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My main portable radio

You may recall that in September I started talking about my “new” radio [1] 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:
WM-F57 Front [2]
As is shown under the tape deck window, the tape deck features Dolby Noise Reduction.

This picture is of the top of the radio:
WM-F57 Top [3]
The switches at the top, from left to right are as follows:

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):
WM-F57 Back [4]
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

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#1 Comment By John B1_B5 On November 20, 2005 @ 1:04 pm

You should have put your name on it before you took the pics Samuel , lol .

#2 Comment By Samuel On November 20, 2005 @ 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 Comment By John B1_B5 On November 20, 2005 @ 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 Comment By sam_myman On November 21, 2005 @ 5:12 pm

That is a lovely radio my sam

#5 Comment By Samspam On November 21, 2005 @ 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 Comment By Samuel On November 21, 2005 @ 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 Comment By Samspam On November 21, 2005 @ 11:38 pm

I find that too. Sometimes I believe they just don’t make things like they used too.

#8 Comment By sam_myman On November 21, 2005 @ 11:38 pm

i think the older radios had much better economical performane than todays

#9 Comment By Token Blackman On November 24, 2005 @ 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.