Hi all, this is my first post and I am beginning to enjoy vintage electronics. One thing I have always been looking for is a replacement for the radio I had on my nightstand as a child. This was in the late 70s but the radio was not new. It was analog, very simple and looked roughly like the drawing attached. Drawing is rough and dimensional relationships are not 100% accurate.

Things I am sure of:
It was beige.
It was plastic.
It had volume and frequency knobs on the front.
The speaker(s?) was/were under the lines I drew on the front of the radio.
The drawing is not to scale but pretty close.

Things I am 90% sure of:
It had a band switch and a wire coming out of it on the back.
The dial on the right was freq and the dial on the bottom was volume.
it was about 16" long.
It was about 7" high.

Things I am 65% sure of:
It was a GE.

I have a very good picture of it in mind but have not been able to find a picture online. Wondering if any of the radio brethren could give me any clues or help on a model number. Thank you in advance for any help.

Jim K

AM only or both AM/FM? Do you recall?

And no clock on the radio, right?

What about this GE...is it close? https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/general_e ... t_122.html
This is a mid-60s era radio - but more knobs than you drew.

Or maybe a Motorola: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/motorola_ ... 67252.html
Motorola made numerous little table top radios.

This Philco doesn't seem to match the dimensions of your drawing: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/philco_t_ ... e_124.html

This Zenith is getting close, maybe: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/zenith_am ... 410_l.html

Hope this helps as a starting point.....

It could very well be a GE, but it might also be a Granco. Try Granco in your image searching. They've made some that look a lot like that, though the plastic speaker grille lines are vertical, not horizontal. But it might get you closer to finding out.


73 de N0TLD
Mike

KnobDial,

I think you nailed it with your very first guess. It is such a close match that I think I must be just not remembering the additional dials on the front. Awesome job, thanks!

So the next question is where to get one? A cursory internet search revealed very few references to this radio, and none for sale. What are the sources you guys use for acquiring radios? Do you know anything else about this radio? Is it going to be impossible for me to get?

Michael C,

Thanks for the response. it was not a Granco, but I looked at them and they are some pretty cool looking radios!

Welcome to the forum -- you may want to place a wanted to buy (WTB) ad in the Radio Classified forum on this website to find that radio -

Griz

Ahh thanks for the tip, I didn't see that forum when I was surfing around here earlier.

You may already be aware of this, but this GE model had sister models from T1220 through T1240. You may want to look at Radiomuseum to see the variations.

I can only speak for myself regarding where I look for radios - others on this forum might have other ways of finding radios.

Griz's suggestion of the WTB in this forum's classified is a very good start. Bump it up every other day for a week or two so it will stay visible for awhile.

E-bay is the elephant in the room regarding transistor radios. No other sale / auction site comes close in terms of volume. I suggest setting up an e-mail notification from e-bay for the radio.

ETSY is another source - although it is more miss than hit, but it can surprise you.

Antique Radio has some transistor radios for sale - it mostly sells tube radios.

Kijiji in Canada is a source worth browsing through - although you need to first check with the seller if they are willing to ship to the USA.

Lastly, I recommend subscribing to Estatesales.net and creating an e-mail notification for 'radio' - this will net all radios, but estate sellers rarely differentiate 'transistor radio' in their descriptions.

Best of luck. The hunt is always one of the best parts.

Thank you for all the leads, KnobDial. I have my work cut out for me. I thought I put a WTB in the buy/sell forum, but it is not there now. Perhaps I messed up the post. Or maybe I have angered the forums gods with my post. (: I'll figure it out.

On another topic, what is ownership of these radios like, For a radio like the one I am looking for, can I expect a lot of maintenance and repairs? Based on the radiomuseum.org link i found for this model, It has 5 tubes, if I am reading it correctly. I know tubes need to be replaced occasionally.

If you play it eight hours a day, five days a week...
you can expect to change the tubes every 20 to 30 Years...

Greg.

I was assuming this is a transistor radio. With these, you can expect to change the caps every 20 - 30 years, especially if you don't play it much.

Here's one for just under $17.00
image: https://books.google.co.uk/books/conten ... OlQ&w=1280
Five-tubes + three-transistors!

Greg.
LIFE 9 Dec 1966

Thanks! Unfortunately the 12AX7 in my time machine is blown so I won't be able to go get it!

I have a DMC-12 DeLorean for sale if you are interested.

Greg.