I’m blind myself and I wish manugacturers always involve a blind person in the design proces of any piece of equipment. Even washingmachines and radio’s are now less blindfriendly than in the 90’s. Please give us knobs

@jamesslick4790

10 ай бұрын

Even as a sighted person, I prefer knobs or other tactile controls.

@Purdey921

10 ай бұрын

My friend who is blind has such limited options because so many appliances have gone to digital readouts. I have gone shopping with her, and I remember a talking microwave that was supposed to be a big thing. The voice worked, but the appliance itself was a piece of junk: badly made, very small and underpowered. She realized that and didn't buy it.

@Capturing-Memories

10 ай бұрын

It's the government role to force manufacturers to make this happen for blind people, It's actually not that hard to implement such control on appliances for blind people, All the commands are programmed at the chip level, All what the manufacturer needs to do is make an access port or a wireless connection such as RF for an external control box with knobs to be connected to the appliance that can be purchased separately and subsidized by a federal program.

@maimetechy

10 ай бұрын

I have glasses and this would be nice to have physical controls on things. And not just TVs but things like tablet, phones or even game consoles.

@Capturing-Memories

10 ай бұрын

@@maimetechy You can add external joysticks to those already.

For those not old enough, "TV radio" was a pretty common feature on a lot of portable radios. At least for the VHF bands. The "F" on the connection stands for "feed", "feeder", or "feed line".

@pongo4966

9 ай бұрын

I remember listing to tv radio in the mid 2010's on my mom's sony walkman I remember listening to gumball since I was a big Cartoon Network fan boy they blew my mind and I was able to enjoy my favorite TV such an old device in my backyard... But at last it was mostly a novelty from you since I would just go to the living room and watch it anyways very cool memory definitely sparked my love older electronics and old media!

Interesting video! I’m completely blind myself, with no light perception. I’m only 28 years old but have always been interested in vintage electronics. I collect 70s 80s radio cassette recorders (boomboxes). Even though I’m blind I can replace belts, clean switches, remove belt goo etc.

@DerekLippold

10 ай бұрын

And you can probably do it better than I could being sighted, for sure!

@KanawhaCountyWX

10 ай бұрын

As someone with only light perception and 10 years your junior, rock on man!

@Dwall44

8 ай бұрын

That’s awesome, I’m completely blind, too. Wish I could do all that stuff. Like you, I collect cassette tapes and players, but cannot fix it to save my life.

My dad had one of these. He lost his sight in the early 70's. He used it all the time for TV plus it was the only FM radio in the house. They were quite well made and pretty thoughtful in design.

@lucasrem

10 ай бұрын

where is that guy ? where you get get receive channels on it ? Video systems he used !

An uncle of mine told that, in his college time, he had to complete the phrase in a class exercise: "It would be nice if ..." and he said "A TV for blind people exists". And there we have it!

@carltonleboss

10 ай бұрын

Was he blind, then?

@UnderEu

10 ай бұрын

@@carltonleboss No, he merely sympathized with the idea

@Cacowninja

7 ай бұрын

@@UnderEu Did he pass the assignment?

@UnderEu

7 ай бұрын

@@Cacowninja I think so

@Cacowninja

7 ай бұрын

@@UnderEu Awesome!

My brother and I used to stick a tape recorder in front of the TV while a movie played so that we’d have an audio copy of the movie we could listen to in bed. I’ve listened to Hudson Hawk and LA Story so many times!

@volvo09

10 ай бұрын

The simple way of making a mix tape too, just took time and a radio on ready to jump up and hit record 😂

@carltonleboss

10 ай бұрын

That's a cool idea.

@Mrshoujo

10 ай бұрын

I recorded many hours of audio only TV with a shoebox tape recorder (it was a hobby). Much of that stuff was eventually released on videotape and now DVD. Thankfully I scanned my tapes years ago for video game commercials which until KZread became ubiquitous, audio was all I had. Evil family member stole most of that and I no longer have it.

@Purdey921

10 ай бұрын

I learned how to "patch cord" to the speaker coil itself. Very good audio going right into the tape recorder's input.

@SkiBumMSP

10 ай бұрын

@@volvo09 Oh, how I used to spend hours sitting in front of the radio with the finger hovered over the "record" button on the tape deck, ready to record a song that I really loved. I think I still have some of those tapes.

I remember these when I was a kid in the '70s. I went to a school for the blind and Nebraska and they had a whole bunch of these. I remember them fondly. Matter of fact an old acquaintance of mine passed away about 6 years ago and him and his wife had one of these. The radio would work but you wouldn't get anything on the TV anymore.

