when i was a child in the 1970s they sold this exact model in that colour in UK petrol stations, my father bought one for me and one for my sister. It was the most exciting day of my life up to that point.
I bought mine at a K-Mart in New Jersey back in 1973. The size was the most appealing part of the radio and it worked reasonably well provided you were well within the coverage area of the radio station you were listening to.
Hello from France. When I was a Parisian teen I bought the Emperor in an electronic shop of my area. It was a AM with Long Waves (LW) more available in France and some part of Europe than MW like in the US. It was pretty cool with an orange body for listening Top of Pop after school on the way back home. This item was sold with various names brands, and MW was available on some models too .
I had one of these in my youth and considered it a bit of a novelty at the time. I would always try the volume switch every time I came back home to visit parents and it always popped! Wish I retrieved from my bedroom before the estate sale. Mine was black and chrome accents, mid 70's.
When I was 9 years old, a friend of mine received a blue Emperor radio for Christmas. When he showed me his gifts, my eyes lit up when I saw this little radio. At the time it was about the coolest little gadget I had seen. He was so impressed with my attraction to the radio, he gave it to me! I didn't hesitate to take it. For the next few months (or days, or weeks, I don't remember), I carried that little radio with me listening to AM 560 out of Philadelphia. "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and his Medicine Show was the top song at the time. Unfortunately, not long after I received it, the radio stopped working. I probably took it apart and eventually it got scrapped. Too bad Shango66 wasn't in my neighborhood at the time! Great video!
Greetings from Düsseldorf, Germany. I had a yellow one in my teenage. This device helped to kick start my career as a communication engineer, Thanks for bringing it back to beauty.
I have an audition transistor clock radio given to me. This radio was bought at Woolworth in the 60s. It had a battery in it that was dead. It was a gift that was put away and forgotten. 50 years later it was found. Works beautifully and I keep it in a box for safe keeping.
Back in the very early 1980's my wife was ill with a bad gall bladder. She was in hospital and at that time the hospitals did not furnish televisions in the room unless you rented one, and she didn't much care for television anyhow. So I went to the local Radio Shack and purchased a tiny GE (I think it was) square radio much like that one but in all silver color. She loved it and used it for years as a kitchen radio after her surgery, and said it kept her entertained while in hospital. Wish I still had the little set but I believe it died or she got another. Perhaps it is in a box somewhere in this old house. I do keep running into things I thought were long gone many years ago now that she has passed on. One day we found an envelope with 5 one hundred dollar bills in it. I still have two in my wallet as I type. I don't get out much now days.
I have that very same "Emperor" except mine is blue and was a K-mart radio. I loved it as a kid because it used a cheap 1.5V flashlight battery. 9V were harder to run across that weren't in something else. I remember buying some photovoltaic cells from Burstein-Applebee and wiring them to that radio and got it to run on solar power.
I had an Emperor in red when I was about 10. It was my first radio, bought from the local 5 and dime type store in Ohio. Though it didn't sound as good as my grandpa's Zenith Trans Oceanic, I could carry it out on the street at dusk and listen through my little ear piece. It was something magical to me and I intend to find another someday. Very interesting seeing you repair it, possibly to a standard better than it had been designed.
I went on a buying binge of older transistor radios about 15 years ago. I have sold off most of my collection but I still have a few that I keep for nostalgias sake. My dad bought the Emperor model radio in the mid 1970's which I still have today in working order. My sister owned the Panasonic Panapet Model #70 in Red which I don't have but always wanted to get a hold of one. I had a small almost table top sized transistor radio as a kid and that may have sparked my interest in collecting them. It was fun collecting these radios when they were cheap but they are considered vintage and antique now to the point where I stopped. I still get a thrill seeing the electronics used in these older radios compared to the small pocket radios of today. The Emporer radio and it's variants was unique because of it's size and this had a big wow factor back in the day.
I love you shouting in your videos. It really annoys my neighbour who he himself bangs around at 4:30 am on returning to his apartment after work . Keep em coming please Shang. Great diagnotics brother.
That little radio must have had some sentimental value. I remember those when they were new (I had one) when I was a kid and they weren't much of a radio then either. Sold under many brands and you're right they were never designed to be repaired just tossed. If I remember correctly they were the cheapest run on special radio at our local store and I think they were 3.95 or 4.95 brand spanking new. I believe mine was a Juliette.
You did a great job in flatting the aluminum label. If you had a little double-sided cellophane tape would have held it down and you could have got it back off later.
I just repaired the exact same Channel Master a few weeks ago. And, as you stated.. bad caps. It worked but was very quiet. Also, every screw holding things in were loose or about to fall out. It had a hard life. Happy to say, once recapped it's a very good performer. One of the hottest pocket radios I've had to date. I'd be curious how that performs against others in your rual performance tests.
have had a bad day. And a tiny radio. Helps me drift off. Repair men are rare. Insted of running off to to buy the next best thing. Getting your old frend back...a real gift. 😊
@@samubambek956 actually i se an opportunity in this. It means that the whole AM band is free for one to broadcast favourite music around the house with a small tx
Good diagnoses on the radio , enjoy your diagnostics on these radios , especially this one , not really made to be repaired, but you pulled it off again !. BTW , been using Nu-Trol control cleaner for like 30 years in Canada , good stuff.
AM radio is obsolete but still pretty amazing. I live in Staten Island NY and most nights I can pick up CHML-AM from Hamilton Ontario, 350 miles away, on a cheap Radio Shack model 120-0586 am/fm radio.
How is AM radio obsolete? Its still in use everyday. There’s nothing good being broadcast for the most part,but AM radio is still being broadcast and people are still listening to it.
@@Suddenlyits1960 AM is good for news/talk. Which is what CHML specializes in, branded as Global News Radio. They're also the radio home (once again) of the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL.
the green radio you worked on i had the exact one back in the mid 70's i would have been about 10 years old back then, not the best audio speaker but it worked i did use it for about 20 minutes i was to busy climbing trees and putting swings and slides down hills go carts made of wood and pram wheals i was 10 then the Vic 20 appeared and blew up and then another Vic 20 and that one overheated so me and my mam stormed into the store and i told them that they had the wrong voltage transformers for the U.K market after they rang head office i was thanked by the manager and was told that i could have any PC i wanted so i chose the Dragon 32 ( i was 12 going on 13 ) they just wouldn't allow me to have a cray 2 for some reason lol
Reminds me of when I was a kid in the car on a road trip and I put my hand out the car window while holding my walkman and the wind took it away instantly. (Ever see that video of the guy who opened the window of a Cessna and stuck his phone out the window to take a picture? It was just like that.... 😂 Poof!)
I had 2 of these in the early 1970s. They were advertised in small mail order ads at the back of magazines, but mine were from a store in the city. They were great for putting under the pillow and falling asleep to without the parents confiscating them. We were 5-10km from the transmitter towers here in Melbourne (Aust.) so assumed they sounded bad because of overloading, but they never sounded that great.
Shango066, I found you are very entertaining when it comes to the colqual words you use. I like your videos on Transistor radios. This smallone was a bugger.
I have several of these radios, in various colors and various brands, some still with original box. But most of them don't work anymore, and they are difficult to work with given the face plate has to be removed and ruined, as you showed it in the video. I did it for one of them only. Beautiful little radios, very collectible (like the panapet 70).
It's rather amazing these work as well as they do. I've seen that little "atomic" symbol on electronics made by a company called "Fedtro" that was sold at Lafayette (mail order and stores).
I have to say that design wise I think the philco is the most attractive. I like the use of a V under the tuner. That was a very popular styling cue during the 50’s and 60’s. It’s too bad the case isn’t a more attractive color though,and that the case wasn’t made of a stronger material. That’s interesting to see that original sticker on the back of the Zenith 180.
Audition was Woolworth's brand. My grandmother worked for the company back then and picked up a novelty set designed to look like an old telephone. Kinda cool, but cheaply built Japanese /Hong Kong built sets. Coronado was Gamble department store's brand.
I had a Coronado AA5 Racetrack radio. The one with the oval trim on the front and the faux carrying handle on top. A previous owner thought they could carry the set by the handle and ripped tho entire top off the Bakelite case.
I quite like this little radio. Its super cute and a really nice visual design. Pity its not much of a performer however that's kinda what you'd expect running of a single battery. I too am interested in your lead exposure story whenever you choose to share it. I've been soldering as a hobby my whole life however I've always been super careful to really wash my hands afterwards. Even as a kid I'm pretty sure I did that. I think I'll ask to get tested next time I visit the doc.
**** In the year 1972 At age 8 years old, I would replace everything in these old pocket Hong Kong Radios to make them sound super fine & nice. I found a very nice A.M. Zenith Royal 16 (model R-16 L) for $3.00 and it still works like new yet, but the soft cabinet plastic is in need of major repairs big time yet. If it works don't fix it............. The volume sound could be smoother sounding..........
Hey Shango I was able repair my own transistor radio from watching you, thank you for all the videos. I'm getting a ton of interference from my doorbell transformer, it's the old school kind. Can you do a video about how to solve RF interference issues?
If I'm not mistaken, when doorbell transformers cause interference, they're going bad. Example, any internal micro arcing can be like a spark gap transmitter and create broadband noise in the rf spectrum
Yeah, a doorbell transformer doesn't use any technology that would cause noise if working halfway right. It's not like a switching power supply that creates noise as a part of it's operation. Perhaps bad contacts on the thermal overload, internal arching, or perhaps an overload. If it was me, I'd just buy a new one and call it done. I'm not aware of anything special about a vintage doorbell transformer.
I got some weird buzzing when I was listening to the local AM news station, so I just picked up the radio and walked around the house flicking lights on and off and unplugging suspect electronics. Mine turned out to be a faulty wallwart for a security camera.
I bought one of these for around $5.00 US back in 1973 at a K-Mart in New Jersey because it was so small. Small radios were cool back then. It was black. It definitely wasn’t a DX performer. When we went to our summer home at the Poconos in northeastern Pennsylvania I used to listen to Music Radio WABC out of New York City. It should have been easy to pick up because they were transmitting from a 50,000 watt transmitter in Lodi New Jersey. The signal was weak but listenable. When I positioned the radio next to a wall with AC wiring behind it, the signal really picked up. So there were ways around the radio’s weak performance.
Audition was Woolworths house brand stamp. I remember I had a bunch of cheap Audition brand cassettes when I was a kid that I would pick up at the checkout counter of Woolworths whenever mom took us there.
Wow the first rádio, the green, was sold in Brazil in the 80's. Several different brands same rádio, I remember the brands Tempest and Electra SS. Best regards, Mário.
@@thedogbarked123 I know.. but you said 'use hot glue' which usually means that thick hot glue gun plastic materia.. you didn't mention glue stick.. thanks for your reply.
@@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 Yeah it is hot glue plastic stick. I buy the “extra strong” hard plastic sticks and just heat them with a hot air station. Works well for many uses
That Westminster is a dead ringer for the Rands radio we used to have. Bought our from Brooks pharmacy back in the '80s (might've been their 'house brand'?). Maybe that radio was someone else's 'house brand'? If not wanted we'd give it a loving home at La Casa Caracol...
Us Gen-Xers are hosed as far as lead (from gasoline during childhood): "They found that estimated lead-linked deficits were greatest for the 21 million people born between 1966 and 1970, who had an average 5.9-point drop in IQ per person." Not too worried about solder..
There was over a gram of lead compound per gallon of 4 star, it was always the resin flux fumes that I was concerned about when soldering, not the lead.
I really enjoy your channel. Some excellent troubleshooting examples. Now, if we could just get you and Mr. Carlson together. 5 million views at least. What a stream that would be! Thanks for great videos.
My first transistor radio was a 9V Japanese made Hilton 8 transistor shirt pocket model. It worked okay until it didn't but it ate 9V batteries like crazy.
Those pocket radios were also popular or useful at sporting events you could use the earplug to get the play by play and it was not a lot to carry around. No need for range or quality just loud enough to hear over the crowd or race or whatever...
When you said "one minute left" I heard the tone of your voice just like Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day when he had his infamous meltdown at the iHeart music awards. 😆
Audition was a house brand of the defunct Woolco department store chain which was owned by Woolworths. Had an AM-FM stereo back in the 70's made by (for) them.
replace the 2 or 3 electrolytic caps in the audio stage beginning with the coupler after the vo;ume potentiometer , and it will sound good , the unsoldered one is probably dry and bad since it never worked in its entire life ,,, cool stuff also seen these as a kid , congratulations good skills ...E.B.
forward voltage drop is only about 0.3v with those germanium transistors, compared to 0.6v with silicon transistors, so they can operate at a lower voltage.
I remember a small department clothing store selling those tiny radios in the early to mid 70's. I never got my father to buy me one. I already had a regular sized pocket AM radio. I am curious about your lead saturation.
I’ve never tried it,but have been told that Seafoam Deep creep penetrating spray can be used for removing glued on bezels and emblems. If you spray a little at the corners it penetrates underneath and softens the adhesive. Their website claims its safe and won’t harm rubber or plastics. Again, I haven’t tried it though.
Some of this old radios with small speakers. You can hook up an external speaker in the headphone jack. You might get better sound that way on it. In the past i did that with some radios and it worked fine. 🙂
3:54 That Pansonic, despite the old looking circuit (with input transformer?), seems as if it could have been made after the 1978 civil war in Ziare, which made alnico speaker magnets prohibitively expensive and led to the spread of "ceramic magnets" into everything. If the "4-579" on the speaker is a 1979 date code, that would confirm it.
The first wave of "Ceramic" (ferrite) magnets becoming popular was in the mid/late-1960s when more of the larger speakers made were equipped with them. Probably had to do with the instability and sanctions concerning southern Africa, Rhodesia in particular. In the mid 70s, there seemed to be a slight reversal in this trend, why that was I don't know. In the late 70s then, as you pointed out, AlNiCo was mostly gone for good. Ferrite of course has the disadvantage of being bulky but it seems to have better long-term stability. Loss of magnetic strength can be a real problem in vintage HiFi speakers and people often have them remagnetized.
That box 📦 of radios 📻 is like 👍 Forrest Gump’s box 📦 of chocolates 🍫, because ya never 👎 know what you’re gonna get. Those are usually a yard sale radio 📻, because that’s where we usually find them. I don’t find the coils too sloppy. It’s impressive that these are made in America 🇺🇸. Your friend, Jeff.
Hello from Uruguay my english level is poor. I will write you in spanish: Compre una radio igual marca "Fair Mate" parece haber sido reparada antes, tiene una resistencia en la parte trasera de la placa y le anularon la conexión de auriculares pero funciona bien
My brother in law also had that same model radio, I am looking forward to seeing the video on it. This would have been in the 1970's so who knows where it is now!
A friend of mine had a radio just like the Emperor, but in red. His was bought from Dixons, an electronics & camera stores chain in the UK. It was likely branded 'Prinzsound', which isn't quite as impressive as 'Emperor'!
The guy sends Shangster 19 radios, please fix this little tiny one that's in perfect mint cosmetic condition (when he's not really known for being super careful with the cosmetics and stuff because like me he doesn't really care too much about that) .... jump to 7:22 .... aaaaaand he broke it, LOL That was like one of the most hilarious edits yet. The damn things aren't made to take apart, once they're broke you play hell trying to fix it!
Wow I have that red Zenith 8-transistor, barely audible, can't remove the speaker. It has combo of round, TI metal cap, and modern looking transistors. Would be awesome if you revive that one.
Thanks for an entertaining and instructive video, again. That Emperor pocket radio is very collectable, however, I would honestly not really know why, given that it has extremely low quality sound. Maybe because it was so small in size compared to other pocket radios?
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
when i was a child in the 1970s they sold this exact model in that colour in UK petrol stations, my father bought one for me and one for my sister. It was the most exciting day of my life up to that point.
I wish I were born that time.. Time of radio magics... When radion was not taken for granted, but was respected for its spreading features..
I bought mine at a K-Mart in New Jersey back in 1973. The size was the most appealing part of the radio and it worked reasonably well provided you were well within the coverage area of the radio station you were listening to.
Hello from France. When I was a Parisian teen I bought the Emperor in an electronic shop of my area. It was a AM with Long Waves (LW) more available in France and some part of Europe than MW like in the US. It was pretty cool with an orange body for listening Top of Pop after school on the way back home. This item was sold with various names brands, and MW was available on some models too .
I had one of these in my youth and considered it a bit of a novelty at the time. I would always try the volume switch every time I came back home to visit parents and it always popped! Wish I retrieved from my bedroom before the estate sale.
Mine was black and chrome accents, mid 70's.
Oh c'est sympa de voir des français par ici !
These were also sold in the U.K. under the “Seacom” brand.
Your lying
Oh oui je m’en souviens celui qui était orange
le radio conserve son coté magic mais hélas a paris il n’y plus d’émission
When I was 9 years old, a friend of mine received a blue Emperor radio for Christmas. When he showed me his gifts, my eyes lit up when I saw this little radio. At the time it was about the coolest little gadget I had seen. He was so impressed with my attraction to the radio, he gave it to me! I didn't hesitate to take it. For the next few months (or days, or weeks, I don't remember), I carried that little radio with me listening to AM 560 out of Philadelphia. "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and his Medicine Show was the top song at the time. Unfortunately, not long after I received it, the radio stopped working. I probably took it apart and eventually it got scrapped. Too bad Shango66 wasn't in my neighborhood at the time! Great video!
There's something charming about old AM radios. Yeah, they're mostly cheap dime-store fare, but they remind me of my childhood in the early 70s.
Greetings from Düsseldorf, Germany.
I had a yellow one in my teenage.
This device helped to kick start my career as a communication engineer,
Thanks for bringing it back to beauty.
I have an audition transistor clock radio given to me. This radio was bought at Woolworth in the 60s. It had a battery in it that was dead. It was a gift that was put away and forgotten. 50 years later it was found. Works beautifully and I keep it in a box for safe keeping.
Back in the very early 1980's my wife was ill with a bad gall bladder. She was in hospital and at that time the hospitals did not furnish televisions in the room unless you rented one, and she didn't much care for television anyhow. So I went to the local Radio Shack and purchased a tiny GE (I think it was) square radio much like that one but in all silver color. She loved it and used it for years as a kitchen radio after her surgery, and said it kept her entertained while in hospital. Wish I still had the little set but I believe it died or she got another. Perhaps it is in a box somewhere in this old house. I do keep running into things I thought were long gone many years ago now that she has passed on. One day we found an envelope with 5 one hundred dollar bills in it. I still have two in my wallet as I type. I don't get out much now days.
You should donate it to my child sir ! Please bless her 🙏 😢
I have that very same "Emperor" except mine is blue and was a K-mart radio. I loved it as a kid because it used a cheap 1.5V flashlight battery. 9V were harder to run across that weren't in something else. I remember buying some photovoltaic cells from Burstein-Applebee and wiring them to that radio and got it to run on solar power.
I had the one he said was Westminster , and that one was light blue and from K-mart, this being the Australian one. My brother had the black one.
I had a red one
I had an Emperor in red when I was about 10. It was my first radio, bought from the local 5 and dime type store in Ohio.
Though it didn't sound as good as my grandpa's Zenith Trans Oceanic, I could carry it out on the street at dusk and listen through my little ear piece.
It was something magical to me and I intend to find another someday.
Very interesting seeing you repair it, possibly to a standard better than it had been designed.
I went on a buying binge of older transistor radios about 15 years ago. I have sold off most of my collection but I still have a few that I keep for nostalgias sake. My dad bought the Emperor model radio in the mid 1970's which I still have today in working order. My sister owned the Panasonic Panapet Model #70 in Red which I don't have but always wanted to get a hold of one. I had a small almost table top sized transistor radio as a kid and that may have sparked my interest in collecting them. It was fun collecting these radios when they were cheap but they are considered vintage and antique now to the point where I stopped. I still get a thrill seeing the electronics used in these older radios compared to the small pocket radios of today. The Emporer radio and it's variants was unique because of it's size and this had a big wow factor back in the day.
Excellent attention to detail on getting that little guy apart and repair. It’s amazing that those things perform that well on one penlight cell!
I love you shouting in your videos.
It really annoys my neighbour who he himself bangs around at 4:30 am on returning to his apartment after work .
Keep em coming please Shang.
Great diagnotics brother.
That Sony at 3:32 with a slot on the back for hanging on a nail... great idea! Thing looks like a thermostat too.
That little radio must have had some sentimental value. I remember those when they were new (I had one) when I was a kid and they weren't much of a radio then either. Sold under many brands and you're right they were never designed to be repaired just tossed. If I remember correctly they were the cheapest run on special radio at our local store and I think they were 3.95 or 4.95 brand spanking new. I believe mine was a Juliette.
Probably that unsoldered lead. lol
When? What year?
@@tarstarkusz I think mine was a Juliette, too. Mid 70's. Mine was black /chrome accents with a carry strap.
@@tarstarkusz somewhere around 1973 to 1976.
Great Video! You never cease to absolutely amaze me with your ability to troubleshoot and fix the problem so expediently !!! You sir are a Wizard !
You did a great job in flatting the aluminum label. If you had a little double-sided cellophane tape would have held it down and you could have got it back off later.
Love the little atomic badge on the front of the radio... Totally dates it.
The color does even more so.
Reminds me of the old "FEDTRO" brand logo from the '60s and early '70s.
I just repaired the exact same Channel Master a few weeks ago. And, as you stated.. bad caps. It worked but was very quiet. Also, every screw holding things in were loose or about to fall out. It had a hard life. Happy to say, once recapped it's a very good performer. One of the hottest pocket radios I've had to date. I'd be curious how that performs against others in your rual performance tests.
have had a bad day. And a tiny radio. Helps me drift off. Repair men are rare. Insted of running off to to buy the next best thing. Getting your old frend back...a real gift. 😊
I'll follow this radio project here from Dalsbruk in Finland. Regards Stig Österberg.
you are so lucky to have more than 2 stations on AM
2 stations? We dont have anything in germany
@@samubambek956 actually i se an opportunity in this. It means that the whole AM band is free for one to broadcast favourite music around the house with a small tx
Sometimes I feel like I should just get all my current event news from shango066 videos. They certainly more entertaining.
Nice repair! It’s more like a novelty that you wouldn’t listen to too much.
Good diagnoses on the radio , enjoy your diagnostics on these radios , especially this one , not really made to be repaired, but you pulled it off again !. BTW , been using Nu-Trol control cleaner for like 30 years in Canada , good stuff.
AM radio is obsolete but still pretty amazing. I live in Staten Island NY and most nights I can pick up CHML-AM from Hamilton Ontario, 350 miles away, on a cheap Radio Shack model 120-0586 am/fm radio.
How is AM radio obsolete? Its still in use everyday. There’s nothing good being broadcast for the most part,but AM radio is still being broadcast and people are still listening to it.
@@Suddenlyits1960 AM is good for news/talk. Which is what CHML specializes in, branded as Global News Radio. They're also the radio home (once again) of the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the CFL.
the green radio you worked on i had the exact one back in the mid 70's i would have been about 10 years old back then, not the best audio speaker but it worked i did use it for about 20 minutes i was to busy climbing trees and putting swings and slides down hills go carts made of wood and pram wheals i was 10 then the Vic 20 appeared and blew up and then another Vic 20 and that one overheated so me and my mam stormed into the store and i told them that they had the wrong voltage transformers for the U.K market after they rang head office i was thanked by the manager and was told that i could have any PC i wanted so i chose the Dragon 32 ( i was 12 going on 13 ) they just wouldn't allow me to have a cray 2 for some reason lol
I had a red one of these. It had great reception on my windowsill, until it fell out of the window, 3 stories down onto paving stones. Oh dear.
Reminds me of when I was a kid in the car on a road trip and I put my hand out the car window while holding my walkman and the wind took it away instantly.
(Ever see that video of the guy who opened the window of a Cessna and stuck his phone out the window to take a picture? It was just like that.... 😂 Poof!)
@@volvo09 Oops. At least you were a kid at the time. That moron should have known better. Ha ha.
these big box small vintage radio reveals are always so fun. thanks
Very good, and got excellent sound quality. I have one just like it in blue, it will need repairs.
Congratulations on the video
I had 2 of these in the early 1970s. They were advertised in small mail order ads at the back of magazines, but mine were from a store in the city. They were great for putting under the pillow and falling asleep to without the parents confiscating them. We were 5-10km from the transmitter towers here in Melbourne (Aust.) so assumed they sounded bad because of overloading, but they never sounded that great.
I learn so much from your videos just love watching. Love the extra humor too. Keep it up Nice Job
Shango066, I found you are very entertaining when it comes to the colqual words you use. I like your videos on Transistor radios. This smallone was a bugger.
I have several of these radios, in various colors and various brands, some still with original box. But most of them don't work anymore, and they are difficult to work with given the face plate has to be removed and ruined, as you showed it in the video. I did it for one of them only.
Beautiful little radios, very collectible (like the panapet 70).
It's rather amazing these work as well as they do. I've seen that little "atomic" symbol on electronics made by a company called "Fedtro" that was sold at Lafayette (mail order and stores).
I have to say that design wise I think the philco is the most attractive. I like the use of a V under the tuner. That was a very popular styling cue during the 50’s and 60’s. It’s too bad the case isn’t a more attractive color though,and that the case wasn’t made of a stronger material. That’s interesting to see that original sticker on the back of the Zenith 180.
Another excellent video. I had a great laugh about the mil-spec resistor being worth more than the whole set! :)
Audition was Woolworth's brand. My grandmother worked for the company back then and picked up a novelty set designed to look like an old telephone. Kinda cool, but cheaply built Japanese /Hong Kong built sets. Coronado was Gamble department store's brand.
I had a Coronado AA5 Racetrack radio. The one with the oval trim on the front and the faux carrying handle on top. A previous owner thought they could carry the set by the handle and ripped tho entire top off the Bakelite case.
I quite like this little radio. Its super cute and a really nice visual design. Pity its not much of a performer however that's kinda what you'd expect running of a single battery. I too am interested in your lead exposure story whenever you choose to share it. I've been soldering as a hobby my whole life however I've always been super careful to really wash my hands afterwards. Even as a kid I'm pretty sure I did that. I think I'll ask to get tested next time I visit the doc.
Another excellent diagnosis and repair. Neat little radio. Can’t wait to see the repair vids for the others.
Hi shango0. I watched the red TV set yesterday. Can't remember if I commented? Thank you for another Sunday video. Cool bunch of makes. All my best.
Great repair well done ~ my cousin had one but in red ~ I always thought the volume and tuning knobs had a nice quality action and feel to them.
My parents have this exact one and as long as I remember it was dead. Gotta fish it out and get a go at repairing it
Wow, that Zenith Royal 180 was jam-packed with 5 couplets! (Or maybe 4 and an odd square-shaped ceramic disk capacitor.) 😉
**** In the year 1972 At age 8 years old, I would replace everything in these old pocket Hong Kong Radios to make them sound super fine & nice. I found a very nice A.M. Zenith Royal 16 (model R-16 L) for $3.00 and it still works like new yet, but the soft cabinet plastic is in need of major repairs big time yet. If it works don't fix it............. The volume sound could be smoother sounding..........
Hey Shango I was able repair my own transistor radio from watching you, thank you for all the videos. I'm getting a ton of interference from my doorbell transformer, it's the old school kind. Can you do a video about how to solve RF interference issues?
If I'm not mistaken, when doorbell transformers cause interference, they're going bad. Example, any internal micro arcing can be like a spark gap transmitter and create broadband noise in the rf spectrum
Yeah, a doorbell transformer doesn't use any technology that would cause noise if working halfway right. It's not like a switching power supply that creates noise as a part of it's operation. Perhaps bad contacts on the thermal overload, internal arching, or perhaps an overload. If it was me, I'd just buy a new one and call it done. I'm not aware of anything special about a vintage doorbell transformer.
I got some weird buzzing when I was listening to the local AM news station, so I just picked up the radio and walked around the house flicking lights on and off and unplugging suspect electronics. Mine turned out to be a faulty wallwart for a security camera.
Putting 100nF caps across the diodes in walwarts fixes buzzing problems on the AM band
@@h7qvi I just replaced them all with a dedicated 5A power supply, tossed the faulty one, saved the good ones for future projects.
oh wow I had one of those green radios how cool to see one again
I was amazed that you got the metal face plate to lie so flat at the end. It's always so hard to get them flat after they are bent even a little.
I bought one of these for around $5.00 US back in 1973 at a K-Mart in New Jersey because it was so small. Small radios were cool back then. It was black. It definitely wasn’t a DX performer. When we went to our summer home at the Poconos in northeastern Pennsylvania I used to listen to Music Radio WABC out of New York City. It should have been easy to pick up because they were transmitting from a 50,000 watt transmitter in Lodi New Jersey. The signal was weak but listenable. When I positioned the radio next to a wall with AC wiring behind it, the signal really picked up. So there were ways around the radio’s weak performance.
Some cool little radios. AM radio is all I listen to.
Very interesting channel. Mr. Carlson sent me.
Hey SHANGO!!! thanks for the videos. I have to play catch up. Been a little busy lately.
Little gold mine of radios there really nice
Audition was Woolworths house brand stamp. I remember I had a bunch of cheap Audition brand cassettes when I was a kid that I would pick up at the checkout counter of Woolworths whenever mom took us there.
I have a radio with the same distorted sound . I think I'll checked the output and see what I can find out . Thank you for the lesson .
If it has an earphone jack you might be able to confirm the problem that way too.
@@hestheMaster Good idea . I'll try that . Thanks .
Wow the first rádio, the green, was sold in Brazil in the 80's. Several different brands same rádio, I remember the brands Tempest and Electra SS. Best regards, Mário.
Quick Tip: Use hot glue with the legends / emblems. Works well and can be removed easily with a hot air station.
no - it raises the emblem up too far due to it's mass not a good glue for such a thing - hobby glue
@@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 Maybe if you use a hot glue gun, but if you use hot air like 350 degrees on the gluestick it gets really runny thin
@@thedogbarked123 I know.. but you said 'use hot glue' which usually means that thick hot glue gun plastic materia.. you didn't mention glue stick.. thanks for your reply.
@@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 Yeah it is hot glue plastic stick. I buy the “extra strong” hard plastic sticks and just heat them with a hot air station. Works well for many uses
That Westminster is a dead ringer for the Rands radio we used to have. Bought our from Brooks pharmacy back in the '80s (might've been their 'house brand'?). Maybe that radio was someone else's 'house brand'?
If not wanted we'd give it a loving home at La Casa Caracol...
Us Gen-Xers are hosed as far as lead (from gasoline during childhood): "They found that estimated lead-linked deficits were greatest for the 21 million people born between 1966 and 1970, who had an average 5.9-point drop in IQ per person." Not too worried about solder..
There was over a gram of lead compound per gallon of 4 star, it was always the resin flux fumes that I was concerned about when soldering, not the lead.
Neat little radio. Sounds good for its size!
I really enjoy your channel. Some excellent troubleshooting examples. Now, if we could just get you and Mr. Carlson together. 5 million views at least. What a stream that would be!
Thanks for great videos.
Nothing like back to back Shango uploads
My first transistor radio was a 9V Japanese made Hilton 8 transistor shirt pocket model. It worked okay until it didn't but it ate 9V batteries like crazy.
Great job as always. Love your videos. Never miss a one of them.
15:36 "family did not disclose the cause" ... We've been hearing that a lot lately.
Those pocket radios were also popular or useful at sporting events you could use the earplug to get the play by play and it was not a lot to carry around. No need for range or quality just loud enough to hear over the crowd or race or whatever...
This is my Transistor radio from 1978 damn u have it now.. (The Gree Military one ^^)
When you said "one minute left" I heard the tone of your voice just like Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day when he had his infamous meltdown at the iHeart music awards. 😆
Shango does not disappoint.
Coronado was Allied Stores, not to be confused with Allied Electronics. Allied owned several department store chains.
Audition was a house brand of the defunct Woolco department store chain which was owned by Woolworths. Had an AM-FM stereo back in the 70's made by (for) them.
replace the 2 or 3 electrolytic caps in the audio stage beginning with the coupler after the vo;ume potentiometer , and it will sound good , the unsoldered one is probably dry and bad since it never worked in its entire life ,,, cool stuff also seen these as a kid , congratulations good skills ...E.B.
Well done!
I'm surprised that they managed to get a Superhet Radio with Loudspeaker output to work on just 1.5V.
forward voltage drop is only about 0.3v with those germanium transistors, compared to 0.6v with silicon transistors, so they can operate at a lower voltage.
I remember a small department clothing store selling those tiny radios in the early to mid 70's. I never got my father to buy me one. I already had a regular sized pocket AM radio.
I am curious about your lead saturation.
Maybe lead in the drinking water?
Leaded gasoline for decades.
They old style solder was about 40% lead, it can be absorbed through constant handling, and the fumes from soldering are bad to breathe in.
We were a very hip modern 70s family and we had the Sony Cube.
I’ve never tried it,but have been told that Seafoam Deep creep penetrating spray can be used for removing glued on bezels and emblems. If you spray a little at the corners it penetrates underneath and softens the adhesive. Their website claims its safe and won’t harm rubber or plastics. Again, I haven’t tried it though.
Cute little radio
Doesn't the lead exposure come from soldering fumes? Just avoiding to touch it seems negligible.
A 'suitcase' radio? It looks like a little suitcase. For what it is, and with Shango's magic touch, it really seems to work pretty good.
Some of this old radios with small speakers. You can hook up an external speaker in the headphone jack. You might get better sound that way on it. In the past i did that with some radios and it worked fine. 🙂
3:54 That Pansonic, despite the old looking circuit (with input transformer?), seems as if it could have been made after the 1978 civil war in Ziare, which made alnico speaker magnets prohibitively expensive and led to the spread of "ceramic magnets" into everything. If the "4-579" on the speaker is a 1979 date code, that would confirm it.
The first wave of "Ceramic" (ferrite) magnets becoming popular was in the mid/late-1960s when more of the larger speakers made were equipped with them. Probably had to do with the instability and sanctions concerning southern Africa, Rhodesia in particular.
In the mid 70s, there seemed to be a slight reversal in this trend, why that was I don't know.
In the late 70s then, as you pointed out, AlNiCo was mostly gone for good.
Ferrite of course has the disadvantage of being bulky but it seems to have better long-term stability. Loss of magnetic strength can be a real problem in vintage HiFi speakers and people often have them remagnetized.
That box 📦 of radios 📻 is like 👍 Forrest Gump’s box 📦 of chocolates 🍫, because ya never 👎 know what you’re gonna get. Those are usually a yard sale radio 📻, because that’s where we usually find them. I don’t find the coils too sloppy. It’s impressive that these are made in America 🇺🇸. Your friend, Jeff.
Thanks for the uploads this week! Really love the channel! :)
That 3 band radio that is missing its nameplate is an ADMIRAL. I have one.
📻😁
Hello from Uruguay my english level is poor. I will write you in spanish: Compre una radio igual marca "Fair Mate" parece haber sido reparada antes, tiene una resistencia en la parte trasera de la placa y le anularon la conexión de auriculares pero funciona bien
Yes old not working transistor radios. So I am in heaven!
I had the same radio back in the late 70's, only mine was black.
I had one of those black Sanyo's a very good performer.
That is a small radio for its time💯👍
I have that exact Sony cube radio. Maybe I will do a refresh capacide video on it one day. Mine still works great though.
My brother in law also had that same model radio, I am looking forward to seeing the video on it. This would have been in the 1970's so who knows where it is now!
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Looks like a little suitcase!
Yes,it does somewhat resemble the samsonite suitcases of the same time.
You definitely have a strong Korean language radio station out there.
Cool radio, thanks for the videos!
A friend of mine had a radio just like the Emperor, but in red. His was bought from Dixons, an electronics & camera stores chain in the UK. It was likely branded 'Prinzsound', which isn't quite as impressive as 'Emperor'!
Great video but how did you get the knobs off? Are they just on by friction? I don't want to break them trying to pry them off if not. Thanks.
Audition was Woolworths house brand.
I had the same Emperor mini radio! In black, and so scuffed I never figured out the name until now
The guy sends Shangster 19 radios, please fix this little tiny one that's in perfect mint cosmetic condition (when he's not really known for being super careful with the cosmetics and stuff because like me he doesn't really care too much about that) .... jump to 7:22 .... aaaaaand he broke it, LOL That was like one of the most hilarious edits yet. The damn things aren't made to take apart, once they're broke you play hell trying to fix it!
Wow I have that red Zenith 8-transistor, barely audible, can't remove the speaker. It has combo of round, TI metal cap, and modern looking transistors. Would be awesome if you revive that one.
Nice one, love these lil radios
Thank you shango066
Thanks for an entertaining and instructive video, again. That Emperor pocket radio is very collectable, however, I would honestly not really know why, given that it has extremely low quality sound. Maybe because it was so small in size compared to other pocket radios?