{"id":63601,"date":"2025-08-10T07:48:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T11:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=63601"},"modified":"2025-08-10T07:48:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T11:48:26","slug":"bobs-radio-corner-illuminating-radios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/bobs-radio-corner-illuminating-radios\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob’s Radio Corner: Illuminating Radios"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

An operating 50C5 pentode is a thing of beauty.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Book Lamp; or Shedding Some Light on a Radio<\/h1>\n

Illuminated by Bob Colegrove<\/strong><\/p>\n

There was a time in this writer\u2019s memory when radios were well lit \u2013 well, at least the ones with glass tubes.\u00a0 Tubes emitted a warm glow which made the radio come alive, generated some heat on a cold winter night, and created an aura of mystery revealing signals from faraway places.\u00a0 Besides glass tubes, a #44 or #47 incandescent bulb was likely inserted just out of sight beside the dial.\u00a0 This illuminated the dial information, which, however, required some mathematical interpretation.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s radios are dark.\u00a0 Inside them, circuit boards and ICs look like an unanimated scene from Tron<\/i>.\u00a0 Most often, the only illumination is from the LED or LCD display, and that is often weak, or lasts just a few seconds.\u00a0 Unlike the old dials, displays do convey some useful information; but they have shortcomings which can be summarized into three general categories:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Some displays are very dimly lit.<\/li>\n
  2. Some displays don\u2019t have continuous illumination.<\/li>\n
  3. Some displays have continuous illumination, but their use consumes power.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I have radios in each of these categories.\u00a0 A desk lamp, if available, can\u2019t always be placed in the right position relative to the radio.<\/p>\n

    Having a natural bent to fabricate things, I began to conjure a solution.\u00a0 This would require three components:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. An independent source of light,<\/li>\n
    2. a bracket to hold the light in place, and<\/li>\n
    3. a stand to counterweight the light and bracket.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"\"<\/a>I quickly began to see mechanical problems attendant to fabrication, plus the realization that construction would demand some effort on my part.\u00a0 My project quickly transformed into a search for a product on the Internet which would satisfy the requirements without me expending any work.<\/p>\n

      I found a book lamp<\/i><\/b> has the advantage of illuminating the entire radio keyboard, not just the display.<\/p>\n

      There is a wide selection of book lamps.\u00a0 My search focused on LEDs with rechargeable lithium batteries.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t narrow things down very much.\u00a0 There are a lot of them.\u00a0 My choice without a whole lot of research was a Vekkia 3000-K Warm LED Rechargeable Book Light<\/a> [SWLing Post affiliate link]<\/em>.\u00a0 It has not disappointed.<\/p>\n