Early VHF/FM Car Radios

[Panrock]

I'm posting here since this isn't about domestic radios. Needless to say, mods kindly move as necessary.

I consider myself a fairly early exponent of VHF/FM car radio in the car. In the early '70s, (I think I'm right in saying) such radios were only beginning to become widely available. I believe before this time only luxury sets such as the Blaupunkt were available. Almost all other car radios were MW/LW only.

In about 1971 I fitted a Sanyo VHF/MW/LW set to my Rover P4. In those days the transmissions were just horizontally polarised. I attempted omni-directional reception by installing two quarter-wave whips (standard roof mounting car aerials about 75cm long) at right angles to each other just above the centre of the windscreen. In other words, instead of the traditional centre mounted P4 car aerial pointing backwards, you now saw a 'vee'. I also replaced the aerial downlead with 75-ohm feeder.

The main problem with the reception was interference. I used to commute from Tonbridge in Kent to Television Centre in Shepherd's Bush. At one end, in Tonbridge, Wrotham was only 7 miles away and reception was fantastic. However, once I entered the suburbs of London, things rapidly got worse and there was a problem with interference. I guess the set's limiting action lessened as the signal got weaker and it in effect became an AM as well a FM receiver.

These were the days before Interference Absorption Circuits or the fast-acting agc's, high sensitivity and effective limiting of today. The only remedy open to me seemed to be to improve interference suppression.

I tried braiding bonding bonnet to car body, special screened plug caps, VHF chokes in the dynamo lead, you name it - all with little effect!

Anybody else here have VHF/FM in their cars in the early '70s or before? What was your experience? When were the first VHF/FM car radios put on the market and were they 'any good'?

Steve

[G6Tanuki]

My late uncle had stereo VHF/FM *and* 49-metre-band shortwave in his Rover P5B when he got it new in 1969 (old "H" registration). I don't remember the make of the radio but it worked just fine around the Kidderminster/Coventry/Birmingham area.

In my student days I fitted various cheap AM/FM radios (Audioline and Harry Moss were popular brands then...) to 1970s-era cars and the only one I remember having interference issues with was a Fiat 128. Being only a few miles from Blaenplwyf though meant we had a rollicking-good VHF signal!

[KeithsTV]

I had a VHF/FM radio in my Mini in 1975 and from memory reception wasn't too bad but I did fit screened spark plug connectors. Another "feature" of the Mini was the whole wiper rack was electrically isolated from the chassis causing interference when ever the wipers were on. Grounding the wiper motor and rack cured that.

I've got a Lucas catalogue from that era with the spark plug covers. If I can find it I'll post the relevant page.

Keith

[dazzlevision]

Pye made AM/FM car radios in the late 60s/early 70s: models 2630 and 2644

They also made a model 2649 short wave converter in the same period.

[Jonster]

The earliest car sets with FM I saw were Blaupunkt ones, 4 band with SW as well. They were fitted to the BMW 2500 and other 'continental' cars in the early 70's. By the late 70's Sharp made a series of popular aftermarket models with cassette built in which were quite sensitive, in those days the FM band was not very crowded and you could pick up Capital radio on 95.8 a long way down the M4, far further than today.

The Philips 'Turnolock' range included FM and was fitted to the series 2 Jaguar XJ6 and other upmarket vehicles from the mid 70's onwards. Some Japanese manufacturers also fitted mono radios which included FM to vehicles from about the mid 70's, I had one from an old Toyota fitted in my series Land Rover with a huge 3 way speaker in the back which worked really well.

[JoshWard]

I have a Pye Highway (2645) in one of my Marinas and it is an excellent performer. If I remember rightly it says on the case somewhere it was made in Japan for Pye.

[Panrock]

So was nothing available before around 1970? What about in the US?

Steve

[crusher19860138]

I bought a car radio with FM in 1985,and was quickly disillusioned with the service as reception was awful even in urban areas,local radio was on low power,and Radio 1 was MW only then,so it was quickly returned to Halfords for a refund!

[Mike. Watterson]

I'm sure I fitted Sanyo LW/MW/VHF stereo cassettes in about 1972-1973, can't remember exactly. Perhaps one in an old Ford Anglia for my mum.
I fitted one in a box with PSU and external speakers.

There was little point to VHF before Local and independent radio started in UK (and much later in Ireland) in mid 1970s unlike 1950s Germany.

BBC Radio Ulster was founded in January 1975, not sure if only on MW then and VHF later.

DTR or simply Downtown, began broadcasting on 16 March 1976 - the same day as Prime Minister Harold Wilson resigned. The station had a mini-coup, breaking the news over an hour before BBC Radio Ulster.

We had an Murphy A272 and shortly later Decca(?) RG100 about 1965 to about 1969, but at sea level so only BBC on VHF. Mostly I listened to Luxemburg, later Caroline on Radiogram.

Manx Radio began broadcasting on 29 June 1964, almost ten years before commercial radio was licensed in the UK. About 1970 we moved to higher ground in Co. Antrim, so I could get also Manx Radio on a home made loft aerial and Grundig (German market) valve radio. Maybe that was about 1972. Didn't receive it on anything else. I could also get maybe Kirk O Shots VHF on that aerial?

So what was the point of VHF in UK 1955 to 1975 approx, apart from HiFi setups at home, particularly for Third Program (later R3)? Only a duplication of Home, Light and Third. Nothing else. A HUGE opportunity suppressed to launch Local Radio in 1955 along with ITV on TV.

The original roll out was for horizontal roof top aerials, not suited for whips or mobile and wasn't complete till 1980s!

