Wacky radio.

Ahother story: I got my first FM clock radio around 1972, after I got to NYC which had FM stations. Maybe Chicago did too by then.

Very fancy, GE, with two alarms, digital, two speakers, and I used it 20 or 30 years before the buttons got flaky. Took it apart and cleaned the buttons and it was good for 5 or more years. Took it apart and cleaned it and this time it only lasted 2 or 3 years. I can't keep doing this! So for probably 10 years I've been using it to listen to only one FM station. It turns off by itself or I turn the volume down to zero, and the only button that has to work is the On button.

(It doesn't have push button frequency selection, and I found finding and pushing 3 numeric buttons to change stations more trouble than car-radio style, but they made then few if any table radios with car-radio buttons. Though I did see at a hamfest an AM/shortwave indoor radio from the 30's with mechancical memory for differnt frequencies. Came with little stubs/buttons already labeled WOR etc., and they sat on the 4 or 5" dial and would control where the dial stopped when you turned it.)

But then that got hard and I'd have to lean on the left, the right, up, down, sometimes for 30 seconds until I pressed it just right to get it to go on.

But two weeks ago, and this is why I'm writing, it got easy again, just push on the right side of the button and it starts immediately! I wonder how long this will last.

Another thing, when I got back from a long trip, it would stay on forever. I just turned the volume off. If a transistor radio will play for many hours on a little 9v battery, they must not use much. And most of the power they use is for the speaker driver, right?

But after a year there was a power failure and when the power came back on, it would turn off after, I guess, 24 hours, or maybe at the same clock time every time. I don't keep track.

Reply to
micky
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Cross-posting to REC.ANTIQUES.RADIO+PHONO

Reply to
Michael Trew

Thanks. I didn't know about that group. I hope someone replies.

Regarding this strange change, I just noticed that I had turned one of the alarms, not the buzzer part but the radio. If the buzzer went off, I'd hear it, but not the radio if I'm listening anyhow. Maybe when it's just plain On, the alarm turns it on again but this time it's built to only stay on for 24 hours. ?? I don't know but I turned the alarm off.

Reply to
micky

Op 6-1-2022 om 3:45 schreef micky:

They sure had FM in Chicago. Se page 21 of the FM Atlas in 1970:

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(reading in rec.antiques.radio+phono)

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