print for the 70s, most of the stuff you find in boxes from back then would be you try to look at, sneeze and they blow away like dust bunnies.

[@hairycoo56]

'Fifty year old talking clock' *hears 1971* *dies inside*

[@interstat2222]

Yeah. Doesn’t seem right somehow.

[@zappawench6048]

I was born in 1971 - big "5-O" this year. Sux.

[@ian_b]

@@zappawench6048 Today is my 55th birthday. It doesn't seem possible I got this old in so short a time.

[@theonlybilge]

@@ian_b If time seems to be going by faster as you age, there's a reason: it is. Because each year is a smaller portion of your life as you age, they seem shorter relative to your total lifetime. It's good to practice mindfulness and living in the moment, it makes it feel a bit slower. Or you could get yourself a cyborg body and live forever with a healthy brain.

[@PowerGlove79]

Me too, my friend, me too

[@DeneF]

Sounded like this 50 year old after a few drinks. Many thanks. Great video.

[@mr.berlingo8211]

Fascinating, the ingenuity of these old analogue devices.

[@ToumalRakesh]

Oh my god my grandparents had one of those, never knew it was supposed to talk!

[@user-qf6yt3id3w]

Back when I was a kid someone got me a talking/moving Dalek for Christmas. I took it apart, as you do, and it was a fascinating bit of 70s/80s technology. It had a miniature record for the voice and one electric motor with some gears for both the moving and the talking which struck me as an ingenious bit of cost saving. This was just at the end of the time before the prices of microcontrollers and digital memory went into freefall and everything was done digitally.

[@espurious]

I had a K-9 toy using the same tech. The record even had a B side with more phrases.

[@Twotakesit]

I still have my Dalek, It's red and talks but didn't move. Like you I took it apart to see how it worked and it stopped working :(

[@jeffk7734]

Do any of you remember the old See & Say toys from around that same time? Similar technology. I had several of those as a toddler and pre-schooler. I ran across one years later where the string was missing.

[@Raveheart]

Back in the days when they were proud of their manufacturing facilities and were showing photos from it in their brochures. Imagine nowadays Apple (and others) would proudly brag about that suicide net around the 1st floor of their buildings.

[@sofa-lofa4241]

Or employees smashing up the factory and causing $7 million in damages because they were promised $30 per month wages... And got paid $8 instead I bet the employees at Panasonic got a decent wage in the 70's

[@illuminate4622]

When capitalism was still working

[@coolwhip455]

@@illuminate4622 Well we don't really have Capitalism anymore. What we do have is Cronyism combined with Neo-Liberalism that has put 99.9% of the wealth in the hands of a few Oligarchs who use the power of the government to eliminate any and all competition.

[@illuminate4622]

@@coolwhip455 it's strange when the government should be the one setting uniform rules and keeping up the competition. Securing functional and safe playing field for everyone. Hmm

[@danielbelfort5088]

@@illuminate4622 They missed that chance ca. early facebook & Alphabet days... Now even if they wanted to regulate this would be an impossible gargantuan task. Just compare last year's hearings with the MS Explorer hearings back in the day. It's very obvious that todays judges/politicians are just fulfilling an obligation to constituents and public while they have no idea what they're doing up on that court stage. They wanted to appear as if they were slapping the big guys hands but by their rhetoric and type of questions asked you can pretty much deduce it's only hot air and political make believe.

[@andychow5509]

I was interested in the box. Pretty amazing that it survived in such good condition, plus the offset of the o in the old panasonic logo. Very interesting.

[@rlstoer]

In case my comment below wasn't long enough... To Techmon or anyone else trying to repair one of these: I noticed in the video that your outer disk overlaps your inner disk, it should be the other way around. That will cause issues for sure. To convert to 50Hz you should be able to locate a 50Hz Telechron clock movement from the 1970's and swap the gear pack. That clock was common to almost all analog clock radios of the day. You don't even have to rewire anything as the gear mechanism is magnetically coupled. Also read my other post about the micro-switches. I have detailed photos of the inside of a working mechanism. Let me know if they would be of any help.

[@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc]

Thanks for the additional technical info! I noticed the disk overlap was in opposition to the tape head movement, and couldn't believe they'd designed it that way. Guess it got messed up during the repair (kind of amazing that this odd mechanism still worked fine with reversed overlap and with the splicing tape).