My father was blind (nervus opticus "died" out). He had a computer, that could speak, a flatbed scanner. It ran DOS or something like that, had card in it for the "box" that was reading up what the scanner scanned. Also fun part - it was a 386 computer.. The box you could alter voice speed and pitch. Could read from a book or a newspaper, there were also something called "Daisy readers", basically a CD/DVD that could read "books" stored digitally.

@kaitlyn__L

9 ай бұрын

Reminds me of the Kurzweil Reader, except that was a standalone device. A deconstructed reader! An uncle of mine is also blind and used screen readers with DOS. Not sure if he ever had one of those scanner things though. He mostly listens to music and spoken word. (And will tear you a new one if you say you like vinyl..!)

Fran Blanche showed the green slime problem a while back, it was in one of her old guitar amps. Great video!

I've been totally blind since birth. I think it's so cool they had a TV with braille on it.

@joesshows6793

10 ай бұрын

How are you watching this?

@JessHull

10 ай бұрын

@@joesshows6793 blind people use computers and listen to youtube all the time. Also blind doesn't mean they can't see anything blindness is a spectrum.

@johndowlingjr.

10 ай бұрын

@@joesshows6793 I use my hearing. I have an iPhone and use the built-in screen reader called VoiceOver. I don't have any useable vission, but I can still follow along because of the spoken dialogue. I'm sure I'm not the only blind person subscribed to this channel.

@s8wc3

10 ай бұрын

​@@joesshows6793 Probably using a screen reader.

@Amberlynn_Reid

9 ай бұрын

Could you describe the colour purple

My friend who is totally blind, does miss the radios that had the TV band. She never bought the specific radio for the blind, but she used to listen to TV band on a radio before going to bed on a timer. I am a sighted retired teacher of people with visual impairments and I read Braille by sight, so I could see what frequencies you were tuning to better on the Braille than on the dial. On the white case above the dial and the reading area are VHF and UHF on the white plastic, too. BTW, my friend does have a TV because her children and grandchildren can see and enjoy it. When my mom lost her central vision I suggested a smaller TV for her because the pixels are smaller and closer together (improved visual resolution). She would set it on the table and sit in front of it to watch. She didn't like all the stats and crawl lines on baseball games and because they were (and still are) there, the broadcasters wouldn't describe anything. So, I suggested she turn on the radio and turn down the sound on the TV. She liked that. Except the 7 second delay! I'd heard that someone made a radio that would sync with the TV, but I don't think it went over well. Mom passed before that was an option. Hope these suggestions can help someone else. Yes, the Sportsync radio still exists! Sportsyncradio.com. There is also an app that does it? I know the radio worked (never had one though) but my search did show an app.

@robertknight4672

10 ай бұрын

I used to have a Walkman now and pick up the audio from TV stations.

There is a simpler reason for it not having a video output. A full television set has to tune to the TV channel and then demodulate (extract) the audio signal from it. But if you don't need the video signal, you can just tune to the audio subcarrier, and do away with the separation circuit. As the audio from a TV station is frequency modulation-encoded, this means that this receiver probably is little more than a AM/FM receiver with two extra tuners for the VHF and UHF bands. In fact, if designed correctly (i.e., using the same intermediate circuitry), the same FM decoder could be used to decode both FM, VHF and UHF channels. This is the most cost effective to implement this device, so I'd bet it's how it's build. It would also mean that at no point inside it there is anything remotely similar to a video signal.

@fungo6631

10 ай бұрын

Have fun with receiving two signals 21.4 MHz (2x10.7 MHz, the De facto standard FM radio IF) apart. Many cheap shortwave radios, that use the same 455 KHz IF suffer from mirror frequency problems. So many times a STANAG signal 910 KHz above has caused me issues on these radios.

@ajgelado

10 ай бұрын

@@fungo6631 As you say, this can happen in cheap radios. In a radio without SW, like this one, it can be solved easily with a high-pass filter tuned just bellow the low end of the VHF band. Also, if you only have to tune to the audio carrier, you don't need the full IF bandwidth for a TV channel, which would mean greater selectivity and less interference.

@paulstubbs7678

10 ай бұрын

There are also a few multi-band radio's out there that also have the TV bands, all on the same large centre dial.

@onyourjackjones

10 ай бұрын

It’s a cost effective route for sure, unless they already had the circuitry and parts for a TV tuner and wanted to use that. Then that would be cheaper

@eDoc2020

10 ай бұрын

@@onyourjackjones There are about five main parts to what you might call a TV tuner: the tuner proper, the video IF, video detector, the sound IF, and the sound detector. The video IF has several high frequency amplifiers and carefully tuned circuits. These IF stages are often on a main board so it's not something that would be a separate part.

i used to record Knight Rider series only audio on cassette tape, to listen to it later. The TV had an line output. We could nor effort a VCR. It was great that i even could do that, as a kid. Cassette tape was awesome. Thanks for your video.

