Old transistor radio for parts? 📻

[LukeFRC]

Years back I was at art school and one of my sculptures was a radio mast - made of 2x2 about 5m high with branches tied on it to disguise it as a tree… at the bottom was a 1950s Sony transistor radio on a platform, and a vintage bike wheel with rope around it and a handle - if you spun the handle the slightly detuned AM radio cackled into life (bike dynamo on the rope and my first bit of soldering to convert it to something the radio could deal with…

Anyway beautiful Japanese thing, back lost somewhere bit lots of old transistors -
2t201
2t76 x2
2t65 x2
2t315 x2

Worth recycling some of the parts into pedals you think? Kinda sad to break up but it’s sat in a box for almost 20 years now

 

[LukeFRC]

Sony TR710

 

[Erik S]

Does it work?

 

[LukeFRC]

Yep

 

[LukeFRC]

Well till they stop using mw and sw

 

[Erik S]

I tore down a broken one and pulled some transistors a while back. Still haven’t found a use for any of em. I’d probably hang on to it if it works.

 

[KreoPensas]

Those transformers might be fun

 

[Feral Feline]

I'd keep it as is, but it's yours so do what you want with it.


It makes me sad when stuff gets stripped instead of restored. Cars, Radios, Amps...
... and yet I'm all for hotrodding stuff — but I'm not going to tear apart a running driving minty stock Model T to make a hotrod
( $%^& Bouyd Coddingtung did just that ).

There are a lot of old organs that could've been restored, but haven't because there's a guy out there ripping the guts out of them to make guitar amps. However... Better that than the organ going to the dump along with its guts.

I've got some vintage radios (furniture-cabinet kind) that are quite beat, left outside in the rain. I'll be doing my best to quell my urge to restore them (they're really far gone) and instead will repurpose them in the form of guitar-amp combos.

 

[gonzo]

I have a radio about that old with the socket transistors. Still works. Actually for boat captains as an emergency navigation device. You find the null of the signal to find the way to shore if all other devices are out. Check out the short wave channels at night or different times of days. I get weird Korean propaganda most nights on mine. Could run into one of those creepy espionage number stations that just read codes to spies. Weird stuff still going on in the world.

 

[KreoPensas]

My father-in-law has a model T, in a stock configuration. Incomprehensible machine. I sat and tested a box of ignition capacitors for him one day. Quite a few were still good.

A modern car driver will do little but embarrass themselves trying to drive a stock T.

 

[JohnnyCreepy]

My father-in-law has a model T, in a stock configuration. Incomprehensible machine. I sat and tested a box of ignition capacitors for him one day. Quite a few were still good.

A modern car driver will do little but embarrass themselves trying to drive a stock T.

Messed me up when you mentioned ignition caps and realized you were talking about Ford instead Sunn…

 

[HamishR]

I've been thinking about what you could use these transistors for. Maybe you could make a transistor radio?