Category: Radio

I did something you may think a bit silly the other day. I bought a radio. No, not an Internet radio, not even DAB but a good old-fashioned, sort of, portable radio.

I’ve always loved tuning into things, in the 60s looking for continental stuff and the pirates. The main bands were Medium Wave and Long Wave. FM came a bit later really. Then I got into shortwave.

LW had a few stations, including the BBC, and the sound quality was poor but the signals could be strong. MW was always packed, so much so that stations interfered with each other.

Being in London now makes finding things difficult. LW is pretty dead now that the BBC has gone. But this radio does FM (including stereo on headphones), AM, shortwave and air bands so I can sit and tune in frequencies and pretend it’s 60 years ago.

This is the radio.

While shortwave is gradually vanishing over here, it is still popular in countries like China and so it’s not surprising to see most radios built there. There are some very expensive and fancy ones available, but this is rather basic but suits my needs. It was under £50.

There are plenty of videos out there about this set and it’s versions with different names on, but what is surprising is how small it is and lightweight. It’s smaller than a large box of matches.

I was born in the 1950s, and from a very early age just loved radio. Proper radio.

I remember one set of grandparents having a big wooden cabinet radio (with turntable) that probably sounded fantastic. They loved Sing Something Simple, Semprini, Two Way Family Favourites…

The other grandparents had a tabletop machine, one with a dial with all those station names on, like Hilversum and Droitwich. I don’t remember them ever having it on.

My first radio was a Japanese red (cracked) plastic device given to me by my uncle. Medium wave only, of course. I loved that.

I bought my first ‘proper’ radio from my friend’s Dad’s shop. It was a Philips, with a leather case, long and medium wave, something like this but not red:

It had an earpiece in the base.