{"id":26506,"date":"2017-06-20T06:22:04","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T10:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=26506"},"modified":"2017-06-20T06:22:04","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T10:22:04","slug":"mystery-solved-remember-the-8-track-fm-radio-converter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/mystery-solved-remember-the-8-track-fm-radio-converter\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery solved: Remember the 8 Track FM radio converter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Sunday morning, I attended the Sainte-Foy flea market in Qu\u00e9bec City. When I’m in QC, I love attending this particular market because of the amazing variety of things for sale. It’s a proper community event.<\/p>\n

As I was browsing the various tables, I happened upon one of these:<\/p>\n

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Talk about a blast from the past!<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I posted a cropped photo of this radio<\/a> and it was quickly identified as an\u00a08 Track FM radio converter by Ken (N2VIP). Steve Yothment found the same unit under a different brand and Bill Lee even found a Futura branded unit on the Internet. Of course, many others figured out this was an 8 Track to FM radio converter. Impressive sleuthing!<\/p>\n

These radio tuners were popular in the days of the mobile 8 Track players–in that time period right before FM was standard in car radios, but 8 Track was somewhat prevalent.<\/p>\n

My father had a similar FM radio converter for his 1966 Chevy pickup. As a kid, I thought the thing was fascinating! You simply inserted the unit into the 8 Track player and voil\u00e1!<\/em>, FM radio!<\/p>\n

I never quite understood how the FM reception was so decent considering there was no external antenna of any sort.<\/p>\n

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The rear of the converter looks like an 8 Track cartridge minus the magnetic tape.<\/p><\/div>\n

Taking a closer look at this particular FUTURA brand converter, I’m impressed with the number of features on such a compact front end:<\/p>\n