Thank god they slapped an AM/FM in it. I need Christopher cross in my life more. As a legally blind guy I love that you cover cool stuff like this. Nobody else does and it’s neat as hell. They say you gain a sense and i definitely have an ear for radio, I’ll always thank the way my life turned out for the reasons why I love what I love. And this is just an after thought but the amount I’m learning about broadcast television also is so awesome thank you.

As a blind person , a device like this would have been perfect for me . If I was born in the 70's . Very cool Cheers from Philippines !

@planetX15

10 ай бұрын

How are you able to read or type a reply/comment on KZread if you're blind?.

@Purdey921

10 ай бұрын

Too bad digital TV killed it.

@DjAle1

10 ай бұрын

​@@planetX15 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader

That "green slime" is also apparently a problem in many 1970s UK wiring installations across the pond. John Ward has a good video on it.

@andygozzo72

10 ай бұрын

as well as reacting with copper, it also eats into some other plastics, !

@mharris5047

10 ай бұрын

My parents had an old fan where one of the prongs actually came off of the plug and was left in the outlet after unplugging the fan because of this. I have enough knowledge where I cut the power to the house at the fuse box, took a pair of pliers, removed the errant prong from the outlet, turned the power back on and took care of that part of the problem. As for the fan, the cord itself was fine so I replaced the plug on the cord with a replacement made for that purpose and my parents had their fan back in working order.

@kreuner11

10 ай бұрын

An unrelated but similar symptom happens to telephone central office switching relays. Some start leaking green goo after 50 years

@lucasrem

10 ай бұрын

HID Lady you girls did listen to the UK number stations ?

@HIDLad001

10 ай бұрын

@@lucasrem I am a man.

I'm blind so videos without vision are common for me. I never knew these existed. I always had TVs as a child and can't say I ever noticed any inconvenience in terms of their use, size or anything else when only using them to 'listen' to the TV, and had a device like this existed when I was a kid in the early 2000s I probably wouldn't have wanted one. But it's cool nonetheless, thanks for sharing.

@KanawhaCountyWX

10 ай бұрын

I'll say I think I would have enjoyed it when I was growing up, but I was happy with the CRT hand me down televisions we had.

@ashleycox432

10 ай бұрын

@@KanawhaCountyWX I started with a hand me down CRT, then got my own CRT with a built in VCR. When that broke a CRT with NICAM stereo. Around that time the UK had started switching off the analogue channels, so a digital 'freeview' box was also required. Then on to a couple of LCDs with built in digital tuners, and now none at all because streaming is more convenient.

To think the good this did back in the day. It gave a blind person not only a form of entertainment, but it gave them back some of the independence they had lost when they lost there vision, (or gave them some if they were born blind). It meant that they’d have something to talk about with other people because they heard the latest hot show, Like the Odd Couple, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, and UFO. Or listen to a baseball or basketball game. I’m sure that little box gave people their dignity back and made life a little better for them since they had been handed a bad card in the game of life.

As a kid, I would have loved something like this for a reasonable price. Today everyone falls asleep to Netflix or other streaming services, but TVs never had a way to turn off the CRT while keeping the speaker working. There were many times when I’d want to lie in bed in the dark but still listen to television (especially late night interview shows which were rarely very visual).

@gregdaweson4657

10 ай бұрын

You never covered it with black construction paper?

@seanwieland9763

10 ай бұрын

@@gregdaweson4657 ended up throwing a blanket over it which is the same idea but far less elegant than a radio that can also pick up TV stations. You’d think it’d be trivial to add TV audio carriers to a clock radio.

@qwertykeyboard5901

10 ай бұрын

It's likely due to how the horizontal drive on those old sets was also used to generate extra voltages for the tuner and such.

@qwertykeyboard5901

10 ай бұрын

​@@seanwieland9763They, actually did. quite a lot of radios had "tv sound".

@paulstubbs7678

10 ай бұрын

It's kind of worse now, there are various audio only stations available on digital TV, and modern smart TV's also do spotify etc. so the actual screen does nothing, yet there is no screen off button.

My Dad had this. He was blind. I know he enjoyed this so much. He also loved any kind of radio. Robert John Blackwell, this is for you, bud!

I really don't need one of these, and I've never heard of it before as a blind person, largely because I was born in 2004, but now I really want one. Edit: just purchased one on eBay, and it's only coming from Pennsylvania so it should be here pretty soon.