[@tbaker9409]

The production quality of your videos are always quite amazing. I'm sure you've heard this before, but I wanted to tell you anyway! Thanks for all the fantastic content!

[@Danileith123]

That Radio Equipment Corp building is 20 minutes from my house.

[@efficiencygaming3494]

The first clock that literally tells you the time. Simply wonderful.

[@Web_Audio_Moto]

Another Buffalonian here - used to go to Radio Equipment with my son on a regular basis just to go through the aisles of rando stuff they had. Lot of projects over the years. Sad day when they finally closed up. Brilliant seeing them mentioned here at Techmoan

[@steviebboy69]

You said it was pretty knackered out, but for 50 years it still works somewhat I dont think much modern stuff from today will do the same. When you said you were in when you got into it I thought you were going to say We are in like Flynn as in Mr eevblog. I loved the way the old mechanism worked.

[@magreger]

I to was wondering about the head cleaning. Guess you'll just have to show it from now on lol. Entertaining as always. cheers!

[@MickeyMousePark]

20:39 when he did the close up of the head in the addendum you can see what appears to be a head cleaning pad (the black part) so back in the day it had a self cleaning head...

[@Charlesb88]

Or he can mention in the vid he did it off screen but simply chose not to show it.

[@TheMechanicalPhilosopher]

He clearly should start a separate head cleaning channel.

[@QlueDuPlessis]

NO! Show me the box! It's not just you! There is something adorable about vintage cartons in pristine condition.

[@cerealpimp73]

I'm just glad that Jacob got his cake. Congratulations, Jacob.

[@itsyaboipandaz]

What's the big pile? We will never know

[@jayducharme]

What a fascinating piece of electronics. And you must be one of the few people in the world who remembers Space: 1999!

[@watershed44]

@Jay Ducharme I remember Space:1999 well! I was just 10 y/o and loved the first season, it was so serious, well written and believable to me as a child.

[@jayducharme]

@@watershed44 I really liked the first season as well. The Andersons were trying to have a weekly equivalent of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with thoughtful stories of humanity's place in the universe. That all went out the window in the second season. But the first season is still memorable.

[@scooterboi8761]

I used to drool over those Panasonic fliers! I had forgotten about them. Thanks for the memory!

[@enp82003]

30 years from now reviewing a piece of tech. 1. Well the plastic has broken down to it's oil base 2. It needs a firmware update that is no longer available. 3. The oem none replaceable battery died so it won't turn on.

[@kandace4088]

bonus requires app (with a required login). i look forward to my gifted photo frame becoming a brick in a few years.

[@rutgerb]

@@kandace4088 extra bonus. Apps and phones will be something completely different in 30 years time.

[@mon94key]

Don't forget you won't be able to charge the device as wireless charging becomes the norm and your house has no sockets!

[@quintessenceSL]

This is actually a concern for the collectors automobile market (with at least some saying there won't be much to restore past 2001 long term). Too many plastic parts, too many specialized electronics, and more and more of of the electronic codes needing factory tools to diagnose. It's a peculiar thing when $40,000 (or more) item becomes disposable.

[@mfbfreak]

So far, we've been lucky when it comes to antique software. It surprises me that 30 year old DOS drivers are still somewhat easy to find.

[@disgruntledfaerie]

"I bought this in a non-functional state." Jeez, you mean you came to Wisconsin and didn't tell me?

[@LeftyFunkenstein]

lol

[@QlueDuPlessis]

🤣😂🤣😂

[@fredbloggs5902]

The UK is pretty non-functional as well at the moment 🤣

[@dan3a]

Cheese.

[@stewardthaddeus8589]

🤣

[@broadsword6650]

That recorded voice is downright spooky if you’ve listened to “The Lovecraft Investigations” on BBC Sounds and their delve into Number Stations. And if you haven’t listened to it, listen to it. It’s fab.

[@lolajoker]

I used to love those little Panasonic catalogs. I had this very exact 1971 one. I had the Maywood clock radio and got the catalog with it. I then wood get the new one every year until about 1975.

[@ghettoandroid]

What a beautiful design! I love 70s industrial design.

[@trippymchippy8586]

I was born the same year as this clock. I can't talk too well either these days.

[@timothykanarsky8468]

Awesome piece of bespoke engineering! Crazy how much thought and custom parts went into that playback mechanism, which today would be done with a $2 microcontroller and DAC!

