I think it is for the Broadcast band only, Shortwave I believe still needs an external antenna. In most Grundigs, that switch doesn't lock down, it is a push on - push off style switch. A bit of deoxit and lubrication fixes those switches beautifully.
The sound from that unit is especially "bright and vivacious", really exceptional audio quality. Of course that should not really come as much of a surprise, considering firstly how old the unit is, and secondly that it has tubes. That's a keeper for sure, a bit of TLC and it'll clean up real nice. Excellent find!
I know a lot of people have said this already, but just in case you still need to know - the "FA" stands for "Ferret Antenna". When you use it, a little ferret will come around and hold up the antenna to give you better signal.
Interesting find! The switches might just suffer from some hard and sticky grease in the locking mechanism. As far as I know Grundig never made their own tubes, so they would have used Valvo or Telefunken. The external speaker jacks should allow the plug to go in two directions (three contacts on the jack). One position will leave the internal speakers on, the other position will disconnect them. You could try to take the broken speaker out and put it back in upside down. It might work then.
Cool radio! After changing the speaker and fixing the piano key buttons, that thing's gonna be awesome! Maybe clean up the grill, and re-finish the cabinet if it needs it... It would be a fun restoration project. Try flipping the speaker upside down like DrCassette said... in fact, with old speakers, I hear you're supposed to turn them upside down because they start to sag over time. I did that to all my speakers a long time ago to prevent any rubbing. It sounds really nice. Hey, good thing you kept those speaker plugs!
Yes, you should follow your own advice and not just "power It up to see if it works." -- a mistake I once made with decidedly poor results (blew the filter cap). I now always put an ohmmeter on the power transformer windings to see if they're open or shorted, then change the large electrolytics whether they test good or bad (if they're not bad they soon will be), then test the rectifier (selenium or tube) and if good only then will I feel safe about powering it up on a dim bulb/variac supply. These Grundigs were in the top tier of German radios in the 50s and 60s and are well worth giving a full restoration even when in much worse condition than one you have. Good luck, and let us see how it turns out.
In the service I had a Grundig Radio like that only an earlier model. I had to leave it when I deployed from overseas and really missed the quality. They were really great in their time. Enjoy!
Nice save. Gotta love these old radios. I love it when you hear modern things like windows 10 mentioned on old radios like this, Like hearing website URLs on AM Radio. Also hearing today's pop songs on these is pretty cool.
I have a slightly newer version of this unit that I have to retube. My parents bought it in Rochester, NY in the 1960s. The Stereo decoder needs to be retubed often and the relay may need to have its contacts cleaned. I am a retired Radio Engineer and this unit has run since the 1960s with only needing a small tuneup after a retube years ago. The unit needs a replacement audio out tube now but otherwise then that it runs great.
Awesome old thing you got there, and really nice hearing radiostations actually playing music. Here in Denmark they only play payola crap. I love restoring old radioes, but listening to them nowadays makes me sick. If anyone reading this ever gets close enough to pick up signals from Denmark, be prepared to change the channel, or turn your radio off as fast as posible, otherwise you'll get sick too. It takes no talent - Just being the son of a drunk, is enough to get played over and over and over again. Itś a crime letting these classic babies receive that kind of garbage. I love watching your videoes. Thanks for making and sharing them. My very best wishes.
Wow, that's an amazing sounding stereo! It looks awesome too. And rather surprising that it mostly works out-of-box! Here's hoping you can get it completely functional.
i like how you solved that switch problem with the screw driver, that was really epic lol, this radio was most likely very expensive back in the day when it was brand new,
That spare fuse with the tape on it is for 220V operation. Grundig and other German companies always provided them. Sometimes in a blank fuse holder besides the mains fuse, sometimes in a neat paper bag tacked to the wooden case.
Multiplex stereo was highly promoted in the early 60s, I remember that as a child interested in radio broadcasting. However I really never knew what was meant by that and I didn’t have a stereo set until 1967, but by then that term had fallen into disuse.
Radios like these sound really good because of the tubes and the wood cabinet. Take good care of that thing! I have one myself although mine's made in Norway and not Germany. Mine's called Edda but it's pretty much the same thing as this one.
Great radio find! I like the nice USA Civil Defense symbols! The FA On/Off is for the Ferrite Antenna. In "on", any external antenna is disconnected (I think, anyway.)
I have the exact same model....been in the family since new....my brother originally bought it from “Maury Hirsch” (sp) in Cambridge, Ma right around 1964....
I love that the dial features the Civil Defence icon at 640 and 1240 -- the old CONELRAD bands (CONELRAD being the forerunner to the EBS/EAS). That's quite a find and sounds decent for the most part.
Ive got a VERY similar radio, same model, I believe just wooden front with vertical slats in the wooden face , sounds absolutely great for the age. I replaced some small electrolytics and that got it working well. The main filters are okay.
Suprisingly clear for 1964! I also take pride in old electronics, I have a Nintendo(1985), atari 2600 and a television from the fourtees. Would you believe that these all work?!!!