Greetings. My name is Dr. Bob. I am totally blind, and I've been listening to your great videos and content for many years now. I'm fascinated with radio and TV, and I hope to work in the business one day. Thank you for bringing me some great content about radios, cassettes, record players, and now a TV for the blind. That's pretty cool. I also like to collect CDs. Thank you for all that you do sir. Take care.

The part with "Victor Borg" is giving me flashbacks. My Grandmother had that VHS special. I watched it so many times 😊

If analog TV was still a thing, I wouldn’t mind having one of those hooked up to my stereo for those times I want to passively listen (and not watch) TV in the background. Of course everybody already does that with a TV on but not being watched, but you can’t ignore the warm and fuzzy wood grain charm that comes with using a system like this. Your proposition that the repurposing of non-indented tuning dials in this was a way to recycle them sounds like a very plausible possibility. I didn’t even know that the FCC were the ones behind the changeover back in the day. Also, I’ve seen traces of that green residue on older, usually non-polarized power cords in the past. I always incorrectly assumed it was oxidation and corrosion caused by the copper prongs. This video was filled with some excellent value-added info!

40+ years later, I still do this. Except I am no longer leaning my ghetto blaster up to the tv to record Eddie Murphy's Delirious. Which got me a 5 day detention in school for playing it at recess. But now i can just record out of the phone, tablet, or whatever into the computer and eventually have a 320k mp3 on my phone. So i now have upgraded from movies to youtube videos. That way i can pass out while having Techmoan playing all night long. Pretty sure i got over 60 of his videos on this phone now. Its that "extended stereo" one i got to watch out for. That ship that blows its horn always wakes me up.

As soon as it hit 3:27 the song hit me so hard I dropped my phone. I didnt expect to hear that over a radio in 2023😂

I found one of these about a year back as a legally blind person it was super cool to find one in the wild.

Even IF it was a (cynical) way to repurpose an old stockpile of UHF tuners, It DOES seem to be a fine radio!

something like this would be useful today so when it's late, you can go to bed, but still finish a sports game, show, or movie (audio only) without annoying flickering blue light

At 7:15 the early generation of European VCRs had the ouput RF on channels 36 and 37. The VCRs made in the late 90s, early 2000s allowed you to select the output RF between channels 21 to 69 or 470 - 858 MHz the default channel was 36 but you could select other channel. The European UHF band uses channels 21 to 69 since the beginng of television. No need for RF modulator, unless you have a DVD Player, satellite receiver or gaming console. If you have a VCR you could connect the DVD Player or satellite receiver using RCA or SCART connection, sellect the desired output RF channel on UHF band and create your own private channel. In my case I connected my PC to my VCR I used an RCA cable and for audio I used a jack 3.5 mm to RCA stereo, and the RCA to SCART adapter. Since I had cable TV channels 21 to 60 were used for analog TV so I used channel 62 to broadcast to all my 3 TVs.

@kaitlyn__L

9 ай бұрын

I believe many Americans used composite inputs on a VCR to use the VCR's own RF modulator, but of course SCART was definitely more convenient. I used to have a games console running through the pass-through SCART on a DVD player, which fed into the pass-through SCART of the VCR, and then the VCR SCART into my tiny little Philips TV. (Which was also useful for bootlegging DVDs I'd borrowed from friends...)

"Floating" UHF tuners persisted until at least 1973. Another reason why these were abandoned was to keep UHF stations that were close to one another from "bleeding" into each other's channel. A common problem with those non-stop UHF tuners.

Regarding the terminals - I've found people online saying F is for FM when referencing similar labeling on an FM radio (where A would be the AM terminal and G is ground). It seems a little out of place on a device like this, but the TV sound would still be FM. Terminals aside, that is a very good looking radio.

@HylianOverlord

10 ай бұрын

The F is for field.

Uxwbill was one of my first subscriptions when i joined KZread 14years ago. Wish he did more videos.

Also useful for those who have impairments where print is challenging. As Dyslexia, fine motor control issues, etc. Useful for those who want to listen to TV for the reasons you cite. Awesome video VWestLife. One of your best.videos ever.

I remember when I first stumbled upon an FM TV broadcast as a kid, Since I was only allowed to watch a few hours a week, it was like discovering a numbers station

Wow! That power cord upgrade was dramatic. It sounded better in every way; soundstage, bass slam, vocal clarity, and the treble seemed much more refined than before. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@volvo09

10 ай бұрын

If only he used oxygen free copper, the soundstage would have felt so much more wide.

