Can you identify my radio?

[Sea Ranch]

Greetings,

Wondering if anyone can help identify the radio in my February 1970 Federal Plus 2? I don't know how old it would be and whether it's worth trying to make work.

I'm thinking that I'd be happy to remove and repair it if the vintage is correct. Otherwise, I'd look for an alternate unit.

Thoughts? It appears to have short wave band (SW?) which we don't often see in North America, but perhaps that's just a reflection of it's age . . . ? Really showing my radio ignorance here.

Thanks,

Randy

[trw99]

Phillips radios like the one fitted to your are period 1970's so if you want to retain the original look, keep that one. The Phillips Turnolock was the model most often fitted by Lotus.

As I recall, radios with shortwave, mediumwave and FM were at the more expensive end of the spectrum. In the UK longwave was more popular so I'm guessing you model Phillips was an export model.

It certainly looks right for your car.

Tim

[bob_rich]

Hi Randy

As a guess I would say it is period 4 your car. In the UK radios tended to have Long and Medium wave and FM on the more up market sets. Long wave with the BBC home service (now radio 4 --- just given my age away!!) on 198kHz was very much a UK option I suspect the upper band is medium wave covering 1500kHz down to 600KHz. The SW broadcast band around 6Mhz being a better option for export to North America. FM band generally the same in both Europe and North America.

In the UK for radio info on vintage sets I use the link I have attached--If you can get info from the back of the set data plate or WHY I am sure somebody on that forum could properly identify it 4 U. U probably have good vintage radio sites on your side of the pond as well

hope this helps best of luck

http://www.vintage-radio.net/

Bob

[Elanintheforest]

I think that may be a little earlier than the Turnolock, maybe the model it replaced...note the 'all transistor' logo....a sign of the 60s!

That was a USA version with the FM frequency going up to 108 MHz, as the UK only went to 104 ish....105 to 110 were used for emergency services.

Here's a Turnolock for comparison. It's the FM version, which is quite rare in the UK, as FM wasn't too popular until the mid 70s when it took off. I sold this recently on ebay, and it caused a bit of interest!

Mark

[Sea Ranch]

Tim, Bob and Mark . . . thanks so much for your really helpful comments.

I'm getting the feeling this radio came from the factory, their choice for a US-bound Federal car. I believe our North American-made radios had the frequencies going from smallest number to largest number, left to right (certainly that's how radio displays have been for as long as I can remember, up till the advent of digital displays).

I will check out the site, Bob. And I believe I'll have to see if I can remove the radio (perhaps the only way is to remove the dash, which would go a LONG way to explaining why the factory radio has stayed in there for 41 years!!!!). If I can, I'm sure I can fix it.

I've had to disconnect the leads to the speakers as I was picking up ignition noise on the speakers, even with the radio off.

Randy