MB could be for Marine Band. Police were down around 1.7 mhz many decades ago. Ships used frequencies, particularly 2.182 mhz for emergency communications. Mostly replaced by satellite communications today.
thank you so much for the chance to fix your Radio. to spite the complexity of it. it was my Pleasure. I'm glad you liked everything too. I hope you're doing alright Ben.
Radio Shack had some unique radios back in the day. I miss having a store nearby when I need something for a ham radio project. That MB covers what is now the expanded AM band along with the 160m and 80m ham bands, along with the 120m and 90m shortwave bands. At one time cordless phones were just above the AM broadcast band then later moved to 49mhz. Much of what could be listened to back in the day probably can't be heard on that radio, but it's a cool radio all the same.
Being an old school scanner radio nut, the VHF 1 and VHF 2 bands are not the analog (or digital) television broadcast bands, those were two way radio communication bands that were squeezed between TV bands. Low VHF for TV was 54 - 87.75 MHz and VHF high TV band was 175 - 216 MHz. 43 - 49 MHz was was full of cordless phones and baby monitors, I remember hearing X rated stuff there back in the late 1990’s. fast food drive thru used 30 - 35 MHz back in those days, the orders weren’t that interesting but the headset to headset communications were interesting late at night! When I lived a block away from a Burger King I heard the employees having a BYOB graveyard shift on a Saturday night.
My parents bought an AM/FM/TV radio once (the two VHF bands were "TV Lo" and "TV Hi") and often used it to have kind of a "surround sound" effect, if you will, for when we watched the evening game shows every night.
Thanks for the memories, Ben! As a man in his late 50s, this design was all around my childhood. My dad had a few - not this one exactly, but similar for sure.
The MB looks like what we used to call the "Tropical Bands" of shortwave. I'm not sure that many of the Latin American stations are still broadcasting there, but it used to have quite a few.
15:23 That might be Radio Marti, the anti-Cuban government shortwave station paid for by the US State Dept. They work on multiple bands and on multiple frequencies, sometimes within the same band. The Cubans themselves are very heavy creators of shortwave radio programming, like the USSR was.
Nice looking radio. I just bought a Craftsman, Soldi State AC/DC Radio which looks similar to your radio and includes about the same features as this. Interesting it has a BFO which is used for tuning single side band (SSB) transmissions though it doesn't mention anything about having SSB. You mentioned satellites in the commentary you can hear NOAA weather sats on 137.100 and 137.9125 ( non voice transmissions) Voice transmissions from the International Space Station on 144.490 and 145.800. MB is the marine band only useful if you live near large bodies of water. HAM operators broadcast all the time depending on propagation on many bands across the SW spectrum usually in LSB and USB. CB operators use AM and side band. It helps to add an external antenna to radio, use an alligator clip attached to a random length of wire, string it outside and start listening!
*Righteous fist pump* at the content ID digs. Reading The Hardy Boys Short-Wave Mystery as a kid got me interested in shortwave, but it was kind of only in the back of my mind, and haven't pursued it now because it sounds like it's mostly just nutters left on it now. Seems very weird to me that it's only giving you only the left channel on FM - my understanding is that FM broadcast is L+R, and a second L-R signal for a stereo receiver to process into two channels. With a mono FM receiver only dealing with the L+R signal. Kind of makes me wonder if the FM receiver section is actually stereo ('borrowed' out of some existing FM stereo radio model), and the right channel output of that section just isn't connected to the amplifier section. A future revisit of this experimenting with various length external antennas sounds interesting. And big thanks to Avery for fixing this up, and the bonus donations!
Dude, you could do a 10 second video and it would be amazing! I just love listening to your voice, no matter what you are talking about. Though I generally like what you talk about, as well.
