12/28/2023 0 Comments Vintage transistor radio repairThe tone can be varied by separate bass and treble to fine tune the sound. Sensitivity and audio quality is excellent on all bands although some hiss is evident from the amplifier section on my sample compared to the Sovereign II. Modern materials for the time including aluminium extrusions, alloy and steel handle, polished wood end cheeks and synthetic black leather make for a very stylish radio still well at home in a modern decor. The list price in 1975 for the Sovereign III was £77.50 inc VAT, a lot of money for a portable radio! The beautiful Hacker RP72 Sovereign III LW MW VHF FM radio, introduced 1973. An even larger Super Sovereign with more features was also available. The Hacker RP10 Herald MW LW radio and from there numerous models were introduced with Mk II's and III's on some models with later improvements in design and components when available. The first transistor portable they made in 1960 was called The Hacker brothers started up their business in the late 1920's and for many years used the trade name of Dynatron, after money problems and take overs including Ekco for a while , the brothers decided to run a new company this time under their own name. Buy a radio that is described as faulty, this may be a simple or complex fault, it could be very cheap but in this last case you will probably need soldering and electronics experience and may need circuit diagrams and test equipment to complete a good job.Ĭomparison of size, Hacker Sovereign III, Dynatron Nomad and Roberts R66 4 valve radio Buy a dirty tatty radio but described as working with all parts intact, it should be cheap, maybe just a few pounds but needs a fair bit of work on it.Ĥ. Buy a well described radio on eBay, possibly of later vintage of the 1960's-1970's like Hacker series, look for a good condition one with all parts like knobs and switches all intact and needing modest restoration, there are plenty still around.ģ. This can be the best way to buy valve radios as a good restorer will have changed any defective components and brought it up to good cosmetic and safety standard regards wiring, earthing etc.Ģ. Buy fully working may be from a reputable vintage restorer on the Internet, these will cost a lot more but you will get a guarantee and it will be fully working up front and ready to go. There are several categories to approach old radios.ġ. A safe method now is to use an externally cased 240v to 120v transformer if they have not already been safely modified inside the cabinet. To run off their 120v AC mains and ours being 240v AC so various means of reducing the voltage were used including using special resistive mains cable to drop the voltage. At the time of manufacture they were originally designed A special case are old American valve radios imported into the U.K. If you are new bto refurbishing older radios I would stick to battery transistor portables, being battery driven there is no chance of electric shock and unlike valve radios of yester year for the most part most of the components should still be in reasonable condition. Although I could write on many of the British manufacturers like Bush, Ekco et al I will stick to the samples I have, there's plenty of resources on many of the radio manufacturers can be found on the web. Sets like this as it would need compromises in circuits and materials and like many they went out of business in the late 1970's. Often these were really small plastic radios for personal use and this tied in nicely with an increase in pop music and stations like Radio Luxemburg, these radios suited the 'on the move' teens of the time and very affordable, unlike Hacker who struggled towards the end of their existence as they never made There were literally dozens of radio manufacturers especially in the valve days, less so by the early 1970's as cheaper far east imports came into the U.K. In the heyday of Hacker and others there was a philosophy to To me most modern portable radios lack charm and if you look inside there might be a few integrated circuits and a smattering of discreet components and that's about it. My previous article discussed some of my adventures while in the BBC, this time around I will write a few lines on old radios.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |