Homebuild solid state FM radio

[Aerodyne]

Hello all
This is just to let you know that I've placed the plans and a full article-length description of a VHF/FM radio on my website
www.vintageradioworld.co.uk.
There is also a link to a video about the radio:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMsNeT_MQZc

It might be of some interest. Also new to You Tube is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlWRNL7KhBw

and this video shows the restoration of a wooden radio cabinet.
I trust at least one or two of you will enjoy these additions. The website has been fully overhauled for 2014 in appearance and numerous changes have been made to content.
Tony

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Tony for posting these two very interesting projects and congratulations on their success.

I've been fortunate in that Tony has kindly kept me fully updated during work in progress on his FM radio build. It's so easy to see the finished result but this doesn't show the many dedicated hours put in doing research and sourcing components; bare MDF is always very bland but what a difference TLC and a decent paint job makes; anyone copying this FM radio as a winter project can be assured that Tony has fully tried the design and build before submitting the details.

The "woody" restoration is more in my line and yet another wonderful job carried out by Tony encouraging others to have a go at restoring such a wreck. Such a transformation though from wreck to fully restored; credit to you Tony; very well done indeed. Both videos are also well put together; something I wouldn't even know where to start with.

Kind regards, Col.

[Radio Fixer]

Nice work Tony on the radio and cabinet. You started with a wreck and ended up with a useable item.

I'm still not sure about soaking or using woodworm killer on old radios. Some say it does no good and if the radio is left in the warm and dry for sometime and no new holes appear (the old holes are where they left) all is well. All my cabinets stay indoors for months / years before getting finished but like you I do treat for wood worm and bag up if there are any signs.

The holes are the devil to fill and grin through lacquer even after careful filling and sanding.

It looks as if you didn't use grain filler on the cabinet? Some don't and actually like the wood grain showing. I always fill, although sometimes again it can be difficult to get that perfect. Some woods are easy buy others not so, mahog for example.

I personally use cellulose lacquer and have never done a finish in acrylic.

cheers Gary

[Yorkie]

Many thanks for posting the two videos Tony - you certainly put a lot of effort into designing the FM radio, not least of which was the PCB design, and the circuit!

As to wooden cabinets, with few exceptions such as Colin ('Retired'), for most of us, that tends to be the stumbling bock we'd rather not have to face! Ironic nowadays that whereas Bakelite radios tend to be more valuable and collectable, in their day, they were introduced as a mass produced cheaper alternative than wood for high volume production. A glance at even quite basic wooden cabinets with unexceptional veneers indicates that they were labour intensive to make and finish. Those with more elaborate book-matched veneers would have been even more costly, just as they would be today, albeit better suited than Bakelite for low volume production due to the high capital costs of tooling pressing of Bakelite cabinets.

I've also just spent a happy half hour trawling your updated website, and while there, took a trip down Memory Lane in the 'Nostalgia' section! As a kid, Valentine Dyall with his menacing voice as 'The Man in Black' scared the wits out of me! Although I don't think it crossed the listeners' minds back in the 50s, in retrospect it seems bizarre that the long running series 'Educating Archie', (Archie Andrews - a ventriloquist's dummy), with Peter Brough, could ever have succeeded on the radio, when ventriloquists are such a visual act. Then ironically, with the coming of TV, Peter Brough's secret was out - he couldn't project his voice without moving his lips. TV put paid to him just as it did to Tony Hancock in the end - he couldn't remember his lines and couldn't cope unless he was reading from a script, so needed prompt boards all over the set with his lines on. So evident when watching his TV progs.

[Aerodyne]

I'm absolutely with you re Valentine Dyall, David. I remember him doing a story about a spectral black dog that followed people about preceding their imminent and gory deaths. I was a young kid, certainly well below 10 and I recall sitting up in bed for hours on end, afraid to fall to sleep, certain that were I to take my eyes off the door for even a second, that dog would have me. It seems hard to believe that radio could have such an effect but in those less sophisticated days, it really did.
Thanks for looking at the website and I'm pleased you found it of some interest.

Gary, you are right - I didn't use a grain filler but I often find when refinishing cabinets that a filler isn't essential because the grain remains at least partially filled. If my memory serves me aright, with this particular set, no tinted lacquer or stain was used and to find a grain filler of a suitable colour so as not to show through a clear lacquer coating is problematic. Generally the problem solves itself as long as sufficient coats are applied and flatted between coatings, though with this set it might have benefitted from a couple more layers. Even so the set sold readily! To be truthful it was a restoration I carried out more than 10 years ago, under less than ideal conditions (a damp garage, for a start) and my time was limited.

And of course, thanks Col for your support, always appreciated.
Tony

[boiss]

On the radio side, I used some TDA7000s for a simple fm radio system for comms between the TV director and the cameramen in the studio on 50MHz. They worked a treat. I've still got a few around from 30yrs ago. They made an excellent FM Rx with a very low component count and were very stable in operation.
Mike

[Aerodyne]

Before I opted for a TDA000 I trawled the net for ideas and came across more than one site that rubbished the little Philips chips. Because (a) I usually like Philips electronics products, even though they can be 'quirky' at times - in the past, at least - and (b) I tend to distrust comments made by people on the open net, more often than not American (and I'm not referring to 'proper' forums) when they complain about products not matching their published specifications, thinking that it is by far the more likely that the complainant didn't use the device as he should. In this case I did push the boundary slightly in powering the chip from a mains-derived source rather than batteries and doing so did give me a few headaches, but once sorted it has made a fine little mono FM radio and I use it daily.
There are one or two You Tube videos showing homebuilt TDA7000 receivers but these tend to be capacitively tuned, with the problems that brings. I chose varicap.
Thanks for the interest, folks.
Tony

[Joe]

Just for Alan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC72J2VOSH0

- Joe

[AlanBeckett]

His name had to be Eric, it couldn't be anything else

Alan

[pwdrive]

Another 555 receiver, would do for Am or SSB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNtR-X41qh0

Lawrence.