I don't know about USA car Radios, but unlike Germany there was only one "novelty" portable tube model of VHF as VHF was seen as the preserve of expensive Console models from 1945. I doubt there were car or portable transistor AM/FM sets in USA much earlier than 1970.

There was essentially almost no market for portable or mobile VHF in the UK before 1970s. The existence of the Vidor Vanguard and Sky Emperor (really a rebadged export BEREC commander as SW instead of LW) was remarkable. The Emperor and most 1950s German portable valve sets had a car aerial socket. Some German models used car battery for LT.

[Panrock]

Having just been to the RadioMuseum site, I see there were Blaupunkt valve VHF/FM car radios as early as 1952/3!

The A52KU is the earliest one I can see there.

Steve

[Mike. Watterson]

Originally Posted by Panrock

Having just been to the RadioMuseum site, I see there were Blaupunkt valve VHF/FM car radios as early as 1952/3!

Makes sense given the different stations on VHF-FM from 1949, due to Allies and Russians taking most of Germany's AM allocations. No issue with HT or power consumption (Vibrators and later transistor inverters, I think only later AM only hybrid sets used 12V HT) in a dedicated car fitting.

The Portable sets started as soon as the DC90 came out and were popular, many makers. They all quickly moved to DF97 (in practically the same triode configuration).

? = +/- one year
?? = a guess.

DC90 Models 1= 1953??, 10= 1953, 1= 1954??, 1= 1954?, 19= 1954, 1= 1955??, 15= 1955, 1= 1956?, 7= 1956 (very few 1957 to 1959).
(This includes non-German models)
DF97 Models listed 1= 1954, 4= 1955, 3= 1956??, 22= 1956, 2= 1957??, 1= 1957?, 29= 1957, 1= 1958??, 30= 1958, 1= 1959?, 20= 1959.
Then transistors took over. The later sets where hybrid.
(This includes non-German models)
Austria, Netherlands, Denmark at least had portable AM/FM sets before UK:
Vidor Vanguard 1957 (unusually no DK96 and all DF97 for mixer and IF, internal aerial socket), BEREC Commander/Sky Emperor 1958 (External car aerial socket).

[Hybrid tellies]

My earliest memory of VHF/FM in a car was not to good. A friend fitted a non branded cheapish stereo radio cassette, bought from either a mail order catalogue or Argus, sometime in the very early 1980's. AM and the cassette worked well enough but FM reception was hopeless unless you were driving in an area of high signal strength. It was not due to ignition interference or noise it was due to total lack of sensitivity. A few years later I obtained,repaired and fitted a Radio Mobile stereo radio cassette. Despite it dating from the mid to late 1970's it actually worked really well on FM even in some of the local reception blackspots.

[Mike. Watterson]

Actually a lot of early car aerials had a fine helical coil running the whole length of the coax to add extra loading for MW/LW. This killed VHF reception. The AM only sets had a pair of accessible capacitor trimmers to match this loaded whip.
Later aerials had ordinary stranded core coax. The later AM/FM sets had built in LW & MW loading coils less easily accessible and pre-tuned for a 75cm whip with regular coax.

[Panrock]

Yes, this was why in the early '70s I replaced the original downlead in my P4 with coax. I suspect then the reception on MW/LW wasn't so good though.

It seems to me that in general, sets in those days were nothing like as sensitive as today's, resulting in more variable reception and less signal limiting - thus more audible interference. Also today of course, sets are 'designed in' to the car, with efficient interference cancelling and (in my Rover 75) an amplified window aerial.

Steve

[ms660]

Originally Posted by Panrock

Having just been to the RadioMuseum site, I see there were Blaupunkt valve VHF/FM car radios as early as 1952/3!

The A52KU is the earliest one I can see there.

That's the earliest one so far that I could find too.

The schematic's available at elektrotanya.

First valve is an EF85, discriminator uses an EAA91 and the output valves are EL42's.

Lawrence.

[emeritus]

The KJ catalogue for 1969/70 only lists AM car radios, all MW+LW except for a Philips X34T that also has SW (and a trimmer on its flexible aerial lead). No FM sets were offered.

[Synchrodyne]

Originally Posted by Panrock

So was nothing available before around 1970? What about in the US?

An article in Radio-Electronics for 1955 February (1), which described a new range of FM car radio receivers and converters from Hastings Products, created the impression that at the time, FM reception in cars was a new idea in the USA. So that is one marker, although the products described were probably aimed at a niche market. A later article in Radio-Electronics for 1959 August (2) opened with the statement: “Within a few years FM radio will be standard equipment in the American car. It will be used to supplement the standard AM radio. But if you want FM radio for your car today, you have to go out and get a special piece of additional equipment. It may be a straight FM receiver designed for 6- or 12-volt operation, or it may be AM-FM. Then there’s a converter.” So in 1959, FM car radio was available in the USA, but it was still viewed as a niche product.

An interesting question is whether FM stereo car radios became available after stereo FM was introduced in 1961, or whether these followed the introduction of car stereo cartridge and cassette audio systems towards the end of the 1960s. Probably the advent of high-gain integrated circuits for FM receivers did much to help the car radio case, and I understand that the major market for the iconic RCA CA3089 was in car receivers.

Cheers,



(1) See: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...s-1955-02.pdf; p.106ff.

(2) See: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...s-1959-08.pdf; p.55ff.

[crusher19860138]

I see films from the 50s/60s/70s and cars seem to have really long telescopic aerials towering above the vehicles roofline!

['LIVEWIRE?']

Both those links produce a ' 404 Page Not Found' message

[Synchrodyne]

Very strange!

These do work, or at least they worked for me this morning:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...cs-1955-02.pdf

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...cs-1959-08.pdf


Cheers,