@Apokathelosis

10 ай бұрын

@@volvo09 Also silver plated for treble extension and braided to reduce noise

as noted, until the late 1980s, no consumer tv's had composite inputs. as an early videographer, this was extremely frustrating. professional monitors cost thousands! the company videotek used to sell modified sony consumer tv's with composite inputs for a more reasonable price. they also upgraded the video circuitry and added features like underscan. i'd love to see you review one of those units.

Another possibility to why these didn't catch on is that while they might work great for a single blind person, they don't entertain their friends and family who may visit or live with them.

@CommodoreFan64

10 ай бұрын

Yep, it's easier to just have a TV even if you have low vision in case friends, and family want to watch

@Purdey921

10 ай бұрын

My blind friend always had both a radio with a TV receiver and a regular TV for her spouse (who used to sit close as he had some sight) and her children.

There was also an explosion of affordable AM/FM radios that had a TV band on them (even if it was only VHF) that were marketed throughout the 70's. Mostly by GE.

@SteveBrandon

10 ай бұрын

My CD Walkman from around 2004 has a radio that includes VHF and the weird thing is that I can still hear audio broadcasts not just on channel 6, which I know was the crossover frequency with the low end of the FM band on most radios, but also on 4 and 5.

@nostalgeek2872

9 ай бұрын

What's the interest about this device ? I don't see any.

Imagine hooking one of this up to a DTV converter box when the switch to digital happened

@Veso266

10 ай бұрын

Yea And needed to tune the converter box with a separate tv or only be stuck on one channel Because I have never seen a digital converter box that would allow channel and subchannel selection from front controls

@qwertykeyboard5901

10 ай бұрын

That would be FANTASTICALLY miserable.

@eDoc2020

10 ай бұрын

@@Veso266 Most converter boxes have channel up and down buttons on the front. Even without those it's trivial to enter channel numbers using the remote.

@Veso266

10 ай бұрын

@@eDoc2020 realy, arent the buttons on the front usualy for saved channels (at least here in Europe u always need a remote to enter manual tune menu (if u are lucky and the converter box even has one))

@eDoc2020

10 ай бұрын

@@Veso266 The ones I have seen you do a channel scan when you set up the unit (which can be done by someone else if needed) and then by default all the channels are in the up/down list. DVB might be different but ATSC uses channel remapping (for example channel 2.1 is actually transmitted on RF channel 5) so a channel scan is basically _required_ even if you always enter numbers using the remote. Once the scan is complete a totally blind person can pick up the remote and use it normally. Modern remotes tend to have a bump on the 5 key to make blind usage easier without memorizing the entire layout. Some brands (including Samsung and Toshiba) even have Braille next to the Power, Channel, and Volume buttons on their TV remotes.

Can't believe seeing an old uxwbill video made me feel nostalgic.

"F" is probably for feed, feed & ground were old radio antenna terms

@lo2740

10 ай бұрын

yes, feedline

@vwestlife

10 ай бұрын

Thanks, that sounds like the most logical explanation to me!

Fascinating device; it sounds great. My Sony radio picks up (or would if it was broadcast) VHF-divided into low and high bands-and WX, but not UHF. BTW nice multichannel test broadcast setup!

@gabotron94

10 ай бұрын

A car radio we had back in the day had a bad tuner, it wouldn't pick up one end of the FM band, but would pick up the first few VHF channels

@5cyndi

10 ай бұрын

@@gabotron94 that’s cool and makes sense given the proximity of the FM radio band to the VHF TV channel 6 (and 5 and 4…). I think my old radio as a teenager used to tune in channels 5 and 6 picked up from some poor shielding of cable TV for that same reason, if I pushed the dial tuner to its lower limits

this was a wonderful invention. I had a friend who was not blind, but he had a portable radio that would pick up the sound from radio stations. it reminded me of hearing about the old days before TV, when people would sit together in the living room and stare at the speaker, and they had to use their their minds eye, to picture what they heard. I remember when AFC first came out, sure made it easier to listen to the radio without all the fuzz of drifting radio signals. and AGC on televisions . thank you for a great video 😀

That’s cool, I remember there was an audio only TV tuner by RCA that was more like a portable radio for VHF/UHF broadcasts. I was tuning to ABC 7 or NBC 4, for game shows or Saturday morning cartoons. There was also a time when TV networks rebroadcasted on AM radio due to the same affiliates ownership.

late 70s and into the 80s there was quite a few radios that tuned TV sound, some could also receive CB and airband as well.

@MrDuncl

10 ай бұрын

There was a really common model that had a vertical tuning dial which tuned AM, CB, and about 75 to 175MHz. I could pick up both TV sound and radio Amateurs using mine, although you had to be very precise with the tuning.