[@siliconinsect]

It's an analog hard drive!

[@ro63rto]

A family member came back from Japan after working with a Japanese singer in the early 80's, with lots of gadgets. One was a Seiko pyramid talking clock. Wish I had claimed it for myself.

[@sambaker3233]

I remember seeing one of those at my dads office when I was a child! The top of the Pyramid was the button. Wellington, New Zealand.

[@Kalvinjj]

@@sambaker3233 They definitely made that so you don't slap it

[@dougbrowning82]

I have one of those, but it's a rebrand.

[@matthewf1979]

You know, those magnetic film discs could probably be reproduced with a little help of some semi-functional originals. That thing is cool beyond it’s years!

[@NathanDavisVideos]

Especially for something that was made back 50 years ago!

[@idleprepress]

Some old 8 inch floppy disks may help, but the thing is to write all the cycloid-like tracks right and even, the head inside is a read-only one for sure and you'll have to reproduce the entire assembly which provides the travel to it in order to build a proper recorder.

[@ctoforhire]

My first car was a 1982 Nissan (Datsun) 280zx. As it was a hand me down from my parents, the car was loaded with every feature - T-tops, leather interior, premium sound and the most futuristic feature, the car talked. Thinking back to the sounds made by the playback system it used when saying things like "Your Door is Ajar" or "Your lights are on", it had to be the same mechanism. Thanks for taking me down memory lane!

[@ncot_tech]

Is there a wood grain bedside tea maker called the “Morning Wood”?

[@j.harbottle8928]

oo-er missus !

[@BertGrink]

Clint has entered the conversation: "Did someone say Woodgrain?"

[@theonlybilge]

@@fvefve12 To link to the time, add &t=13m57s to the end of the video link. youtu.be/watch?v=KYOyAs8ka0A&t=13m57s

[@PeteCourtier]

The piano black one was called “Morning glory”!

[@brentfisher902]

Or knockoff generic Oreo cookies that are called "CremeBetweens"....

[@Sheppards1984]

Those silly names remind me of Ikea furniture names

[@annother3350]

They were always a bit more grandiose in the 70s / 80s. I bought an old phone called something like The Viscount 😂

[@AtheistOrphan]

@@annother3350 - We had a bright green BT Viscount in the 1980’s. Check out eBay.

[@paulstubbs7678]

Sounds like Ikea is stuck in the '70s

[@evansn79]

IKEA names are often just scandanavian towns/villages/peoples names.

[@annother3350]

@@AtheistOrphan I've got the 'burnt orange' one!

[@ReyMysterioX]

When he said the radio is from the 70s after reading the title about a 50 year old radio, I was genuinely surprised because in my mind, I automatically concluded it was from the 50s…

[@IrisGalaxis]

Kinda painful when it happens. Time runs...

[@clayp6415]

I have always been interested in older analog technology. There were many products that were ahead of their time, but couldn't be accomplished well enough due to technology limitations of the time. Appreciate your videos very much , I find these obscure electronics incredibly fascinating.

[@dcbcherrygate]

Fascinating as ever. If 50 is the new 40 then the old saying is now "life begins at 50". Trouble is after that everything begins to wear out, spread out or fall out......

[@fiveinfive]

Even with all the fancy technology we have these days, you can still turn on an old clock radio and receive radio signals, some things don't change. Brilliant 😊

[@donaloflynn]

Various authorities keep talking about switching off FM radio, but I don't think it will happen for a long time yet. I mean we still have newspapers, which are a far older media format. Making so many millions of FM radios redundant in favour of lo-res DAB and flaky online streams is a crazy idea.

[@fiveinfive]

@@donaloflynn that's pretty understandable. I think radio will always have its place, just like the POTS (plain old telephone system). There's reasons it's used as a back up to many digital solutions.

[@techbaffle]

7:18 I love how futuristic that looks!

[@GreenJimll]

Makes me realise just how far technology has moved on since I was a child.

[@necrojoe]

And yet..how good could we assume a 50-year-old iPhone to work in 50 years? Likely not very, probably much worse than this clock!