Thanks for the try with the radio. Many of your guess were incorrect unfortunately. VHF low, 30-50 MHz was the low police and public service narrow FM band. VHF high, 147-174 was the high police and public service narrow FM band. These are not TV bands. Other services like old mobile phone, paging, Marine VHF, railroad, business shared these bands. Low VHF was going out of favor by the late 70s. The Squelch function should be very useful on these bands as it would blank the noise between transmissions. AIR VHF 108-135 is AM Aircraft communications band. You will hear VHF air to air, air to tower, air to ground, and other aviation related communications. The squelch function may or may not work on this band...depends on the receiver. The MB band likely is Marine Band...an old term for low Shortwave bands. The other shortwave and broadcast bands (AM/FM) are common and need no explanation. The jacks on the front are likely all outputs. Tape output to record interesting receptions. Phone for headphones or earphones. AUX could be input or output, depending upon the rig. This radio is very much in the style of the similar very pricey multiband transistor radios that were sold by Zenith, Sony and Panasonic at the time. (Zenith Transoceanic 3000 and 7000, Sony Worldzone CRF-5080,5090,5100 and Panasonic RF-5000). These radios were much finer radios and much more expensive that the Astronaut-8, so the Astronaut-8 was poorer and cheaper copy but Radio Shack tried by giving it similar features such as the BFO and the fold down cover with time scale.
It's hard to believe that a Radio Shack portable radio built in the '70s would have the necessary multiplex circuitry to be able to pull out a left-only channel from the stereo signal, especially since it's a mono radio. I think you're listening to a mono signal and the earphone jack is wired for a regular earphone (such as the one included), the signal for which would only work with the left side of a pair of stereo headphones.
Realistic/Radio Shack stuff was made by contractor firms, many of whom were doing badge engineering for multiple clients on their stock electronic devices.
nope: radio signals bounce across space. remember live tv from the moon? look ma, no wires! ham operators can talk with the international space station. even Sputnik had a transmitter...
Here’s what I imagine Sergei looks like first he looks a lot like Ben cause in my head cannon there like Barney and Andy and are cousins . But Sergei has a beard classic Russian style and wears either pro wrestling shirts with either pro American or pro Russian wrestlers and old band shirts that he found at a thrift shop and a red cowboy hat he put a patch in that says the his show on it . Then old hippy jeans with patches that are different flags and boots
While the AUX-IN jack only reproduces the left channel of a stereo source as shown in the video, I thought that FM radio stations that broadcast a stereo signal would downmix both stereo channels to mono for radios that don't have stereo capability. If that were the case, you could likely still hear the first 40 seconds of "Wish You Were Here" with instrumentation intact from an FM station, although all of it combined into one mono channel, similar to how AM stations downmix stereo music to mono. Though stereo capable radios are largely the norm, new mono-only radios still are sold either at dollar stores or online. Also, that country station at 14:00 you passed over may be KJAM-FM 103.1 out of Madison, roughly 40 miles to the northwest. Surprised you were able to pick it up clearly there since it's sandwiched between B102.7 and KRRO, and it's a rather weak signal to begin with... 33kw at 93 meters HAAT. It's an Alpha Media station, so like sister station KQAD, the majority of it's on air staff got cut in May and both now run satellite DJs outside of the morning shows. Sad.
Tried it. Alas, no dice. Unfortunately, the direct feed tests are 100% representative of the speaker tests. The only 60's stereo music I got was in the initial "making sure it works" test--KISD never did play any of that disembodied early stereo stuff when I had the camera going. Another commenter speculated there are would-be stereo guts in the machine, but only the left channel was ever hooked up by the factory. Seems plausible enough to me.
13:09 What kind of radio station would play Good Lovin' by the Young Rascals then go into the world's most overplayed song from the 80s? Not much of an oldies station if you're playing 80s music and I love 80s music.
Quick Links:
0:21 - Intro/General Chat
5:05 - Rundown
13:04 - Tests
1:19 $100 in 1970 is approximately $812 in 2024 for those curious.
MB could be for Marine Band. Police were down around 1.7 mhz many decades ago. Ships used frequencies, particularly 2.182 mhz for emergency communications. Mostly replaced by satellite communications today.
Nice radio , I miss radio Shack
thank you so much for the chance to fix your Radio. to spite the complexity of it. it was my Pleasure. I'm glad you liked everything too. I hope you're doing alright Ben.
Both you and Techmoan releasing new videos on Saturday...it was a great morning.
You have KSOU, and WSOU is here in New Jersey. It's the Seton Hall University radio station.
We're just...two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl!
Saturday morning Oddity Archive and it's on radio? It's a good morning. I still use my Grundigs from time to time, especially for weather events.
