Taiyo 669

[Radio Scotland]

Picked this up on ebay for £6, Haven't received it yet, Look's like a typical hong kong made set. According to RadioMuseum it's from 1965, I wouldn't date it that early, Anybody know anything else about it ?

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/unknown_taiyo_669.html

[paulsherwin]

As you say, a typical late 60s Hong Kong mains/battery cheapie. Sooner or later, somebody is going to start a specialist collection of these.

They were often sold through newspaper ads, and were popular with older customers.

[Radio Scotland]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

As you say, a typical late 60s Hong Kong mains/battery cheapie. Sooner or later, somebody is going to start a specialist collection of these.

They were often sold through newspaper ads, and were popular with older customers.

Thanks for the info paul.

Yea i expect it will be a ubiquitous PCB with no screen printing and swept off the factory floor components, Worth what i paid just for the power supply presuming it works



Jay

[paulsherwin]

They actually work well enough. You're likely to find a pretty standard 6 transistor design using silicon transistors and transformers. The main drawback with them is they usually have rather tinny speakers.

[Radio Scotland]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

. The main drawback with them is they usually have rather tinny speakers.

It'll probably never be used paul so sound quality isn't a big issue, I only buy them to repair, Infact i'm the only person who buys radios hoping they don't work Problem is after being repaired they join the ever growing pile in my cupboard lol

[TonyDuell]

Originally Posted by Radio Scotland

Infact i'm the only person who buys radios hoping they don't work Problem is after being repaired they join the ever growing pile in my cupboard lol

No you're not! I've actually not bought a radio because it was working. What's the fun in that?

And like you, once I've repaired a radio, computer, or whatever, I tend to lose interest in it. The fun for me is to track down the fault logically and put it right.

[Sideband]

I think I've seen these with the Binatone brand. Pretty basic but work well enough.

[paulsherwin]

The cases on all these sets are very distinctive - they're made of a sort of heavy duty cardboard covered in thin vinyl with stitching. The fronts feature lots of chromed plastic. A bit later on, the same manufacturers started making multiband AM/FM sets which actually performed quite well, though nowhere near as well as the German and Japanese models they were copying.

The basic MW/LW models were popular with hard up pensioners, because they were the cheapest sets available that could be run from the mains.

[Radio Scotland]

In other words the cheapest of the cheap and it looks it, I'll post a few pics of the innards so we can all marvel at the superior engineering

Think i might have seen the binatone version, Another top quality brand, The clue is in the name BINatone

[paulsherwin]

As I suggested earlier, the electronics are generally fine, though conservatively designed.

[Radio Scotland]

I Wouldn't be surprised if the detector was a transistor and another one in the power supply as a regulator and a few in the pre-amp configured as a darlington pair to get the transistor count up as was done back in the day

[Radio Scotland]

Well shes arrived and it ain't a pretty sight Back flap has snapped off and was held in place with a shoe lace, Power transformer broke off its mounts and rattling about as well as the AC/DC Switch, Infact the only thing still connected is the battery connector.

Also looks like the inductors have seen a bit of screwdriver action, This is gonna be a resurrection, Like one of those radios shango finds out in the desert

Oh and it came with a free gift inside, What looks like a NOS PCL82 Output valve

[paulsherwin]

It's a bit of a wreck, but the electronics seem to be very much what I expected. It's a very conventional superhet design which should be fixable without service data.

The PCL82 is probably worth more than the radio

It's certainly been got at though - these things usually used C or D cells in a holder, not a PP3.

[Radio Scotland]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

The PCL82 is probably worth more than the radio

.

And your not kidding, When i have time i'll try and resurrect it, If that turns out not to be worth the bother i might stick the innards of an AM kit radio in the case

[Radio Scotland]

This thing is gonna be fun to bring back from the dead, Few aerial wires snapped off and chewed up because they were wrapped round one of the mounting screws, Few crackles from the speaker, Pretty sure the audio section is ok, It's fixable if i can figure out where the aerial wires connect too

Its been got at big time