{"id":13364,"date":"2015-05-29T13:23:51","date_gmt":"2015-05-29T17:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=13364"},"modified":"2015-05-29T13:23:51","modified_gmt":"2015-05-29T17:23:51","slug":"hamvention-find-the-arvin-68r58-am-transistor-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/hamvention-find-the-arvin-68r58-am-transistor-radio\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamvention find: the Arvin 68R58 AM transistor radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1390\"<\/a>Though I believe I spent more money at the Dayton Hamvention<\/a> this year than I have in all previous years, I only purchased one radio: the Arvin 68R58<\/strong>\u00a0eight-transistor.<\/p>\n

I spent a whopping $5 on the\u00a0little\u00a0Arvin in the Hamvention fleamarket. To be fair, the seller sold it for this modest price because he was not sure if the radio worked. \u00a0But when\u00a0I unsnapped the back leather cover,\u00a0peered inside, and found the works\u00a0remarkably\u00a0clean, I suspected it might…<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1373\"<\/a>No original power supply was included, of course, and I was a bit\u00a0concerned when I saw the somewhat\u00a0out-of-character\u00a0plastic battery holder. In the filtered fleamarket light, it appeared\u00a0to me as if\u00a0it required\u00a0proprietary batteries–the holder appeared too small for C cells, and too large for AAs. There was no indication of the\u00a0type of batteries it used, but since the spec read “6 volts,” I knew I could build a small AA battery holder, if need\u00a0be.<\/p>\n

So, at $5 (I bargained him down from $10, based on the doubt of operation) it was a very<\/em> low risk purchase, and a potentially a fun project.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1385\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back at home, I popped open the battery holder and looked inside…And I discovered the Arvin did, indeed, take four C cells. Simple enough! After inserting fresh batteries, I turned on the radio via the tone pot, and instantly heard beautiful, rich audio.<\/p>\n

What I thought would be a project radio ended up being fully functional, and was, moreover, in tip-top shape.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1369\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So far, I’ve been very impressed with the Arvin’s AM sensitivity and audio fidelity. No doubt the generous ferrite rod antenna is doing the trick on medium wave.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1377\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last night, as I tuned through the AM broadcast band, I was able to null out unwanted stations and noise amazingly well. There is something to be said of\u00a0transistor radios from this era–let’s just say, they’re classics.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1376\"<\/a>The Arvin has a simple set of controls: tone, tuning, and volume. There are no filter selections, of course, but I can tell that it’s quite wide; perhaps 8 or 9 kHz.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58\"<\/a>All in all, I’m very pleased with my little purchase, and the Arvin has become my new (vintage) bedside radio.\u00a0Last night, I tuned in one of my favorite AM stations on 740 kHz, CFZM<\/a> in Toronto, Canada. \u00a0CFZM (a.k.a. “Zoomer Radio”) is not only a benchmark, but a right of passage for any worthy AM radio in my household. The Arvin passed the Zoomer test with colors flying.<\/p>\n

And, yes, it even soothed me to sleep.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1387\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now I only need to properly clean and restore the Arvin’s leather chassis and perhaps build a 6V-regulated linear power supply.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1378\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next time you pass by a 1960s\/70s vintage transistor, grab it! I’m certainly happy I did.<\/p>\n

Now, I think I’ll turn on the Arvin, sip some dark beans, and put up my\u00a0feet in the Pawley’s Island hammock…Cheers! Summer’s on the way.<\/p>\n