[@Gransonec]

Yep, "Hey, Google... What time is it?" Reply... "Asking Spotify to play Morris Day and The Time"

[@Toast0808]

5:20 So, yeah, I’m a bit older than this talking alarm clock radio (I’m 53 this June). Anyway. Thanks so much for showing the brochure showing all the Panasonic products! I grew up with the small portable black and white TV, the AN-609D “The Derby”. It was my parents first television set after they got married, and they had it right up until 1990. Of course it had long been relegated to the bedroom by then as of course they had bought newer, color televisions since. I never knew it had a name. Heck, I never even knew the model number! Oh, and I grew up in the place where “MEH” was located. LOL. 😂🤣😂🤣

[@michaelthomsen8771]

The double stacking of the discs is pure genius utilization of one play head!

[@buddyclem7328]

8:12 "Aw! Congratulations, Jacob. Yes, of course you can have cake! Oh no. There it is. It's just one great big pile on the f..."

[@sofa-lofa4241]

That was Jacob's prize for winning the cake destroying competition

[@betadecay6165]

Boards of Canada would love this

[@bumboclat]

For everyone asking why the recording is so much gone, just try to watch a childhood VHS. magnetic recordings are just not made for eternity.

[@bumboclat]

@@franky9928 digital vs analogue, both have pros and cons. I keep digitalized VHS content on multiple hard drives while the originals continue to degrade over time, noticeable.

[@ravenmadd1343]

I love the fact it has the original documentation. I bought an Atari 2600 on eBay a few years back in the original box, I was delighted it had the original documents including the receipt from Argos :)

[@Shamsithaca]

Gosh this man is my spirit animal. I LIVE FOR THIS STUFF. Also, man would i love to collect everything on that brochure.

[@gavincurtis]

Tehmoan: "yeah...there is definitely something going on in there" Me: "Going to get to see what is inside"

[@curtiswebster8095]

"not that interested in the box" Excuse me? - cat.

[@worldcomicsreview354]

Or kids at Christmas

[@brentfisher902]

Eat Caaaat liiiiter, it's the perfect $H17... sung to the tune of the Bath Fitter commercial jingle...

[@thecommenter578]

As DankPods would say: "someone's been in there"

[@JDMOON55555]

Ayyee dankpods fan

[@DaneH64]

Thank God someone else thought that too lol

[@Fly0High]

Well this is the Sexy Speaker's mother... So...

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@Fly0High Other than a slight speech impediment she still sounds pretty good.

[@metroid768]

I fell there's a cross over of fans of , techmoan, technology connections, 8 bit guy, dank pods and AVE

[@nmanbamboo1980]

I grew up in the 80's with my dad repairing electromechanical stuff like that. Love those FM tuner sections with the cable string looping all around the device. And yes you said it ,,, I too I am still fascinated with stuff like that.

[@RetroRepairGuy]

I can just imagine waking up from a beautiful dream to its spectral speech. Great way to start the day! lol Love the show!

[@djorges]

I love seeing the packaging and the brochures as well as how the internals were designed. I was the kid in my family that took everything electric or electronic that was headed to the trash and had to see how it worked. Later I worked on nuclear missiles in the USAF. I guess all that messing around paid off. More content is always welcomed, well not 8 hours - Good stuff.

[@rlstoer]

I actually used to sell (and later repair) these when I worked at Lafayette Radio in 1971-72. They started out at $159.95 (USD) but they didn’t sell. I doubt they ever planned on selling many as it was a “halo” product but they must have put so much money into the mechanism that they skimped on other features that people spending that kind of money expected. We didn’t even carry them at the original price as they were too expensive for what was a one trick pony (even though it was quite a trick at the time). As perspective: Electronics were more expensive at that time but a really nice clock radio was $69.95-$89.95 and a decent low-end model could be had for $19.95. What constituted ‘really nice’ in the early 1970’s was a flip-card digital clock (sometimes including a calendar), a nice design (probably with genuine wood veneer) and good sound quality. That’s what people who would spend that kind of money were looking for and the RC-6900 had none of it. It used the same Telechron analog clock movement found in the cheapest clock radios with luminous hands but not even a lighted face so you really couldn’t read it at night. The only lights were for the time call button on top and the radio dial. It was also bulky and not very attractive but despite its large size the radio was kind of tinny sounding. With virtually no sales the price dropped, first to $129.95 and eventually to $99.95. That’s when we started selling them and they sold Ok at that price. They were only in the line from 1971 to ‘72. I think that’s probably how long it took to sell the initial run. Other than the disks getting damaged or erased, what normally fails (and what’s almost definitely wrong with Techmon’s) are bad contacts on the micro-switches. A simple ohm meter can be used to check them. I haven’t found a source for them but you can pry off the flat cover and clean the contacts. The covers are glued on and may break when being removed but the switch will still work. They can be carefully glued back on with a little CA glue. The other common problem is an internal break in the wiring to the play head (Note how it flexes every time the time is announced). This often results in a partial callout of the time (usually the last part, cutting off the beginning). Fortunately the head wire is extra long so (unless it’s been done before) you can unsolder just the head end, cut off the offending piece, strip and resolder the wire to the head. The electronics are actually fairly dependable other than the occasional electrolytic capacitor. BTW: The underwater sounding voice is normal, they sounded that way when new. It’s due to the non-linier way the head moves across the disks. The black pad that the head slides onto when it is pulled back is supposed to keep the head clean. It seems to do a good job as dirty heads are not usually a problem on these. Good video!

