A VALENTINE'S SONY BOOMBOX

Valentine's Day has come and gone, as it is February 15th as I start to write this.

Unfortunately Valentine's Day gets a bad rap if one isn't going out to dinner or on a date on that evening... I don't share that attitude about the holiday. To me it's become one of the first holidays of Spring. You get Valentine's and St. Patrick's and Easter in a row -- and then nothing 'til the Fourth of July.

A couple years ago a house in another nearby neighborhood had Valentine's lights out. That was cool.

Anymore I see Valentine's Day as a harbinger of Spring. And this year Valentine's Day was a grand Spring day! It was 61 degrees F outside. They would call it "T-skjortvaer" (T-shirt weather) in the Nordic countries, where 16C is sometimes typical summer weather. Here, we don't have such a moniker for surprisingly warm days -- but we enjoy them just the same.

A VISIT TO THE THRIFT STORE, AND THE BOOMBOX WAS STILL THERE

As noted in this blog earlier, I made a visit to the local Goodwill thrift store the Saturday before Valentine's, and it was a lively place. That's when I first spotted a bright yellow Sony boombox up on one of the shelves in the electronic section. Because I wasn't there to shop around for electronics stuff, I just glanced at it and then went to get what I needed.

Early during Valentine's Day I needed to get a couple more things from the local Goodwill store.

The sun had already come out, and it was a bright day. When I drove to the store and went inside, I checked the electronics section. The Sony boombox was still there. Now, I probably need another radio like I need an extra hole in my head, but when I looked over the Sony boombox closely I was impressed. It was a bright, fire engine yellow, and definitely a 'Sports' model. It was in terrific condition.

Instantly, I wanted to buy it -- if it worked.

A LITTLE ABOUT SONY

For those who were born later than 1985 or so, Sony was an electronics company that made a lot more than the Playstations they are known for now. Back then, they made all sorts of excellent audio equipment, boomboxes, TV's, video players, tape players, LP turntables, Minidisc players and radios, including the Walkman. Later on they diversified and got into the camera and video camera business.

During the 80's especially, Sony was the big deal. Sort of like Apple today. You could say Sony was the Apple of the 1980's and 1990's. Everyone had a Walkman or a similar AM-FM cassette player, the same way everyone has a smart phone today.

I say this because I just realised, while looking over the boombox, just how ancient technology boomboxes and Walkmen must be to anyone who wasn't alive during the 80's or 90's. I'm certain there are probably many who -- in this age of IPhones and Androids -- have no idea what a Sony is, except for the name of a gamebox.

You look in any old online catalog or enter "Sony boombox" into a search engine, you'll see all sorts of cool looking Sony (and other) boomboxes. I recently did so and was surprised at all the cool types of boomboxes and Walkmen Sony produced, especially in the 1980's, which was the decade of the Walkman and boombox. Sony was THE brand to have, although there were other good brands, including those by Japanese makers Sanyo and Panasonic.

Sony, of course, made other radios, too. The Sony 2001 model was the first mass-produced, consumer grade digitally tuned SW radio. Its successor, the Sony 2010 model, was a long running digital SW portable which is so collectible it is almost as expensive now (if not more expensive) as it was in the 1990's when it was the most popular. The Sony EX5MK2 MW-FM radio is probably one of the best MW radios still available, with synchronous detection and excellent performance.

Sadly, though, Sony is no longer the top brand in electronics -- everything -- including cameras, one of the more recent Sony mainstays -- has been replaced by the smart phone.

SONY SPORTS BOOMBOX

This particular Sony boombox that caught my eye, a bright yellow Sports model (Sony "Sports" Walkmen and boomboxes were bright yellow and water and rain resistent) looked like it probably sold for over $120-$150 when new. I have no idea what year it was made, but I think it was in the late 1980's some time. There was an old sticker on it that showed it had sold for $99 somewhere a few years ago.

The batteries inside it looked like they had been stored in the radio for a long time, and a couple of them were corroded. But the battery compartment itself was very clean. It needed batteries or a 9V adapter for me to see if it would work.

