Tripping the Grundig Majestic

I have a blindspot. I see things and for one reason or another, I have to have it and I don’t know why. Over time, I’m seeing a pattern, in that it’s nifty things, or old things, or well preserved things, or things you don’t see anymore, or something that adds a capability to my toolbelt. (Everybody needs rouge to polish aluminum, don’t they?)

This is one of those things.

I was tagging along with my wife in an antique co-op like place (folks rent out a slot, show the stuff they’re selling, and the company handles all the financial details). Anyway, I’m bored. Lots of things that aren’t old enough to grab me, and lots of things that are either crap or nothing special. I’m 50 minutes into the slog, no end in sight, and in a far corner, top shelf, with it’s back to me was this radio.

And I had to have it.

It’s an itch I get where I look at something, especially if it has a sticker that says
“No serviceable parts inside.”

It makes me think ‘hey, I might be able to fix that.’ And with a trip to a music store for some rosin, and a stickpin, I did. The details are unimportant, but the rosin gives traction to the tuning string (twine? Cord?), and the stickpin holds it all together.

Repaired tuning rope

Near as I can tell, it’ a late 1950′s radio, and with the exception of the FM band, it works and works well. At one point I researched which tube needed replacing to get FM working, but I never got around to getting it, I was just so damn happy I didn’t electrocute myself (the voltages involved are significant), and I could get the Number Stations (you really want to click that link, it’s Damn Interesting!) from the comfort of my home.

But BOY does it play AM radio. This big fabric speaker cone, the tube (and valves and chokes and other old skool analog circuitry terms) make this thing play AM better than anything else I have in the house. And it’ll pick up Kansas when the weather is right.

I mean look at how it tells you you’ve tuned the radio station:

Not Tuned

Tuned

The cool thing about it is how laid bare the internals are. Electrical concepts like a crossover:

Look a lot like they do in real life:

It’s so frikken analog I can’t stand it. And considering how close we are to the digital transition, it’s kinda worth documenting.

And this is what it sounds like: amradio

(Wouldn’t you know it, I JUST missed recording a Grand Slam homerun.)