10-09-2018, 06:05 PM
I know it is five and a half years old(!) but I just stumbled on this thread by accident.
I note that neither reply answers the original question, so here goes!
Who Actually Repaired Sixties Pocket Radios? I did!
Originally targeted at the US market, they first appeared her in 1962* where they became the 'must have' present for the youth of the day.
Not all were made in Japan - quite a lot were made in Hong Kong, but all the identifiable parts were Japanese.
They were also the first sets that most people had seen with dials marked in frequency, as in the US, of course, and they all carried the square and triangular symbols that marked the US Conelrad frequencies. As there is no Long Wave in the US, they were all Medium Wave only.
The sets we sold were from Hong Kong and were under the Kendy trademark I think - but it was a long time ago!
They retailed at £5 19s 6d, I recall.
No matter which country they came from they were virtually identical on the inside, only the cabinets varied.
In the main, there were only four faults with these sets!
One was broken battery leads, followed by faulty volume controls, although it would often be the little paxoline cam that operated the on/off switch that started to revolve on the spindle. Fotunately we had a wholsaler who carried these little 5k controls, so no problem there.
The other two faults were rarer. At the bottom left hand corner of the PCB was the final IF transformer, then right on the bottom between it and the edge of the board were the detector diode and diode load. It somebody was clumsy when changing the PP3 battery, its body and the IF can made a beautiful vice which could prove fatal to the diode! A replacement OA90 did the trick. Occasionally it might be the load resistor which suffered and 4.7k resistors were the first eighth watt resistors we ever stocked!
* I've written about this before in a post entitled "The year of the vest pocket radio" - probably on VRAT1, but I can't seem to find it and the thought of going through the entire forum to look for it doesn't really appeal! It did, however, explain why I am so certain about the date.
I note that neither reply answers the original question, so here goes!
Who Actually Repaired Sixties Pocket Radios? I did!
Originally targeted at the US market, they first appeared her in 1962* where they became the 'must have' present for the youth of the day.
Not all were made in Japan - quite a lot were made in Hong Kong, but all the identifiable parts were Japanese.
They were also the first sets that most people had seen with dials marked in frequency, as in the US, of course, and they all carried the square and triangular symbols that marked the US Conelrad frequencies. As there is no Long Wave in the US, they were all Medium Wave only.
The sets we sold were from Hong Kong and were under the Kendy trademark I think - but it was a long time ago!
They retailed at £5 19s 6d, I recall.
No matter which country they came from they were virtually identical on the inside, only the cabinets varied.
In the main, there were only four faults with these sets!
One was broken battery leads, followed by faulty volume controls, although it would often be the little paxoline cam that operated the on/off switch that started to revolve on the spindle. Fotunately we had a wholsaler who carried these little 5k controls, so no problem there.
The other two faults were rarer. At the bottom left hand corner of the PCB was the final IF transformer, then right on the bottom between it and the edge of the board were the detector diode and diode load. It somebody was clumsy when changing the PP3 battery, its body and the IF can made a beautiful vice which could prove fatal to the diode! A replacement OA90 did the trick. Occasionally it might be the load resistor which suffered and 4.7k resistors were the first eighth watt resistors we ever stocked!
* I've written about this before in a post entitled "The year of the vest pocket radio" - probably on VRAT1, but I can't seem to find it and the thought of going through the entire forum to look for it doesn't really appeal! It did, however, explain why I am so certain about the date.