\"ARVIN-68r58-DSC_1381\"<\/a>Want one of your own?\u00a0<\/strong>A quick search reveals\u00a0that the Arvin 68R58 can be found on eBay<\/a> for quite reasonable prices. Click here to search eBay<\/a>\u00a0for an\u00a0Arvin.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though I believe I spent more money at the Dayton Hamvention this year than I have in all previous years, I only purchased one radio: the Arvin 68R58\u00a0eight-transistor. I spent a whopping $5 on the\u00a0little\u00a0Arvin in the Hamvention fleamarket. To be fair, the seller sold it for this modest price because he was not sure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[373,8,433,3,305,3196],"tags":[3859,3855,3858,1142,1150,3856,3857,681],"class_list":["post-13364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-am","category-articles","category-mediumwave","category-news","category-nostalgia","category-portable-radio","tag-arvin","tag-arvin-68r58","tag-arvin-radios","tag-dayton-hamvention","tag-hamvention","tag-hamvention-2015","tag-transistor-radios","tag-vintage-radio"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-3ty","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20994,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/garys-arvin-model-61r35-brings-back-memories\/","url_meta":{"origin":13364,"position":0},"title":"Gary’s Arvin Model 61R35 brings back memories","author":"Thomas","date":"September 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gary Wise (W4EEY), who shares the following guest post: It's funny how much we radio folks share in common. The recent posts on Arvin radios made me smile because I have an Arvin radio too. An Arvin transistor was my very first radio, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Arvin Transistor Radio","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/igejbhjg.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/igejbhjg.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/igejbhjg.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20915,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/arvin-model-68r05-johns-1967-transistor-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":13364,"position":1},"title":"Arvin Model 68R05: John’s 1967 transistor radio","author":"Thomas","date":"August 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to John Harper (AE5X) who shares the following in reply to our post about transistor radios: Attached is a pic of a like-new transistor radio from 1967 [see above]. Remember the days when they bragged about how many transistors a gadget contained?! Sort of like bragging about RAM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"arvin_68R05","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/arvin_68R05.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/arvin_68R05.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/arvin_68R05.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/arvin_68R05.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13431,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/james-vintage-transistor-radio-collection\/","url_meta":{"origin":13364,"position":2},"title":"James’ vintage transistor radio collection","author":"Thomas","date":"June 3, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In response to my recent post about the vintage\u00a0Arvin 68R58 transistor radio, SWLing Post reader, James Patterson, has shared photos of his collection in New Zealand. James has captioned each photo below: Many thanks, James, for sharing photos from your collection! You certainly have some gems in there. I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AM"","block_context":{"text":"AM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/am\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sanyo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Sanyo.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Sanyo.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Sanyo.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3621,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/c-crane-at-the-dayton-hamvention\/","url_meta":{"origin":13364,"position":3},"title":"C.Crane at the Dayton Hamvention","author":"Thomas","date":"May 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As I walk around the Dayton Hamvention, I'm finding a lot of familiar faces from the shortwave radio community. In the North Hall, I came across non other than Bob Crane with C.Crane Radio. We had a nice chat about their CCradio SW--one of my favorites for simplicity of operation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interviews"","block_context":{"text":"Interviews","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/interviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3590,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/boatanchors-and-antique-wireless-at-the-dayon-hamvention\/","url_meta":{"origin":13364,"position":4},"title":"“Boatanchors” and antique wireless at the Dayon Hamvention","author":"Thomas","date":"May 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've always found the Dayton Hamvention flea market to be a great place to find antique radios, but this year, the selection (along with the weather) seems to be exceptional. I've attached a few photos I took yesterday morning as a gallery below. Simply click on a thumbnail to enlarge.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/01-IMG_1516.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9629,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/dayton-hamvention-flea-market-a-few-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":13364,"position":5},"title":"Dayton Hamvention flea market: a few photos","author":"Thomas","date":"May 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I had a little over one hour to check out the Dayton Hamvention flea market yesterday morning before manning our inside exhibitor's table for Ears To Our World. Here are a few radios that caught my attention: I actually purchased the Hallicrafters SX-24 in this photo (above) for $60. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boat Anchors"","block_context":{"text":"Boat Anchors","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/boat-anchors-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CollinsRadios","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/CollinsRadios.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/CollinsRadios.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/CollinsRadios.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}