Well done on saving that from the recycling centre. a rare radio as there where not many stereo valve radios made and even rarer to have a valve sorry tube (I’m in the uk) stereo decoder. The only stereo decoder I have from that era is a hi-bred (valve and transistor) inside an Armstrong fm tuner. From my experience (I repair and restore all types of valve equipment) the trouble with the switches not latching will either be hardened grease on the latch bar on the switch block or its actuating spring. if you intend using this radio I would replace the two audio decoupling capacitors on the output valves if nothing else. Grundigs build quality is excellent but from experience of Grundig sets I've restored over hear in the uk the capacitors are failing and if one of those two goes short circuit it could kill the output transformer. Good luck with it.
FA stands for "Ferrit Antenna". It's a small internal antenna which improves the AM reception, because the big internal antenna on the top of the cabinet isn't ideal for listening to AM stations. I guess when you turn on the Stereo Decoder this antenna gets turned off because you can't receive AM in stereo. Really nice radio. It has the rare ELL80 tube, which is pretty expensive today. Because of that, a lot of people replace the tube with two EL95, which are much cheaper to get and last longer than the ELL80. You can get adapters for that. I would still recommend you to replace the capacitors, there's a good chance that it sounds even better then!
I just found one of these. It appears they made this in a later version with the decoder built in. The decoder jack is missing and the cardboard back does not have the decoder hole. But it shows FM Stereo in the pictures. They may have hard wired the decoder or incorporated it into the main chassis. When I find out more I’ll post it.
+ElfNet Gaming The CONELRAD system (with the two triangles indicating the frequencies to tune to in the case of an emergency) was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) in August 1963, so the triangles disappeared from most radios by the mid-'60s.
+vwestlife Well, I remember seein’ some ad So I turned on my Conelrad But I didn’t pay my Con Ed bill So the radio didn’t work so well Turned on my record player- It was Rock-a-day Johnny singin’, “Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa Our Love’s A-gonna Grow Ooh-wah, Ooh-wah”
Interesting radio. I find it somewhat ironic to hear a Windows 10 add on what is now a 52 year old radio. If you still have it I would love to see a restoration video when you have the time.
8:50 I've seen that before with those German plastic-encased-magnet speakers. Sometime there are screws you can loosen to realign it, but I don't see any here. Maybe they are on the other side.
Maybe the dust cover came off ,or if it has that foam on the outer lip may be the rubber need needs replacing I would pull the speaker,I have a grudig portable, but your radio with a little work will be amazing ,it sound good
I hope you are going to re-cap that radio before any further use, Just because it quit "buzzing" does not mean the caps are good again. I have / had (IDK if I still have it) and old tube type Harmon Kardon FM Stereo line level output (Non amplified) tuner that was on a completely copper chassis and casing that I restored. I have to see if it is still around here though. Heres an fun fact about radios of that era, On the AM dial, there's little triangles, Those are national civil defense channel markers, if the time came that the Russians were launching nukes you would tune one of those "triangles" and get official news and instructions from the government. This being a tube type multi band radio also ensured it would survive a nuclear EMP event, Good radio people bought back then to put in their fallout shelters. Think of those triangle as the equivalent of today's "For Information tune to XXX KHz / Mhz" signs on the interstates across the US. For weather info like hurricane evacuation routes and out west for dust storm info.
Old and rugged electronics like this, when they're slightly malfunctioning, give me the creeps. Idk why, reminds me of something you hear in a horror movie. It makes my guts feel weird. :P Still is a beautiful thing to have this working, though!
I don't know if you already figured out by yourself, what the FA-switch is for. but FA stands for "ferrit antenna" and activates either the internal ferrit antenna or uses the external antenna, plugged in at the backplate.
Hey, any idea what the little gadget that shows how dialed in to FM you are is called? My girlfriend just go one of these from her Aunt and it belonged to her grandparents. It is in amazing condition and works perfectly. I am a little obsessed with how neat the green thing is, but can't seem to find what it is called or how it works. Thanks. Awesome little unit you have there. Hopefully you got the speaker working. I am actually really impressed with how nice hers sounds.
I had a bunch of philips industrial PA amps from the 60s for cheap, wanted to fix em until i saw all the coated heavy metals and asbestos inside of them... sold them for double than i got :D
Perfect example of "they don't make 'em like this anymore" when things were made to last and be repaired if needed.This radio was 51 years old when this video was made ! I would bet that the crap they make now won't last this long, but even I won't be here that long to find out !!! (Here's an idea, let's make things like this again instead of "landfill fodder")Restore it man, it's deserves it. P.S. Try using some electronic contact cleaner on the inside mechanics of those switches to clear some of the old lube and gunk out so they can lock. And I think FA means Ferrite Antenna (internal).
I wonder why Medium Wave is called BC? Also, why a German made radio didn't have Long Wave? I hope you restored that lovely thing, it would be criminal not to. Also, I saw that same DIN standard on speaker sockets on Hifi systems in the 1980s (and older music centres from the 1970s) from my childhood. What stations do you get on Short Wave where you are? To have that in the UK and tune it into BBC Radio 3...
BC = Broadcast. It didn't have longwave because it was meant for the U.S. market, and we don't have any longwave stations here, aside from some airport beacons.
+vwestlife hey i got this question for you, i have this nokia cell phone, its from the late 90s, it doesnt turn on at all, but when i plug it in to charge, it makes a weird hum/buzz coming from inside the phone. What could it be?
