Coronado Model 8154 Plastic Radio
This sassy red plastic radio belonged to my wife's grandmother.
My mother-in-law gave it to me one Christmas, proving that
not all those old mother-in-law stories are true.
A couple of years after I got it, I finally got around to fixing
the electronics. All of the paper and electrolytic capacitors were
replaced, as well as the 35W4 rectifier tube. Now it plays just fine.
The design of this radio reveals several cost-saving measures.
Like many small table sets, it has an AC/DC transformerless
power supply. Omitting the power transformer saves the cost of
one of a radio's most expensive components. Only
four tubes are employed instead of the usual five.
The electronics include an early type of integrated circuit, combining
several capacitors and resistors in a flat ceramic envelope (a feature
also seen in my Majestic 5LA5).
The chassis is a
single sheet of aluminum, instead of the usual box shape, and instead
of lying flat on the bottom of the cabinet, it slides sideways into
slots molded in the cabinet's inside top and bottom. The masonite
back snaps into slots in the cabinet, and the entire radio
is held in place with only a single screw, whose threaded hole is
formed by stamping thin semicircles out of a little wing on the
chassis.
This radio was a Geo Metro, in other words, not a Mercedes. Still, it's
interesting to note the clever touches that allow a manufacturer
to turn a profit on a low-priced radio.
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