Radio Shack had some unique radios back in the day. I miss having a store nearby when I need something for a ham radio project. That MB covers what is now the expanded AM band along with the 160m and 80m ham bands, along with the 120m and 90m shortwave bands. At one time cordless phones were just above the AM broadcast band then later moved to 49mhz. Much of what could be listened to back in the day probably can't be heard on that radio, but it's a cool radio all the same.
if you want to hear signals, clip a wire to your antenna and string it out between trees. you'll be blown away.
Being an old school scanner radio nut, the VHF 1 and VHF 2 bands are not the analog (or digital) television broadcast bands, those were two way radio communication bands that were squeezed between TV bands. Low VHF for TV was 54 - 87.75 MHz and VHF high TV band was 175 - 216 MHz. 43 - 49 MHz was was full of cordless phones and baby monitors, I remember hearing X rated stuff there back in the late 1990’s. fast food drive thru used 30 - 35 MHz back in those days, the orders weren’t that interesting but the headset to headset communications were interesting late at night! When I lived a block away from a Burger King I heard the employees having a BYOB graveyard shift on a Saturday night.
That explains the weather band falling in VHF 2.
My parents bought an AM/FM/TV radio once (the two VHF bands were "TV Lo" and "TV Hi") and often used it to have kind of a "surround sound" effect, if you will, for when we watched the evening game shows every night.
Thanks for the memories, Ben! As a man in his late 50s, this design was all around my childhood. My dad had a few - not this one exactly, but similar for sure.
Ooooh, that's a nice looking one. Reminds me of my dad's old Montgomery Ward 10-band radio (which unfortunately no longer works very well).
The MB looks like what we used to call the "Tropical Bands" of shortwave. I'm not sure that many of the Latin American stations are still broadcasting there, but it used to have quite a few.
15:23 That might be Radio Marti, the anti-Cuban government shortwave station paid for by the US State Dept. They work on multiple bands and on multiple frequencies, sometimes within the same band. The Cubans themselves are very heavy creators of shortwave radio programming, like the USSR was.
We had a radio that picked up TV stations
So did we. My parents used it as sort of a "surround sound" if you will when watching the VHF channels.
Nice looking radio. I just bought a Craftsman, Soldi State AC/DC Radio which looks similar to your radio and includes about the same features as this. Interesting it has a BFO which is used for tuning single side band (SSB) transmissions though it doesn't mention anything about having SSB. You mentioned satellites in the commentary you can hear NOAA weather sats on 137.100 and 137.9125 ( non voice transmissions) Voice transmissions from the International Space Station on 144.490 and 145.800. MB is the marine band only useful if you live near large bodies of water. HAM operators broadcast all the time depending on propagation on many bands across the SW spectrum usually in LSB and USB. CB operators use AM and side band. It helps to add an external antenna to radio, use an alligator clip attached to a random length of wire, string it outside and start listening!
*Righteous fist pump* at the content ID digs. Reading The Hardy Boys Short-Wave Mystery as a kid got me interested in shortwave, but it was kind of only in the back of my mind, and haven't pursued it now because it sounds like it's mostly just nutters left on it now. Seems very weird to me that it's only giving you only the left channel on FM - my understanding is that FM broadcast is L+R, and a second L-R signal for a stereo receiver to process into two channels. With a mono FM receiver only dealing with the L+R signal. Kind of makes me wonder if the FM receiver section is actually stereo ('borrowed' out of some existing FM stereo radio model), and the right channel output of that section just isn't connected to the amplifier section. A future revisit of this experimenting with various length external antennas sounds interesting. And big thanks to Avery for fixing this up, and the bonus donations!
I remember having something similar when I was growing up getting it at grage sale.
Dude, you could do a 10 second video and it would be amazing! I just love listening to your voice, no matter what you are talking about. Though I generally like what you talk about, as well.
Just curious if you were able to receive the WWV time signal on either 2.5, 5, 10, 15 or 20mhz shortwave?
When he said we he forgot that Ed is an asleep in the next room and sergi went out to the movies .