[@ChristopheVerdonck]

Underrated comment, (had to auto-scroll down & do a Ctrl+F to find this, i Really hate the KZbin sort and autoload algorithm)

[@woofgbruk5947]

I would love to see scans of that brochure!

[@mjg263]

Yesss!

[@sw6188]

Me too! I was just about to add this as a comment when I saw you had already mentioned it. 70s Panasonic catalogs are hard to find.

[@1849ad]

The lighting and design of the displays just awed me. It's something that would really work nowadays.

[@robertlawrence9000]

Fascinating! That booklet has so many interesting devices!

[@jfmc2581]

I would really love to see that entire catalog!!

[@michelj.gaudet5048]

Four years old, but hey- shot-in-the-dark! At the channel toyresell, find 'Vintage Worlds First Talking Alarm Clock Panasonic RC-6900 6900C'. He may still have or know where to get the disk you need!

[@qwertyTRiG]

The most recent videos I see on that channel are from eight years ago.

[@jamesuthmann940]

"Use No Hook" may be an old fashioned marking, but as a UPS worker I can assure you that there are still boxes being printed with that to this day.

[@watershed44]

@James Uthmann What do you guys use instead in needed situations?

[@jamesuthmann940]

@@watershed44 I've never encountered a situation where I thought I needed to use a hook on a box. I could be wrong, but I think the label is a hold-over from the times when they used to load ships with individual boxes/barrels; now everything is shipped in shipping containers anyway, so it's not really relevant anymore.

[@watershed44]

@@jamesuthmann940 Thanks for the reply. I was genuinely curious!

[@catfish552]

You gotta love that it has these super futuristic strips of green light on the front and the top - and it's just green pieces of plastic with little bulbs behind them.

[@andrascsirmaz3043]

I'm in total love with this device... what a marvellous thing to engineer! Totally worth 800$ - think about the fact that this was high-tech back then.. :)))

[@DanielM111]

Amazing mechanical concept, I love the ingenuity behind this!

[@padenmcdonald579]

As a blind person that relies on devices that speak the time, this was very interesting.

[@Jason-Scott]

Have a good day Paden 👍🏻

[@DanHarkless_Halloween_YTPs_etc]

Would be nice if KZbin would add the ability to have multiple different audio tracks, so people would be able to make spoken description tracks for visually impaired viewers.

[@juango500]

how did you, how did you watch the video? or, seen the appeareance of the clock? I have several questions.

[@padenmcdonald579]

I didn’t see what it looked like. I just listened to the video. As far as getting around my devices, I use screen readers. VoiceOver on the iphone and NVDA on windows.

[@dylanfinch2951]

@@juango500 My father is illiterate, so he has a lot of things to help him, that were made for the blind. His phone has a text-to-speech function, where he clicks on something once and it reads the words to him, and if he double clicks, it clicks it. I would imagine that if a blind person watches a video like this, they probably make a mental image, or imagine the feeling or shape of the object based on how the person in the video describes the item, and just listen to it like a podcast.

[@volvagia6860]

I am definitely interested in the box! Happy birthday Matt!

[@reflexindex267]

My grandparents had one of these clocks. Was always fascinating to see that clock in action and to test its audio function.

[@unclemarksdiyauto]

Fascinating for sure! At that price it would have been something not for the average family! Very cool. Thanks for showing it to us.