[BC] The $5.00 radio

[WFIFeng at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/23/2007 1:05:38 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
amstereoexp at yahoo.com writes:

> The overall performance and sound quality significantly exceeded that of
>  Radio Shack's final AM-only "Flavoradio", especially through the built-in
>  speaker.

The "Flavoradio" is my favorite example of "cheap",  and it's also 
recognizable. I've had a few in my lifetime! ;)

When I was a teen, Radio Shack used to sell these $3.95 "Grab Box" 
packages... and I always SCARFED THEM UP! One of them contained at least 6 or 7 AM 
"flavoradio" circuit boards! Each had some minor flaw, usually just a bad solder 
joint. Just 3 mins with a soldering iron, and all was like new! All of those 
boards worked! Some of them I built-into other projects. I still have two of 
them. They are not the greatest performers, but with a decent speaker, they don't 
sound too bad when tuned to a strong signal. (They only have 1 IF stage, so 
sensitivity isn't terrific.)

Still... what did you expect for only $5 in the 70's? ;)

>  More recently, Wal-Mart was selling an FM-only radio for $1.00, but it is
>  more useful for its built-in flashlight than for its crude, awful-sounding
>  "Scan/Reset"-type "Auto-Scan" mono FM tuner, which has acceptable
>  reception but sounds like it's using AM slope-detection of the FM audio,

That's probably because it's using some very low frequency as an IF! Some of 
those el-cheapo things use IF's as low as 70 Khz... yes, kilohertz! Instead of 
LC networks or ceramic resonators, they use R/C ckts! The local oscillator is 
frequency modulated by the received audio, to narrow the deviation in the IF. 
Nasty as all getout, but it works well enough to make an audible signal!

>  and is easily overloaded by any kind of nearby VHF signal... not to
>  mention that its included earbuds, which are falsely labelled as "STEREO",
>  are out-of-phase!

Oooops! Well... what did you expect for one lousy buck? ;)

My wife came home with what is probably the same identical unit... it was a 
giveaway item at the local "Pilot Pen" tennis tournament. ;)

Willie...


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