UNIVERSAL BIG 8 AM TRANSISTOR RADIO-HONG KONG

[cshold]

Today's $6.00 flea market toy find.
Work's like the day it was made.
This is interesting, I never knew this about the 2 CD icons.

"The most collectible and historic vintage transistor radios were made in America from 1955 to 1960 and Japan from 1956 to 1963. An easy way to date a transistor radio of this period is to look for small triangles or circles between the 6 and 7 and the 12 and 16 on the dial. These are Civil Defense (CD) marks, which appeared on all radios manufactured or sold in the United States from 1953 to 1963.
vintage transistor radio
Arvin 9577, six transistor radio, U.S., 1957, hourglass speaker grille, chrome trim, slide rule dial, retailed for $59.97. $60-$100
Photo courtesy Michael Jack and Steve Locke
At the height of the Russian Red Scare, the United States enacted the CONELRAD program, establishing two civil defense frequencies, 640 and 1240 kilohertz. During times of emergencies, all stations except the CONELRAD stations at 640 and 1240 AM would cease operations (note that some Japanese radios made by Sharp and Hitachi during the late 1950s left out the CD marks)."

[Pisgah]

I grew up in the "duck and cover" era. We actually had nuclear attack drills in elementary school -- at the flash of a detonation, we were to duck under our desks and cover our heads -- never mind that you'd likely be blinded and half-fried to a crisp by then, or that the following shockwave would likely pancake the building on top of you. Every public building had a section designated as a fallout shelter, pre-stocked with food, water and medical supplies. Yes, we were told, and really believed, it could happen any day. The Cuban Missile Crisis was particularly harrowing -- and it wasn't until decades later that Nikita Kruschev's son revealed that the USSR had exactly 3 ICBMs at the time (later confirmed by the CIA), while our government was telling us the Russkies were way ahead of us in the missile count.

[2571]

Yeah, I like Ike & his party. Years later, one of his his successors was lying about WMD

[cas]

...the USSR had exactly 3 ICBMs at the time...

Which is why they needed shorter range missiles in Cuba.


Theories and opinions vary on when exact;y and even if they ever removed them from Cuba.

[wolfdog]

Yeah, I like Ike & his party. Years later, one of his his successors was lying about WMD

BS. The Russians claimed to have the missiles but didn't. Saddam claimed not having but did. Where do you think Assad got his chem weapons? Have not heard any claim about him having production facilities have you? Saddam shipped the stuff over to Syria when stuff started to go down.

[wolfdog]

Yeah, I like Ike & his party. Years later, one of his his successors was lying about WMD

BS. The Russians claimed to have the missiles but didn't. Saddam claimed not having but did. Where do you think Assad got his chem weapons? Have not heard any claim about him having production facilities have you? Saddam shipped the stuff over to Syria when stuff started to go down.

[Bill in Oregon]

Heh, my 1960s GE transistor radio took this obsolete battery. Boy I listened to a lot of S.F. Giants baseball on that thing.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... 131%29.jpg

[wecsoger]

CONELRAD - CONtrol of ELectromagnetic RADiation (typical military but who comes up with these acronyms?)

The concept that during an attact, the big blowtorch clear channel radio stations, 700 WLW, 890 WLS, etc., would shut down and all the little scattered itsy ones would keep broadcasting. That way the evil soviets in the bombers couldn't use the bigger stations for navigation.

For you young whippersnappers, pre-GPS, pre-LORAN, early aircraft would have an AM radio with a rotatable antenna. Turn the antenna to get a bearing on one station, you know where you are along one line. Find another station for a bearing, where they cross is where you is. And late at night if you got nothing else going on for a long flight you can listen to tunes, the news or the local ball game.

Now get off my lawn!

[cshold]

Now get off my lawn!

[Lefty Dude]

I have three Zenith Trans-Oceanic Radio's. Of the Three, only the Royal 1000 has the CD marks on the AM Broadcast dial at the appropriate locations.

The Big 8 are nice radio's.

[jeepnik]

CONELRAD Now there's one I have heard in a long, long time. Yep we are old, but we still know stuff.

[cshold]

I have three Zenith Trans-Oceanic Radio's. Of the Three, only the Royal 1000 has the CD marks on the AM Broadcast dial at the appropriate locations.

The Big 8 are nice radio's.

What was interesting, when I removed the back to install the 9v battery, most of the components on the board had made in the USA labels on them.

[Grandpa Ron]

I remember getting one of those behemoths for Christmas as a teenager; I was irritated because the only music on the air was those darn Christmas songs.

Oh the impatience of youth.

[Lefty Dude]

Yep; in those days they used discrete Transistors, made by Zenith, RCA, Motorola, etc. With my Zenith's all the transistors have sockets and are plug-ins. Transistors were a USA only made product in those days.

Does the Big 8 have plug-in Transistors also ?

[cshold]

Yep; in those days they used discrete Transistors, made by Zenith, RCA, Motorola, etc. With my Zenith's all the transistors have sockets and are plug-ins. Transistors were a USA only made product in those days.

Does the Big 8 have plug-in Transistors also ?

I don't know.
How can I tell without messing something up?

[Lefty Dude]

Leave it be if you have doubt of your ability to remove the case. If it works, excellent, you are a lucky owner. Most old radios have dried out capacitors and do not work, like two of my Zenith's.

[cshold]

Leave it be if you have doubt of your ability to remove the case. If it works, excellent, you are a lucky owner. Most old radios have dried out capacitors and do not work, like two of my Zenith's.

The entire back of the case comes off for battery installation.
The entire component board is visible.
I just don't want to start pulling on transistors.
When I get time I'll post a picture of the inside.

[cshold]

[Blaine]

I remember the "status creds" being how many transistors your radio had. I think the one I got for Christmas only had 6.

[cshold]

Interesting thing I've noticed since I've had this old radio and playing around with it.
During the day it works fantastic.
Pulls all the local AM stations in great with plenty of volume control.
At night when the AM stations drop there broadcasting power back the radio is really limited.
I get only two stations and the volume has to be maxed out.
Did the AM stations always have to reduce output at night?

[wecsoger]

Did the AM stations always have to reduce output at night?

Yup. Or more correctly, some of them. Depends on your frequency.

There's a block of stations that are 'clear channel, for example 700 WLW, 890 WLS, etc. They are the /only/ station on that frequency. When night time comes in and the AM band opens, it's interesting what you can hear.

Short version, there's couple other classes of license and station on shared frequencies. There's a boatload of stations on, say, 1240, 1330, etc. They are required to either go low power before sunrise/after sunset or sign off. For example, that little 1330 station I worked at (WMOR), AM side shut down at local sunset, so in the winter months I was signing it off at 515p.

Look it up online, there's a wealth of info on all that.

(been there, done that, played records on the radio and got the t-shirt!)

[Lefty Dude]

Your Transistors are soldered to the circuit board, no sockets visible.
The do not make them that way anymore, such a shame. Now you have a couple of circuit packages on the board. and the piece is a throw away if it fails.
I like to see components on the board.