1965 Philco tube AM clock radio, all original & working

[MrMinimusss]

are you going to make an iPhone 4S video in 2050?

[bluenazz]

Wow, very cool! I have a Philco console system from 1958 that has tuning knobs that are virtually identical to those on that radio.

[CoolDudeClem]

I'm suprised to see tubes in something from that time period, I thought everything was solid state by then.

[vwestlife]

@CoolDudeClem Probably the last mass-produced consumer item to use vacuum tubes was the GE PortaColor television, which was manufactured all the way up until 1979 or even 1980.

[MrComputerfan]

@vwestlife You should vacuum the inside of the radio. It really looks like it snowed in there.lol.

[mznxb9872]

Do you think this was pretty near some of the last tube radios made, as around that time it seemed like everyone was switching over to solid state.

[vwestlife]

@mznxb9872 At least in the USA, the last tube radios were made around 1968-1969.

[Lachlant1984]

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm printing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" What an awesome advertisement, I live it.

[6452ss]

What did you clean the inside of the radio with?

[vwestlife]

@6452ss An air duster can.

[CenTexVideo]

Mmm, nice radio. I've not seen a 3.2 ohm speaker used in a clock radio before. I've only seen them in Ford vehicles. What a strange impedance.

[EastAngliaUK]

Hopefully it will carry on working for another 50 years.

[BrianPicchi]

I can't wait till perforated paper makes a comeback.

[OldTimeForties]

Time to get out your Radio DJ am transmiter ;-)

[SAIL4323]

I bet Strong Bad from Homestar Runner would love that commercial about the dot matrix printer.

[umajunkcollector]

Back in the day, this was the kind of radidio that you'd be playing whilst out in the garage working on the jolopy.

[kissarmy110936]

hello printer lol

[gadget73]

Nice. After dark in these parts, you should be able to pull in 740 CFZM out of Toronto. Sunday night is the big band program from 7-11 pm. Friday nights they do 50s and 60s music, and saturday is just a cool mix of rock and early R&B. During the week they have old time radio i think from 10-11.

12BE6 is the oscillator/mixer. Its a pentagrid converter to be more precise, oscillator and mixer in one bottle with 5 grids.

[gurdyflowers]

Nice radio.

[rhblakeman]

Philco div of FoMoCo was the maker of a lot of the electronics in our missile systems. Philco made many of the AIM-9 Sidewinders. Our nuclear AGM-69A had a lot of Philco and Singer (Kearfott division) components.

My dad had a radio just like this rebranded with the Sears Silvertone name. Where in the world do you find an AM station playing music anymore, Most are religious or talk anymore.

[vwestlife]

@rhblakeman During the daytime I can hear at least four or five AM stations playing Oldies music, as well as two Radio Disney affiliates (NYC and Philadelphia), playing modern pop music aimed at kids and teenagers.

[rhblakeman]

@vwestlife Must be nice to still have stations in an area. Even at night it's all talk and many stations get taken over by that George Norry whacko with his ghost and alien crap. I prefer AM radio even to this day and it stinks that FM took over. We used to be able to get WLS and WCFL when they were rock stations in the 70's way down here in KY and my dad would listen to the talk and news on WBBM in Chicago (being a Chicago cop he was always listening to the happenings even away)

[CenTexVideo]

@rhblakeman Don't forget, George even has people on there who believe in dragons (whatever that means exactly, I don't know).

[bandersentv]

@vwestlife Lucky! Radio Disney is the only music I can pick up during the day. If I'm lucky, at night I can pull in oldies on 740.

[CenTexVideo]

@rhblakeman Texas has quite a few MW stations still playing music and it's good stuff, too.

[wilkes85]

Wow that's a lot of dust! If those are the original tubes, it probably has never even been opened since it came from the factory! It's cool how it still works fine with all the original components too. How is it for DX listening? Tube radios are usually very sensitive.

