That's really cool. I see stuff online (RU-vid, eBay, etc.) or when I go out to consignment shops and think, gee my grandmother had one of those, or I remember that in the house when I grew up.
This is the exact model that was dropped by the US Government into the countries of the eastern bloc during the Cold War so they could receive Radio Free Europe broadcasts. I have one, its why they have the elaborate vapor barrier packaging
I wonder if that vapor packaging has helped keep the components from deteriorating? It seems there are a few people who have bought this "new" decades later and had luck getting them to work with little to no effort.
I honestly thought I would get at least static and wondered if I would need to contact clean the switch (which I did). I did try this out on SW later but didn't film it and was pleasantly surprised to pick maybe a 1/2 dozen SW stations with the the mast up. I'll have to do a video at night where I can play around with the SW band a bit more.
There ARE oldies stations on AM. I can listen to two of them here in Concord NH during the day. They're easy to find online. Not many, but broadcasters know about the ambience of AM for the oldies format.
I suppose it could be the newness factor, but I find I am constantly grabbing this radio and looking to see what I can pull in! It's not the best performer, has NO FM, but it's just fun to be able to use it.
That looks a lot like a GE radio that I bought while in High School. 64-65 or so. It was not as good as some Japanese radios, or some American tube radios that I had.
Yeah, 60 years later it feels like it was not the top of the line model, but it seems most people who have one are still able to use them.. so that's saying something!
to Ron's Radio Corner: at the 8:05 mark, in your video here, you said "NOT REALLY GETTING ANYTHING ON THE SHORTWAVE BAND!!" **EXTEND THE METAL TELESCOPING ANTENNA TO FULL LENGTH!!** WELL, DERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! HERE IS A VIDEO OF THE EXACT SAME RADIO YOU HAVE, BUT WITH THE TELESCOPING SHORTWAVE RADIO ANTENNA FULLY EXTENDED ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xPJGT1k6p4Q.htmlsi=Hi5VRXO0IbzhsNkb
I thought I would at least get some static and was really wondering if the switch was working. I played it later that same night and pulled in maybe a 1/2 dozen stations. And I have seen that video.
I like the "idea" behind radio, maybe the nostalgia behind radio. But, finding something ON radio that I want to listen to is a challenge. It is cool to occasionally scan the dial for some far away channel.
