Delivered: The Panasonic RF-B65

It turns out, I didn’t need to worry about the delivery time of the Panasonic RF-B65 I ordered on eBay Thursday evening. It was shipped from Washington state and arrived here yesterday (Saturday) via USPS 2 Day Priority Mail. I’m quite impressed with the delivery speed!

I haven’t had time to put the RF-B65 through the paces, but so far all appears to be in order. The unit is very clean, the battery compartment looks like new and the antenna straight and fully intact. This listing did not include a case, box or manual, but I’m fine with that.

I’ve only had the RF-B65 on the air for a few minutes to verify that everything works properly–so far, so good. This afternoon, I’ll start a “burn in” session to see if the radio will play for multiple hours on a set of fresh batteries. I’ve found in the past that if there are any capacitor issues, older portables like this could power down prematurely.

I’m hoping all will check out with the RF-B65 because I look forward to taking it on travels this week!

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13 thoughts on “Delivered: The Panasonic RF-B65

  1. Frederik Dicke

    There is a little slide in the back-up battery compartment to set 9 or 10kHz steps.
    My RF-B65 played nearly 30 years (from new) on the power supply before it stopped working sep 2017. Even on batteries it was dead. Didn’t have the time to fix it but the problem is in the switch between mains and battery.

    Reply
    1. Jeffrey C

      I just found mine. Been in a closet for 20 years. Glad there were no batteries. Put them in and all I have is blinking display and powers on for 10 seconds and shuts off. I cannot connect to any frequency. Nothing, not even FM station.. ..just continuous static until it shuts off 10 seconds later. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

      Reply
  2. Robert

    Thanks but I already found that link and that is not the user manual – it is the service manual. It does not indicate how to change the MW steps.

    Reply
    1. joe smith

      @Robert:

      There are two possibilities, the first and less likely is a mini slider switch located in one of the battery compartments. However I am pretty sure that it is required that you press a series of buttons on the control panel to set it for 9 or 10 kHz. I’m checking around with some sources I know are familiar with this radio and will post back if I find the answer.

      Logically I think you might try pressing and holding the “MW” button for five seconds or more.
      Post back if this worked. Thanks.

      Reply
  3. Robert

    I am new owner of one of these as well, and unfortunately mine came without the user manual. The one thing I haven’t been able to figure out is now to change the MW tuning from 10 to 9 kHz. Does anyone out there know? Thank you

    Reply
  4. Jim Widgren

    I still have the one I bought around 1981. I found it tends to eat batteries, so maybe a line power supply or set of rechargables will be helpful. The padded travel case is good to have too. Tuning SSB is certainly doable but a real pain in the neck to use IMO. A pretty and compact unit for sure, but I’d be surprised (and disappointed) if the current crop of portables isn’t a lot better.

    Reply
  5. Christos

    Congratulations!
    It is a very well designed radio and it looks like a brand new one.
    I wish you to enjoy it.

    Reply
  6. Thomas Post author

    So far, so good! The radio has passed my burn-in test and now I only need to test its sensitivity compared with a couple of benchmark receivers. So far, it looks promising, but I’ll do a test away from noise sources and see how the RF-B65 stacks up. If it’s truly in working order, it should give my other portables a run for the money!

    Thanks for your comments!

    Thomas

    Reply
  7. Mario

    Hey congrats on your Panasonic radio, enjoy. Isn’t great to have sites like EBay where old and new radios are available for sale/auction 24/7? You can window shop to your hearts content.

    Reply

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