Mum and Dad won a Sobell portable transistor in a dress-dance in Dundalk circa. 1964, which was cutting-edge cool at the time. It replaced Dad’s old 1940s Pye wireless (except it didn’t really, he still used both). It was called “The Luxembourg” because there was an extra-wide band for Radio Luxembourg, which was marked on the dial.
Still have it, it’s a bit knackered now and crackly but workable, with those big batteries you have to plug 2 leads into at the top.
Haha! Yeah, That’d be good. Thanks. Sent from my iPod
Metassus
19 May 2012
My gawd! The Luxembourg! I spent my entire first decade with that radio, bakelite handle and all. Never even registered the “Sobell” name with it until now, but I do recall the GE logo somewhere. That radio was wonderful — used to help me sleep each and every night, listening to Emperor Rosko and Stuart Henry on 208. It lasted until the day around 1981 when I thought one of the screws that held the back on (openable with a 2p coin) would fit nicely into the hole at the tuning plates. It did, and then the radio stopped playing Dave Fanning. Gawd be with the days of the PP9 batteries … I miss that radio so much! Three glorious knobs … and what the hell was “Band Spread” anyway?
jaykay
16 Jun 2017
Ok, only 5 years later, here’s a picture from adverts.ie – not of the one I still have at home, but it’s the identical model, even down to the colour.
Being well before the big BBC changes in 1967 it still has “Third”, as in “Third Programme” for what became Radio 3, at about 470MW, and “Light”, as in “Light Programme”, for what became Radio 2 at 1500 LW. “R.Eir” is of course RTE, at about 525 MW.
Metassus, as far as I remember, in those days when radio-tuning was a bit of an art, “band spread” was a way of fine-tuning to get the station right. It didn’t really work, as far as I remember. We used to try to use it for Beeb radio 1 but it was pretty hit and miss, even with the Beeb relay station outside Belfast ( and we were in Dundalk!). A lot depended on atmospherics, with Radio Moscow (USSR version) sometimes taking over the whole bandwith, or so it seemed. After midnight, Beeb World Service was really strong. “Radio Newsreel” and all that. Memories.
jaykay
16 Mar 2012Mum and Dad won a Sobell portable transistor in a dress-dance in Dundalk circa. 1964, which was cutting-edge cool at the time. It replaced Dad’s old 1940s Pye wireless (except it didn’t really, he still used both). It was called “The Luxembourg” because there was an extra-wide band for Radio Luxembourg, which was marked on the dial.
Still have it, it’s a bit knackered now and crackly but workable, with those big batteries you have to plug 2 leads into at the top.
dubdoug
16 Mar 2012Amazed at how much first hand knowledge you have of these products, Jay Kay. Fascinating! Thanks, Doug.
jaykay
16 Mar 2012Let me take a pic of it and send to you! It still looks ok actually, 48 years later. Which I cant really pay about myself.
dubdoug
16 Mar 2012Haha! Yeah, That’d be good. Thanks. Sent from my iPod
Metassus
19 May 2012My gawd! The Luxembourg! I spent my entire first decade with that radio, bakelite handle and all. Never even registered the “Sobell” name with it until now, but I do recall the GE logo somewhere. That radio was wonderful — used to help me sleep each and every night, listening to Emperor Rosko and Stuart Henry on 208. It lasted until the day around 1981 when I thought one of the screws that held the back on (openable with a 2p coin) would fit nicely into the hole at the tuning plates. It did, and then the radio stopped playing Dave Fanning. Gawd be with the days of the PP9 batteries … I miss that radio so much! Three glorious knobs … and what the hell was “Band Spread” anyway?
jaykay
16 Jun 2017Ok, only 5 years later, here’s a picture from adverts.ie – not of the one I still have at home, but it’s the identical model, even down to the colour.
Being well before the big BBC changes in 1967 it still has “Third”, as in “Third Programme” for what became Radio 3, at about 470MW, and “Light”, as in “Light Programme”, for what became Radio 2 at 1500 LW. “R.Eir” is of course RTE, at about 525 MW.
http://www.adverts.ie/home-audio/vintage-sobell-luxembourg-transistor-radio-mid-1960s/11415613
Sorry for the delay :)_
jaykay
16 Jun 2017Metassus, as far as I remember, in those days when radio-tuning was a bit of an art, “band spread” was a way of fine-tuning to get the station right. It didn’t really work, as far as I remember. We used to try to use it for Beeb radio 1 but it was pretty hit and miss, even with the Beeb relay station outside Belfast ( and we were in Dundalk!). A lot depended on atmospherics, with Radio Moscow (USSR version) sometimes taking over the whole bandwith, or so it seemed. After midnight, Beeb World Service was really strong. “Radio Newsreel” and all that. Memories.