I am impaired and I love this. USA is amazing.We had FM almost in 1980 and digital broascast of any kind no exist. Gracias. Patagonia Argentina

I initially thought it was a device to translate subtitles into a braille setup for people to read subtitles such as audio description notes (like when there's no speech, just people doing something, a panoramic shot of mountains, a couple getting down to business, etc.), and as for the goo, the same issue is happening with modern Lenovo (and possibly other manufacturer) laptop power cables, I've replaced several of my own PSU's cables because they stiffened up and started oozing goo out the DC plug, you'd think they'd have fixed it by now...

I remember the summer of '82. My family and I went to Maine on vacation, but we forgot to pack our portable TV. Instead, we listened to television on the radio while we played cards. You haven't lived until you heard Diff'rent Strokes and Facts of Life at the bottom of the FM dial!! Back then, some tv stations also owned sister radio stations where content could be simulcast on. Luckily for us, Portland's NBC affiliate had such a station.

analog tv is still broadcast in some parts of the us to create an additional fm radio station at 87.75mhz. in nyc, you can listen to korean programming on the audio portion as wwru fm while they broadcast silent films on the video portion on wnyz channel 6. wikipedia has a whole entry about it.

That's a device I had never seen, it's an interesting concept and execution. I always liked that style of rocker switch. They have a very satisfying action and sound. I had one as the power switch on my first new reel-to-reel deck, a Sony TC-255 in the late 1960s.

Thanks for the look back, at this audio only TV. When I was a client at the Addie McBride's Rehabilitation Center for the blind, back in the early 80s, they had one of these for the clients to listen to. Sadly, these will only work with those stations which still transmit analog, and AM/FM. :)

I do this every time with your videos! I fall asleep to your soothing voice.

Wow! An AMDEK monitor. I had one just like that to use with my Atari 1200XL computer. Memories!

That darn Slimer, getting his ectoplasm everywhere

what a beautiful object of excellent design, and wonder of features! Bravo.

Thanks for very informative review of something I have never seen before. It was fun to see that.

Alright, blind guy here. I personally don't modify my vocabulary like one comment on the video did. I watched the movie. I saw you yesterday. We have the exact same interactions, just different. It makes us look weird and brings more attention than we'd like in most cases.

0:30 now that's an unexpected bill

If only this existed when I was a child back in the 80s, I'd surely wanted one. :-) Unfortunately, here in Europe I never heard of such a device. The closest I ever got was when I could recieve one of our public tv stations on my clock radio somewhere at 102 FM (if I'm not mistaken :-) ); I used that opportunity to record some tv shows to cassette at that time (which was all I needed being blind).

@christo930

10 ай бұрын

That's strange. Because as mentioned in the video, radios that could tune in TV stations' audio were relatively common in the US, at least in the late 80s. You could buy one in most major shops that sold Walkman and other radio equipment. In the US, most FM radios could tune in the audio for Channel 6.

@plan7a

10 ай бұрын

@@christo930 They are and were not so common in Europe or outside of the US. Just saying!

@christo930

10 ай бұрын

@@plan7a "Just saying?" What? I'm sure they existed.

@plan7a

10 ай бұрын

@@christo930: They did/do but they were not as common as they were/are outside the US.

@kaitlyn__L

9 ай бұрын

@@christo930 if the local retailer didn't have it, then it basically didn't exist to an 80s child! Not to mention you'd have to know such a thing existed Somewhere to even ask if the shop had it or could order it in. A lot of the trouble in finding useful tech in the 80s and 90s was just _knowing what to look for_ in the first place!

_Translator:_ A very interesting episode. Radios fascinate me. Recently I bought a Sony ICF-P27. I like this radio very much.

I'm actually listening to this while doing mundane tasks.

Thanks for another informative post. I remember when I was young we had portable radios that also picked up telly frequencies which I thought was neat.

I still finding some radio turners with analog TV in Peru. Unfortunately, that radio turners haves the digital dialing.

@chevysparkgaming

10 ай бұрын

How did you leave a comment before the video came out

@BumboLooks

10 ай бұрын

@@chevysparkgaming KZread is very buggy...

10:03 "Channel 6 is just below the edge of the FM band" I found this out in the 90s, when I tuned all the way down to hear The Simpsons TV show starting theme song from Fox 6 Milwaukee on my CD boombox.

Nice video, Kevin, thanks!

