While I never used a VW radio in this way, long long ago I did use a couple of American car radios. I had one from a '53 Ford, and later one, with speaker attached, from some mid-50's Pontiac.
Those old tube radios used a vibrator to produce the AC current required to provide for the high voltage transformers and the IF transformers. What this meant, in short, was that such radios could be powered on AC. A simple 6 volt AC filament transformer or (at one point) an electric train transformer, could run this. Those old AM car radios were very powerful receivers, and you could tune the antenna input to match whatever you were using.
Back in the 60's as a teenager in Connecticut I could easily, in the evening, get a nice crisp signal from KDKA in Pittsburgh, or one of my favorite shows, "the Harley Show," from WBAL, which played vintage jazz, sponsored by Harley's own hamburger chain. Alas, I never got to taste a Harleyburger, but I did get to listen to a lot of very good old jazz.
While I never used a VW radio in this way, long long ago I did use a couple of American car radios. I had one from a '53 Ford, and later one, with speaker attached, from some mid-50's Pontiac.
ReplyDeleteThose old tube radios used a vibrator to produce the AC current required to provide for the high voltage transformers and the IF transformers. What this meant, in short, was that such radios could be powered on AC. A simple 6 volt AC filament transformer or (at one point) an electric train transformer, could run this. Those old AM car radios were very powerful receivers, and you could tune the antenna input to match whatever you were using.
Back in the 60's as a teenager in Connecticut I could easily, in the evening, get a nice crisp signal from KDKA in Pittsburgh, or one of my favorite shows, "the Harley Show," from WBAL, which played vintage jazz, sponsored by Harley's own hamburger chain. Alas, I never got to taste a Harleyburger, but I did get to listen to a lot of very good old jazz.