{"id":26543,"date":"2017-06-20T14:59:49","date_gmt":"2017-06-20T18:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=26543"},"modified":"2017-06-20T14:59:49","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T18:59:49","slug":"ed-rediscovers-lafayette-radio-electronics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/ed-rediscovers-lafayette-radio-electronics\/","title":{"rendered":"Ed rediscovers Lafayette Radio Electronics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor, Ed, who shared the following message after I posted the Mystery Radio Challenge<\/a> yesterday:<\/p>\n

I could tell that FM tuner<\/a> is actually an ‘FM converter’ by its shape and by the giveaway wide knurled tuning bar mounted way up front, so the driver of the 8-track tape player-equipped car could tune it more easily whilst driving–or whilst smooching in the car in the dark!<\/p>\n

Then to determine the make & model, I searched Google for the words silk-screened on the front panel, “solid state fm multiplexer tuner” and easily found this exact match:<\/p>\n

Alaron FM Multiplex Stereo Cartridge Tuner UNTESTED <\/a><\/p>\n

This tuner came with an unusual antenna Y-adapter that connected (and probably matched) the tuner to the car’s AM antenna. It’s pictured in one of the photos. I wonder how good an FM tuner it is. It has a switchable AFC and a DX\/Local switch.<\/p>\n

Whilst scrolling through the excellent photos of the one being offered for sale online (for $46.74!) I saw the manual has a handwritten note that says, “Bought from Lafayette Radio Electronics 33760 Plymouth Road on 7\/3\/72 Invoice #3213570”– so it’s about 45 years old.<\/p>\n

Out of curiosity, I researched that address and found that tuner was purchased at the third Lafayette store in (Livonia) Michigan.<\/p>\n

I imagine some of your SWLing Post blog readers (like me) fondly remember Lafayette Radio Electronics stores. They had a better selection of radio gear–even Collins rigs–than Radio Shack did. Here’s a nice writeup about Lafayette on Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lafayette_Radio_Electronics<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks, Ed! \u00a0Any Post<\/em> readers shop at\u00a0Lafayette Radio Electronics stores in the past? \u00a0Please comment!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ed, who shared the following message after I posted the Mystery Radio Challenge yesterday: I could tell that FM tuner is actually an ‘FM converter’ by its shape and by the giveaway wide knurled tuning bar mounted way up front, so the driver of the 8-track tape player-equipped car […]<\/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":[3,305,714],"tags":[6256,6257,6262,6261],"class_list":["post-26543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-nostalgia","category-retailers","tag-8-track","tag-8-track-fm-converter","tag-lafayette","tag-lafayette-radio-electronics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-6U7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26506,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/mystery-solved-remember-the-8-track-fm-radio-converter\/","url_meta":{"origin":26543,"position":0},"title":"Mystery solved: Remember the 8 Track FM radio converter?","author":"Thomas","date":"June 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"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. As I was browsing the various tables, I happened upon one of these: Talk about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FM"","block_context":{"text":"FM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/fm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_9382.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_9382.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IMG_9382.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2296,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/silabs-brings-shortwave-to-car-radios\/","url_meta":{"origin":26543,"position":1},"title":"SiLabs brings shortwave to car radios","author":"Thomas","date":"December 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Silicon Labs, a manufacture of DSP (Digital Signal Processing) chips that are in many of the shortwave radios we feature here on SWLing.com, is now taking their technology to car radios. They have announced the\u00a0Si476x chip family which features\u00a0AM\/FM, longwave, shortwave (SW), NOAA weather band, FM RDS decoding and AM\/FM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Manufacturers"","block_context":{"text":"Manufacturers","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/manufacturers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/silabslogo.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":61040,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/channel-6-fm-radio-stations\/","url_meta":{"origin":26543,"position":2},"title":"Channel 6 FM Radio Stations","author":"Thomas","date":"November 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Bob Colegrove, who shares the following guest post: Channel 6 Radio Stations By Bob Colegrove Even after all these years, I still find occasional surprises while playing with radios.\u00a0 How did I miss this one?\u00a0 I recently did what I thought was a definitive audit of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "FM"","block_context":{"text":"FM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/fm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Fig-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Fig-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Fig-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Fig-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Fig-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17764,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/03\/car-shortwave-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":26543,"position":3},"title":"Car Shortwave Radio","author":"Robert Gulley","date":"March 11, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight on Allan Weiner Worldwide (WBCQ\u00a0 7490 kHz coming in beautifully on my FRG-7) Allan mentioned a shortwave radio converter for car radios. 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It seems the same company had also produced a DRM\/DAB to FM convertor for use in trucks and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DRM"","block_context":{"text":"DRM","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/drm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Starwaves-Truckbox.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16355,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/avos-review-of-the-digitech-ar1946-shortwave-portable\/","url_meta":{"origin":26543,"position":5},"title":"Avo’s review of the Digitech AR1946 shortwave portable","author":"Thomas","date":"December 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Digitech has released their latest shortwave portable: the Digitech AR1946. If you live in Australia or New Zealand, you're probably familiar with the Digitech brand which is sold at JayCar Electronics. If you live in other parts of the world, you may never run across\u00a0a Digitech (branded) portable. SWLing Post\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Products"","block_context":{"text":"New Products","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/new-products\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"digitech-AR1946-front","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/digitech-AR1946-front-e1450613659357.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26543","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=26543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}