[vwestlife]

@wilkes85 It has excellent DXing performance, as seen in my video "DXing on the Philco tube clock radio".

[mattsprinter]

GM had 'Delco' and Ford had 'Philco'. Never heard "Chapel of Love" on a radio before; only on CD.

[uxwbill]

Nice radio. I'm glad to see that disturbing the "carpet" did not upset the magic inside. ;-)

I'm surprised to see outsourcing to Japan being done in the mid-60s. Was the radio made in Japan, or just its component parts?

[vwestlife]

@uxwbill There is no indication of where the radio itself was made, but I guess back then, "Made (or at least assembled) in USA" was assumed unless otherwise specified.

[Vinylrecordsneverdie]

Very cool radio!

[NJRoadfan]

Don't those metal can capacitors usually have paper in them?

[vwestlife]

@NJRoadfan Inside them is usually a "jelly roll" of tinfoil-coated paper and a chemical paste.

[daewooparts]

"at ford quality is job one" cool radio with "OEM" FORD PARTS! use to have a old "PHILCO" TV but it perished in a fire !

[fortyfiveplayer]

Don't leave it plugged in unless you change that maroon capacitor next to the filter- it is across the AC line and they love to short out, sometimes exploding......

[rhblakeman]

@fortyfiveplayer Yeah they blow the back panel of the radio off too.

[Hayeshacker0NE]

0:10 What an appropriate commercial. Old printer commercial, meet even older radio.

[uxwbill]

@Hayeshacker0NE Inquiring minds would *love* to know what was being advertised. Outside of a few particular applications, there isn't much that most people would still use a dot-matrix printer for...I'm guessing this is either some kind of recycling through reuse or application where such a printer would still be useful (and someone happens to think it is therefore new and exciting).

[vwestlife]

@uxwbill It was an ad for an electronics recycling program in Ontario, Canada.

[rhblakeman]

@uxwbill Dot matrix is still very much alive and still being produced. Check Okidata's site sometime. Corporate business still use a lot of impact printers. I work on them regularly.

[uxwbill]

@rhblakeman Oh yes. I believe Epson still produces a dot-matrix printer or two, as do companies like TallyGenicom. I also think Star Micronics is out there somewhere, though I'm not sure.

It just surprised me to hear a mention of them on the radio, like they were suddenly popular with everyone once again. Around here, they never died. I've got a ProPrinter XL24E connected to my LAN with an Ethernet to parallel print server.

[rhblakeman]

@uxwbill Only one I'm sure of still manufacturing new is Okidata. Havent seen new from others in some years. I think Star Micronics is only making 40 column and less POS printers now, thermal and impact. I work on so many brands of commercial ones I'm not sure who still makes impact and who doesn't. IBM 6400's look brand new but they are like 10+ yrs old and gobs of them out there with plenty of variant brands of the same carriage. Of course new ones have had to go to USB and Ethernet

[Amiduffer]

Appropriate that you would catch an ad talking about dot matrix printers.

[ataristeve]

That's a pretty neat lookin radio! The insides looked like my freezer before you cleaned it up. Too bad there's not any AM stations left around here worth waking up to.

[cmarshall1018]

Do you have any tubes for an old 1977 GE PortaColor?

[vwestlife]

@cmarshall1018 I have a few, but probably none that would be used in a TV.

[TheMattGosselin]

That first channel is from somewhere in Ontario

[vwestlife]

@TheMattGosselin That was 900 CHML from Hamilton, Ontario.

[TheMattGosselin]

@vwestlife I'm surprised Hamilton reaches as far as NJ, does it only come in on clear days or...?

[TundraWalk3r]

Wow! Quite the dust farm in there. Thats one very nice radio! Looks and sounds really good. That just goes to show the quality of these vintage pieces. That metal can electrolytic may keep working for a while yet.

[OKnight1Roger]

2nd Viewer :)

[parkerp1000]

1st comment winning. love your videos keep making them :3