Going Hunting This Weekend

[19&41]

I finally found a General Electric P780 transistor radio priced reasonably and semi-sniped it. It works pretty well except for one thing... I have what I'm pretty sure is a wall wart that has failed. The house reeks of 60Hz noise. Now I'll have to disconnect each one around the house in order to track down the one(s) causing the racket, then locate replacements, probably on Ebay, as the thrift store's supplies are getting kind of sparse. The radio is in pretty nice shape, except for frayed stitches on the carry handle.

[TC Chris]

Those are really well-designed, solidly built radios. I have several. There are several letter suffixes and online sources will help identify them. I've got one in the living room for listening to WSM on winter Saturday nights. Big-radio sound in a little box, and lots of sensitivity and selectivity, even without realignment or recapping.

Here's a restoration page:
http://earmark.net/gesr/p780.htm

And another:
https://radiojayallen.com/ge-p780/

And a history of the project to design it:
https://radiojayallen.files.wordpress.c ... design.pdf

And more here:
https://radiojayallen.files.wordpress.c ... etails.pdf

These were the older relatives of the GE Superradio series that gained renown in more recent days. Sometimes, big corporations get it right.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I may have some walwarts laying around here someplace. I'll see if I can find them if you let me know which ones you need.

[19&41]

Thanks, I'll let you know what I find.

[William]

I have found GE radios to be good performers.

Bill

[electra225]

If I hadn't started collecting Magnavox, I might have considered collecting GE stuff. Like comments above, I have also found GE to be good performers, sometimes using a minimum of components, with equipment built to a price point. The little GE stereos Don gave me can be amazing performers.

[19&41]

This one was GE's first "full size" transistor radio with germanium solid state components. With the 6 D cells it runs on, it weighs a ton of bricks. The model debuted in 1958.

[TC Chris]

It's no lightweight but it will run forever on those D cells, and it will bring you pleasure as it does so.

Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

Oh, I forgot to add: one of the restoration articles observed that RF lead dress was quite important. If you're disassembling yours, take a photo so you can replicate the position of the antenna wires accurately.

Chris Campbell

[19&41]

Fortunately most of the leads on this are interconnects to the various components from it's printed circuit board. They should be easy to place and measure.

[TC Chris]

While I've got a soft spot for various low-end devices like AA5 radios, I also admire the flagship products like Zenith T-Os and this nice GE radio. That whole "let's show 'em what we can do" attitude makes the world more interesting.

Chris Campbell

[19&41]

Well, I was planning to look on Sunday, BUT I had 2 errands to run. I went to the neiborhood and cashed in a lottery ticket for $104. Then I started for the pharmacy to use the percent off and rewards points that were set to expire. 3/4 of the way there, the car started making an awful racket. when I got to the drug store, I looked for what was causing it. It was a loud knock for each wheel rotation and a scratching sound. I was going to try to go to Home Depot, but it got so bad, I pulled into a parking lot and pulled out the AAA card. The tow truck operators couldn't figure out what it was. So they brought it home. I called my great nephew, who had did the brekes the weekend before and he came over. He couldn't figure it out at first either. We jacked it up and loosened the nuts and found that the wheel wasn't seated quite right before fastening the nuts. He set that straight then he wantrd to check the other side which had a lug bolt broken off at the tire store. He checked them and he came back around with a snapped lug bolt with the nut on it. Now the car is laid up til next week when we will put a new hub and bearing assembly on it.

[William]

Talk about not having a good day. I'm sorry, Rex, for all of your car troubles. Good thoughts go your way for better days to come.

Bill

[19&41]

Thanks Bill, I can use them.