[Amc-list] Tube radio caution...

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

These days we're all pretty used to turning the switch to the ACC position and listening to the radio for a couple hours then getting right in and starting the car. Well, maybe not if you have a high dollar system with a couple amps and such, but with a stock stereo or aftermarket head unit with no (or relatively low power) external amps you can easily do that. 

Well, DO NOT do that with the tube radio!! It will drain the battery enough in an hour you might mot be able to start the car! Tubes take a lot more power than transistors, the main reason (and size) the west went that way. So Tom, if there are any drive-ins out there you want to cruise to take a battery powered radio, don't use the car radio unless you've got a jumper box (or cables) with you! 

On a side note, the Soviets (well, Eastern Europe now!) didn't adopt transistors until much later. When the US got ahold of a Foxbat interceptor in 69 or 70, one of the things some unknowing journalist ridiculed was tube technology in the electronics. They failed to note that 1) Tom will be able to listen to his radio after a nuclear blast, the rest of us may be out of luck (tubes are resistant to the electromagnetic pulse that will fry transistors, and this is a cold war interceptor!); 2) The soviets continued developing tubes when the US stopped, so they weren't the same old tubes from 40s technology that they thought they were, they were much more advanced than any tubes ever made in the US. 

---------------
Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2008 19:15:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Tom Jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>

(The two-tube, two-transistor 1962 radio is one of those
things; it has to warm up! -- not even most adults remember
tube radios! -- and reception is actually OK now that I got it
all aligned and tweaked up.)

-- 
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)

_______________________________________________
Amc-list mailing list
Amc-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://splatter.wps.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/amc-list