I found a 9.5 volt wall wart adapter in the electronic accessories box next to the appliance section at Goodwill, and the adapter had a negative tip (used by Sonys, Panasonics, and many Sangean radios until recently). I found a wall outlet and plugged the adapter into the wall and the radio fired up. Both AM and FM worked perfectly. The dial had a little backlash near the top end but still tuned well.

So I bought the boombox, along with the adapter. Even though the adapter was half a volt high, it isn't that much of an issue -- many adapters are off by a volt or more from nominal, anyway.

I took the box home and plugged it in out on the front porch, and switched the FM to 98.9 Mhz, "Rock 98.9 KVRQ" (I've blogged about 98.9 in an earlier post here).

Soon I was out in my driveway in just my T-shirt, cleaning and sanitizing a wheelchair and walker and listening to my new 1980's era Sony Boombox, in my T-shirt and jeans. It was so warm out that I was very comfortable. Even though it was February, it felt almost like Summer out. The air was fresh and exhilarating. I took a ride around the area on my bike, relishing the fresh Spring air and warmth. It was invigorating.

That night I switched the radio to the AM side and found it DXes the AM band reasonably well -- about as good as most boomboxes. It's a little less sensitive and selective on the AM band as my Sanyo or Goldstar 1990 boombox, but still hears distant stations with readable signals. During the day it hears most stations that my Superadios will pick up. The most noticeable difference is the wider bandwidth and the looser AGC. It has a very natural sound on the AM band -- but sometimes I miss the tighter AGC that DX radios usually have.

The first night I had it, I heard KNZR from Bakersfield, California on 1560 loud and clear, and also heard XERF 1570 coming from across the border in Mexico. XERF was readable on fade ups, and when I placed the boombox next to my GE Superadio there was an obvious difference in reception, but there weren't any times when the GE had a signal and the Sony had nothing. The Sony just faded more and was less clear when the signal dropped.

I took the Sony with me when I needed to drive in the rush hour traffic and it sounded great in the car, tuned to 98.9. The FM section seems to have good sensitivity, as I was able to hear a Spanish station on 99,3 (El Gran D, a fringe FM station with the transmitter about 100 miles / 120 km away) with the whip antenna down -- and this was while driving around in my car. When I got back home I looked up the info on the radio -- there isn't much out there, but it appears to be a late 1980's model.

Traffic on 167, going about 15 mph.

I'm very impressed with Sonys -- I can't think of a Sony I've had which was a dud. Some of their clock radios need an external loop to DX with, but most people don't buy clock radios to DX with. But their Walkmen are DXable (with a loop, and sometimes without -- all of my Sony Walkmen will bring in regional AM stations with readable signals, and I can DX with them using a loop) and some of their other radios are quite capable. And this boombox was no different.

During the day the Sony boombox brings in CBU 690, the CBC station just 200 km north of us. It usually comes in weak on most of my radios, but readable. As I type this, I'm listening to the CBC and it's coming in at S3 and very clear. There is a bit of splash from KIRO 710, a 50 KW local station. So this Sony boombox has fairly wide selectivity. Good for AM listening, a bit dicey when DXing near local 50KW stations.... but if you null a local station, nearby channels are still audible.

The Sony doesn't have a ton of output through the headphone jack when DXing the AM band, but it's adequate. With a loop I can DX with it fairly easily. I haven't taken the back off the radio, but I've seen a pic of the boombox online with the back off, and the loopstick is about 60mm. During the late 1980's, boombox manufacturers began putting smaller loopsticks in the radios. They figured the high sensitivity IF chips would make up for the smaller loopsticks. With this Sony, the chip isn't as high output as with other similar radios I have. But it's still adequate.

Like nearly every boombox I've had or listened to, this Sony would be a good emergency preparedness radio, as it will pick up regional AM stations with readable signals at night. It seems to be decent on the D cells, also. I put in a used set of D cells (which I swapped out of my GE Superadio 3) and have run the boombox maybe 8 hours or so and the power indicator is just starting to dim, but it still puts out a decent volume with no distortion.

So it would be decent for emergencies, but if you find one of these Sony gems and want to DX with it, a loop is definitely advisable.

If you have a thrift store in your area, they're pretty good places for finding radios if you're a DXer or transistor radio and boombox collector. I don't always see radios there that I want, but every now and then you find a gem.