Really cool. Thanks for the video

I got caught by the green goo a little while ago. I was clearing out some storage boxes and discovered some old shoes with crumbling rubber soles and I shoved into a box with some other stuff. After clearing them out and vacuuming up residue, wearing gloves to prevent the black rubber particles from getting on my hands, I started going to the rest of the box sans gloves, only to pick up a thing and discover there was a sticky goo underneath. Turns out the power cord from an old cable modem had started leaking the green goo, so that went in the bin and I had a lot more cleaning to do.

Thank you for covering this, VWestlife. I'm blind myself, grew up in the 90s so heard about things like this but never had one. I sometimes think about running a digibox into some speakers to achieve the same ends, but I'm all iPhone these days so get all my media through there. It's also great to see so many other blind people or friends / allies coming out in the comments to share their knowledge. Thanks.

That was really good idea. That donor power lead is a great match.

I saw a color tv at the 1964-1965 NY Worlds Fair that had a UHF continuous Tuner which I saw for the first time with a Spanish language TV station, such Channel 41 in New York City. I understood that then President JFK around 1963 did encourage the FCC to do this to boost UHF viewership. Also I had a 1976 Sony 17 inch screen Color Trinitron TV which had the TV Channel detents also for UHF channels along with VHF tuning. Around 1981, we finally replaced our 1968 Zenith Color TV console with a Panasonic Color TV with a digital remote control. I remember, especially the old Detent VHF Tuner always became wobbly from the constant channel chaging. Actually, my 1964 Zenith Black and White portable tv had a remote which changed channels using Ultrasonic signals. 😊

I’ve never seen this radio before. This was the first AM/FM radio with a built-in TV audio tuner. This was popular for those of you who don’t watched TV all day just listening to TV audio. I used to have a Sony Walkman AM/FM/TV radio where you can listen to TV stations in analog format until June 12th 2009 when the FCC pulled the plug on all analog TV stations across the country to go digital, so they allow to use an RF modulator to broadcast stations with using an Amazon Fire TV stick to stream movies and TV shows from Netflix, Disney+, Max, KZread and others where it broadcast on analog TV stations.

The mechanical detent channel knob tuners with the radio-dial style, smooth turning fine-tune dials (yes, for the VHF channels as well) stayed around on TVs until the early 80s. There were a few high-end models that came out in the late 70s, but digital, solid state, touch-screen style push button channel selectors didn't become mainstream until the 80s. Ironically, right about that same time they became obsolete because everybody then got a cable box! But it was these electronic TV tuners that also allowed TV remote controls to become standard on all TVs. Growing up in the 70s only millionaires had a TV with a remote control (or a VCR!) I do remember that in the late 70s UHF channel knobs eventually did get detents in them like the VHF ones had. UHF was never used where I lived.

@eDoc2020

10 ай бұрын

Every TV with a "channel clunker" had a smooth turning fine tuning. It's specifically the channelized UHF knobs that Kevin was talking about. As for how long they lasted, I've seen a video of a cheap TV from 1998 which still had channel clunkers.

You are a lot closer to me than I thought, I only live up in Rochester.. Cheers

I remember these when I was a kid. They're pretty neat.

Such a great idea 💡

Just relying on my memory, but it seemed like it wasn't uncommon for radios to have a VHF band.

I knew someone with this device. They were blind. I remember messing with the UHF fine tuning, I could pick up analog cellphone calls..

Very cool!

this is one of my favorite designs !

Another interesting find and video. For the the power cord replacement and a built-in restraint, check out what's known as the UL knot. There are diagrams online for how to twist the two strands to make this.

I use to have a tv band radio and I would use it to listen to the audio portion of the broadcast. That was my way of watching my favorite tv shows lol, mostly soaps back then, but still.

When I was young, before I had an old tube B&W telly in my room this guy had lent me a kitset VHF reciever, (I didn't realise it was a loan until a couple of years later he wanted it back, but that's a different story) you could listen to CB radio etc, but somehow it also managed to pick up the sound channels of the two TV channels we had in New Zealand. I spent many a night listening to programs on that. I am not really sure how it managed to pick up the sound channels as it was VHF AM receiver, and the sound channels were transmitted in FM. Only the picture was AM modulation. You could also get one of the channels on the normal FM broadcast band, but this was easier to explain. It was picking up a harmonic.

I'm sightless since birth. I've tried every gimmick, new age tech, scam, speaker, attenuator u can imagine. The best I've seen unfortunately is my braille printer as well as my braille generator. This device doesn't seem to break any boundaries. Everybody wants to rule the world....good tune....I use my camera app to aim at what i need to see and it dies a decent job saying what its looking at. Helpful with cash

Over the years, I've had several of those multi-band portable radios. But none have ever had UHF TV sound.

