My main portable radio
November 19th, 2005 at 09:23pm
You may recall that in September I started talking about my “new” radio which is actually older than myself. In this I said that I would take a photo of my radio, which I finally remembered to do today. The radio is a Sony Walkman WM-F57, built in 1986, a year before I was born. The radio features an inbuilt multidirectional auto-reverse cassette deck and a speaker, with the use of the speaker on/off switch it is possible to have headphones and the speaker in use at the same time, but this would probably drain the batteries quicker. The radio runs on two AA size batteries.
Here is the front:
As is shown under the tape deck window, the tape deck features Dolby Noise Reduction.
This picture is of the top of the radio:
The switches at the top, from left to right are as follows:
- Input: Tape, Radio
- Tape Select: Normal, CrO2 (Metal)
- Battery Condition Indicator Light (not a switch)
- Dolby/FM Mode: Off/Mono, On/Stereo
- Speaker: On, Off
The headphone socket can be seen on the next row, to the right of that is the tape direction mode switch, which changes the auto reverse mode from “A->B->Stop” to “A->B->Restart”, to the right of that is the direction change button, followed by the fast forward button, the rewind button, the play button and the stop button.
The next row contains a socket for a 3V DC external power source.
The back of the radio (slightly out of focus):
At top right you can see the volume control dial, which works on a scale of 0-10. The visible label provides some information such as model number (WM-F57), frequency range (AM: 530-1605 kHz and FM: 87.6-108MHz), the number and type of batteries it uses and in small print a series of numbers which appear to be a serial number (3-335-824-01). The unreadable label in the photo is a notice about Dolby trademarks, and the section labeled “Open” with an arrow is the battery compartment.
On the opposite side to the volume control is a switch for band selection (AM and FM) and a tuning dial.
In the entire time I have had this radio the dial has ventured off 2CC (1206 AM) a couple times to briefly check other stations, and has only ventured off the AM band once to see what stations I could recieve (I seem to recall stopping on News Radio for about 30 seconds).
On some of Nattie’s longer walks, the radio has accompanied us, this morning would be a good example as we enjoyed David Young’s Garden on our 40 minute walk.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Blog News,Samuel News,TV/Radio/Media
9 Comments
1. John B1_B5 | November 20th, 2005 at 1:04 pm
You should have put your name on it before you took the pics Samuel , lol .
2. Samuel | November 20th, 2005 at 3:09 pm
I suppose I could watermark the photos, but I’m not all that concerned about it.
I was looking through one of your sites last night and noticed you’ve written “John B1_B5” on your shed.
3. John B1_B5 | November 20th, 2005 at 5:48 pm
Oh you saw that one did you ? Ha,ha ……. a bit of ‘overkill’ there , but the original reason for painting that on the shed was to let the people on the “Oz Mazda Club” site know that I had a shed-full of 1979 Mazda 626 spares . ( I actually posted it in my album on their site, but everybody’s photos were deleted by the co-ordinator, and I didn’t bother uploading it again ).
4. sam_myman | November 21st, 2005 at 5:12 pm
That is a lovely radio my sam
5. Samspam | November 21st, 2005 at 11:18 pm
I have been collecting radio’s nearly all my life. Not to brag but I am an proud owner of 5 radio’s just like that one.
I will send pic’s when I get my camera phone fixed.
Take care!!!!!
6. Samuel | November 21st, 2005 at 11:29 pm
Yes it is a good radio. Oddly enough the batteries seem to last longer in it then they do in my 2001 walkman.
7. Samspam | November 21st, 2005 at 11:38 pm
I find that too. Sometimes I believe they just don’t make things like they used too.
8. sam_myman | November 21st, 2005 at 11:38 pm
i think the older radios had much better economical performane than todays
9. Token Blackman | November 24th, 2005 at 12:35 am
I have that exact model of radio, it is the best, been going strong for the last 18 years. Mine is in mint condition, and Im sure it will fetch a high price on teh ebay.