Thanks for the try with the radio. Many of your guess were incorrect unfortunately. VHF low, 30-50 MHz was the low police and public service narrow FM band. VHF high, 147-174 was the high police and public service narrow FM band. These are not TV bands. Other services like old mobile phone, paging, Marine VHF, railroad, business shared these bands. Low VHF was going out of favor by the late 70s. The Squelch function should be very useful on these bands as it would blank the noise between transmissions. AIR VHF 108-135 is AM Aircraft communications band. You will hear VHF air to air, air to tower, air to ground, and other aviation related communications. The squelch function may or may not work on this band...depends on the receiver. The MB band likely is Marine Band...an old term for low Shortwave bands. The other shortwave and broadcast bands (AM/FM) are common and need no explanation. The jacks on the front are likely all outputs. Tape output to record interesting receptions. Phone for headphones or earphones. AUX could be input or output, depending upon the rig.
This radio is very much in the style of the similar very pricey multiband transistor radios that were sold by Zenith, Sony and Panasonic at the time. (Zenith Transoceanic 3000 and 7000, Sony Worldzone CRF-5080,5090,5100 and Panasonic RF-5000). These radios were much finer radios and much more expensive that the Astronaut-8, so the Astronaut-8 was poorer and cheaper copy but Radio Shack tried by giving it similar features such as the BFO and the fold down cover with time scale.
It's hard to believe that a Radio Shack portable radio built in the '70s would have the necessary multiplex circuitry to be able to pull out a left-only channel from the stereo signal, especially since it's a mono radio. I think you're listening to a mono signal and the earphone jack is wired for a regular earphone (such as the one included), the signal for which would only work with the left side of a pair of stereo headphones.
Family member got a radio similar to this, could pick up at times convoys talk from Fort Carson
nope on the stereo, too: if you played pibk floyd, youd hear it all, only on one ear (if using stereo phones).
I seem to have a 7 ban radio -modern
Oh dang I have one almost exactly like that. It's a Holiday Stationstores Branded one. It's a bit older though than yours I think.
Realistic/Radio Shack stuff was made by contractor firms, many of whom were doing badge engineering for multiple clients on their stock electronic devices.
nope: radio signals bounce across space. remember live tv from the moon? look ma, no wires! ham operators can talk with the international space station. even Sputnik had a transmitter...
Here’s what I imagine Sergei looks like first he looks a lot like Ben cause in my head cannon there like Barney and Andy and are cousins . But Sergei has a beard classic Russian style and wears either pro wrestling shirts with either pro American or pro Russian wrestlers and old band shirts that he found at a thrift shop and a red cowboy hat he put a patch in that says the his show on it . Then old hippy jeans with patches that are different flags and boots
While the AUX-IN jack only reproduces the left channel of a stereo source as shown in the video, I thought that FM radio stations that broadcast a stereo signal would downmix both stereo channels to mono for radios that don't have stereo capability. If that were the case, you could likely still hear the first 40 seconds of "Wish You Were Here" with instrumentation intact from an FM station, although all of it combined into one mono channel, similar to how AM stations downmix stereo music to mono. Though stereo capable radios are largely the norm, new mono-only radios still are sold either at dollar stores or online.
Also, that country station at 14:00 you passed over may be KJAM-FM 103.1 out of Madison, roughly 40 miles to the northwest. Surprised you were able to pick it up clearly there since it's sandwiched between B102.7 and KRRO, and it's a rather weak signal to begin with... 33kw at 93 meters HAAT. It's an Alpha Media station, so like sister station KQAD, the majority of it's on air staff got cut in May and both now run satellite DJs outside of the morning shows. Sad.
Tried it. Alas, no dice. Unfortunately, the direct feed tests are 100% representative of the speaker tests. The only 60's stereo music I got was in the initial "making sure it works" test--KISD never did play any of that disembodied early stereo stuff when I had the camera going.
Another commenter speculated there are would-be stereo guts in the machine, but only the left channel was ever hooked up by the factory. Seems plausible enough to me.
13:09 What kind of radio station would play Good Lovin' by the Young Rascals then go into the world's most overplayed song from the 80s? Not much of an oldies station if you're playing 80s music and I love 80s music.
I don't know if you tested this yet, but the tape "input" is most likely an output. As in, recording from the radio to tape.
Nope. The headphone jack is the only output. The other two are strictly input.
That was Cuban at 15.00...
Any chance of you uploading a full scan of all the bands to ArchiveAnnex?
The footage is pretty representative of what I picked up. Every shortwave signal I got is in the montage.