Techtip12

SAVVA Tip No 12

Car Radios

Over the years radio development, like all other electronic equipment, has moved in
leaps and bounds and in many cases left most us way behind.

The question is what radio do we fit into our older cars - well, the worst scenario
is to fit a modern radio with tape and cd into the dash of a lovely old 50 or 60,s car – very yuck.

What are the alternatives? There are only two we know of – one is to fit a modern radio
concealed where it cannot readily be seen – say in the glove box or way under the dash.
The other is to have a modern radio built into the back of the original one – but that’s
another story all together.

There are numerous problems with early radios - lets have a look at some of them. Firstly,
let’s look at valve radios built from the 30’s through until the late 50’s – these are
invariably repairable or rebuildable but will only give you AM reception which as you are
aware has very few stations available. Then we get to the early transistor operated radios
which were introduced onto the market at about the same time as FM reception in the early 1960’s.
These are more period looking and can be fitted but unfortunately the reception leaves a
lot to be desired.

Unlike valve radios many components in these early transistor radios have reached their “sell by date”
and are very difficult if not impossible to obtain. IC’s (integrated circuits) were also making
their presence known about this time, and lets face it, they couldn’t fix them when they were new
never mind today. In those far off days there were very few FM stations and they were well placed
away from each other so there was no overlap whereas today there are so many they are bang up against
each other. To separate them one needs a modern radio with the latest technology. Using an early
FM radio you will find you can tune onto a station like 702 go around the corner and end up listening
to a Zulu station – and no amount of tuning will ever fix it.

The easiest solution, as mentioned earlier is to fit a modern radio hidden away somewhere and
fit the old one in the dash for cosmetic purposes. The other alternative – if you are clever,
very clever, or know someone who is very clever, is to build a modern radio into the back of the
original radio.