What To Do With Vintage Radios Since LW & MW Are Now Finished

[bobhowe]

Hi Andy.
Just testing the water to see if all sense of humour is devoid in vintage radio or not these days, perhaps too much old man syndrome is floating around.

I do have a point though. As a radio amateur I often feel we do little to encourage the young generations, we also criticise newbies saying they are clueless and don't know how to solder, fit a fuse to a plug or interpret a voltage reading. This type of attitude will never gain new blood. Very few young folk are interested in dark brown dull old radios, perhaps I have a young head on a decrepit old body but I tend to agree with the young, perhaps it's because I raised three kids and have grandchildren which are a pleasure to be around.
The issue is of course the perceived death of AM broadcasting, here there are only three usable stations with Caroline coming alive just before the grey line. While I agree with Andy re pantry transmitters two things come to mind, firstly with all the racket of QRM a flea power pantry transmitter is a waste of time then if you rump up the power you get modulation hum due to the RF entering the mains cables. Many might not be technically able to understand or able to resolve the issue. The same goes for fitting Bluetooth modules or repurposing a radio into a guitar amplifier. This of course is the criteria for the big drop in value of AM only radios. One advantage though is now very rare sets are cheap, a recent purchase by a friend of an ultra rare set (make evades me) for £40 was mind boggling as ten years ago they were valued at over £2000.
Things change and we need to accept that.

Hi some interesting comments from everyone the problems where I live I can only receive 1 MW station Talk Sport and that is very weak due to interference . I purchased a 1W Pantry Transmitter and it is useless and without going OT Even with a 30FT wire as an Antenna is side there is no way it would be picked up from outside my home you stand more chance in getting a visit from Offcom for RFI from a LED light Bulb or switched mode power supply . Hi Trevor like your humour lucky I only have 1 Woody set so no worry about woodworm plenty of leaky capacitors to replace on my other sets . I totally agree with you about Pantry Transmitters and there is a lot of sets now on the market now over priced and unsold and as you say things change not just in the radio and TV interests 73 Bob