@josephkanowitz6875

10 ай бұрын

ב''ה, usually by the time they'd throw a UHF tuner in they'd throw in a CRT since it's basically twice as much radio components cost wise. Small clock radio or boombox TVs were around and predated the handheld TVs being Radio Shack common by a few years, probably.

I just retired as a CATV installer and service tech. I started in 1982. I have never heard of one of these or saw one in my 41 years as a tech.

Really neat device! Also, Victor Borge was awesome!

Interesting product, it’s cool to see it still in action with that VCR stack! I’m sure a small TV eventually got to the same price as this later on, but still useful as a standalone radio. Gotta keep those receivers NSYNC!

Wow amazing

I found green goo in 5m audio cable. I had to solder a new jack because old one were torn a bit. Also this radio consumes only 13W. Little less then even modern LCD tv, let alone CRT at that time. And no noise from tube.

It's a beauty!

I'm glad you addressed the green slime issue, because it's something I'd seen before but didn't know the cause of. I've got an old Westclox electric clock, with a split-flap display for the day and date, probably from the late 60s. The cord developed that issue, and eventually the clock itself began making strange clicking noises, to the point where I retired it and put it in a cabinet. So I wonder if the two are connected somehow? Also, I have that exact same Sears TV you showed at the end. I picked it up at an estate sale awhile ago for pretty cheap, and it's one of my favorite things to just mess around with, hooking up different devices and seeing how they look on it.

@VWestlife - The BBC have always demanded blind people pay a reduced rate TV license to listen to TV. That's effectively charging them an annual radio licence fee. In 2007 UHF TV frequencies were abolished in favour of digital reception. The best way to tune into free TV channels nowadays, is with a USB RTL SDR dongle (software defined receiver), that can be used on android and Windows OS, using the FREE open source SDR-Sharp tuner software. Hope this helps bring people up to date on how one can listen to most digital TV broadcasts. An appropriate antenna is crucial for a good digital reception.

Somewhere in a room at the FCC headquarters a red light is blinking on a map of New Jersey and they are zeroing in on the coordinates of your video distribution system. They come with tanks, they mean serious business. My 7-year-old neighbor accidentally got on his dad's ham radio and was saying hi to people without a license and now he's doing 50 to life at Riker's.

@Nutz0

10 ай бұрын

haha. the scary part is that riker's is just supposed to hold people awaiting trial, but some do seem to get lost there for years. your neighbor's dad should get "sent up the river" to sing sing (ossining) after conviction!

@davidg4288

10 ай бұрын

I know you're joking, but the FCC typically only bothers you if you interfere with safety services or a licensed broadcaster complains. VWestlife is well under any interference limits anyway. Your 7-year old neighbor would earn her dad an official complaint from other hams at worst.

Blind person here. No matter what the reason for this device's manufacture, it's still a cool piece of tech. In some areas, we're struggling to use normal household appliances because of modern touch screens, which means, een with the ADA being in existence, we're still discriminated against.

I now have a strange desire to visit Florence 😝

I love the tuning knob

My mother liked one particular soap opera but just couldn't sit still to watch it when there always was housework to be done. So, she would tune the TV set and turn up the volume to hear it around the house. Of course, extra power was consumed for the video circuitry and the extra hours of use shortened the time between service calls. She could have used a TV sound radio, but I don't think they were available at the time, other than the one you show here, which was probably quite expensive. Many FM radios at the time had enough frequency range to pick up the sound from TV channel 6, slightly below 88 on the FM dial. So, a typical FM radio could be used as a TV sound radio for just that channel. When digital tuning was added to FM radios, ability to tune TV channel 6 sound was usually included. This led to the "Franken" low power channel 6 analog channels that popped up across the country, really aimed at the radio market. The FCC has since forced them off the air. The FCC was well aware that the low frequency end FM stations could interfere with channel 6 reception on consumer TV technology at the time. So, the 88-92 MHz portion of the FM band was reserved for low power stations, typically non-commercial. You will find many college radio stations operating in that band. Now that the digital transition has taken place, there is pressure to increase the power limits in that band. There were TV sound radios later on, but very few of them tuned UHF. I recall a group of electronics assemblers and it was typical for them to bring in TV sound radios and listen to soap operas at work. They could have connected a UHF converter to get the sound on UHF channels.

Oh! When I was a kid, my dad had a different kind of radio that also picked up TV channels. It didn't have Braille labels, but if I'd first encountered it as an adult I'd still have figured out it was for blind TV fans. Back then, I just thought it was a fun novelty, and didn't realize the accessibility implications until just now!

Yeah sounds remarkably good!