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Sony SRF-A1

Mark Roberts said:
I bought mine on closeout from W. Bell (remember them?) either late in 1985 or early in 1986. I know I had it by April 1986 because I took it to the Jean-Michel Jarre outdoor concert on Buffalo Bayou.
Click to expand...
I was also at that concert with my SRF-A1. Soundtrack was on 93Q IIRC. Quite an event with over 1.5 million people gathered near downtown, and that was during the absolute nadir of the 1980s Oil Bust in Houston, along with a NASA community still recovering from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

en.wikipedia.org

Rendez-vous Houston - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I purchased my SRF-A1 in July, 1984 at a Best Products store…not to be confused with Best Buy. I think it cost $109. Found the owners manual where I had written the “in service” date.

Today I fired it up for the first time in 10, maybe 15 years. Still works, though it was rather “screechy” when tuning around…I suspect some of the components (likely capacitors) have deteriorated with age. I recall it worked quite nicely when new, and I was impressed by the quality of the AM stereo that a few stations were using. Nobody with a good ear would mistake it for FM, but a much brighter and richer sound than mono AM on a stereo headset.

I used the SRF-A1 quite a lot during the 1980s and 90s, especially while out walking as well as traveling.

Here’s more on the Best Products stores: Best Products - Wikipedia
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I was also at that concert with my SRF-A1. Soundtrack was on 93Q IIRC. Quite an event with over 1.5 million people gathered near downtown, and that was during the absolute nadir of the 1980s Oil Bust in Houston, along with a NASA community still recovering from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

en.wikipedia.org

Rendez-vous Houston - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

I purchased my SRF-A1 in July, 1984 at a Best Products store…not to be confused with Best Buy. I think it cost $109. Found the owners manual where I had written the “in service” date.

Today I fired it up for the first time in 10, maybe 15 years. Still works, though it was rather “screechy” when tuning around…I suspect some of the components (likely capacitors) have deteriorated with age. I recall it worked quite nicely when new, and I was impressed by the quality of the AM stereo that a few stations were using. Nobody with a good ear would mistake it for FM, but a much brighter and richer sound than mono AM on a stereo headset.

I used the SRF-A1 quite a lot during the 1980s and 90s, especially while out walking as well as traveling.

Here’s more on the Best Products stores: Best Products - Wikipedia
Click to expand...
I'm well acquainted with Best Products. Here in Seattle they had several stores, one in the South End, one in the Eastside, and probably a couple others north of Seattle and maybe one in Tacoma. They were Jafco for years, before Best bought them -- sort of a combination of a camera, electronics, stereo, TV, bicycle, light sporting goods, LPs and cassettes, and mostly higher end products you wouldn't find at KMart or similar suburban stores of the day. I remember they had Sony SRF A100's there. Never had the spare money to buy one.

I got all my Superadios at Best Products. Also got my Sony turntable there. Worked there for almost six months in 1989-90.
 
I been DXing 1270 from Carmichael right before it gets dark like 8:15pm or depend when KVMI goes 1kw Night

Also KAJO comes in too, So just don't know witch is what

How can I tell f a station is on AM Stereo?

Keep on getting phasing from both ears
 
kevtronics said:
The alternative used by Mercedes-Benz was to have a switch on the center console to raise or lower the power antenna. The manual said to lower the antenna in strong signal areas.
Click to expand...

My grandparents' 1960's Mercedes had a factory radio with shortwave bands on it. I think it was a Mercedes W110 200D with a diesel engine and red leather interior. I was pretty young but I remember being fascinated by the shortwave radio. Don't remember if it had a retractable antenna but I'll bet it did.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
My grandparents' 1960's Mercedes had a factory radio with shortwave bands on it. I think it was a Mercedes W110 200D with a diesel engine and red leather interior. I was pretty young but I remember being fascinated by the shortwave radio. Don't remember if it had a retractable antenna but I'll bet it did.
Click to expand...
Decades ago some radios in European cars would include the lower frequency shortwave bands. There were a number of European broadcasters that had SW transmitters for domestic or regional coverage. These were lower powered and simulcast an AM network. All gone now.
 
radiofan2023 said:
Is KAJO supposed to be AM Stereo?
Click to expand...
As far as I know, KAJO isn't broadcasting in Stereo.

I'm kind of thinking KVMI isn't either, but neither @MarioMania nor I can seem to get a definitive answer despite our best efforts.

I'd keep trying, but I have a local, KXBX, which makes it impossible from my location to receive anything else on 1270.

c
 
No such luck on the e-mail

I hooked up my Sony SRF-A1 on my PC to record AM, But I got loud buzzing..

I have to figure out how to get the Audio on my PC
 
Hmm, I have an extra SRF-A100 that may work (I've had good luck connecting it to my PC and recording audio). Would you like to borrow/buy/rent/whatever it?

It only powers on intermittently, though. I'm thinking it is likely some bad solder joints at the power switch, because I find that I can make it work if I push the switch "just so".

It might be possible the buzzing is interference from your PC. If you have a long enough connecting cable, try moving the SRF-A1 a few feet away from your PC and see if the buzzing subsides.

c
 
cc333 said:
Hmm, I have an extra SRF-A100 that may work (I've had good luck connecting it to my PC and recording audio). Would you like to borrow/buy/rent/whatever it?

It only powers on intermittently, though. I'm thinking it is likely some bad solder joints at the power switch, because I find that I can make it work if I push the switch "just so".

It might be possible the buzzing is interference from your PC. If you have a long enough connecting cable, try moving the SRF-A1 a few feet away from your PC and see if the buzzing subsides.

c
Click to expand...
I like to own stuff, Thanks for offering

Besides, the only reason I'm DXing 1270 because KBZZ Reno is Off

KBZZ boom in Carmichael at Sun Down/Night, So no chance getting KVMI in

KVMI does come though most of the time, Mainly it's all KBZZ
 
When I was in the East Bay, I found that I could turn my radio one way and get KBZZ, then rotate it about 90 degrees and get KVMI, so apparently KBZZ can be nulled pretty easily if one is in the right spot, as I apparently was.

As I've mentioned, I have a local up here on 1270 (KXBX), and even at 97 watts night power, there's no chance of hearing anything else. It's too bad it isn't a daytimer!

Exceptions do happen, however.

For example, late last summer, KXBX was airing a dead carrier for what seemed like quite a long time (a few days, maybe a week), and I was able to hear stuff bubble under at night. Not enough to clearly ID anything, though, but I'm sure it was either KVMI (1kW night) or KBZZ (a veritable flamethrower at 5 kW), as there aren't really any other stations with a meaningful night time signal (many of the other 1270's within a few hundred miles of here only seem to put out 100 watts max),

c
 
I'm still enjoying 1270 while KBZZ if off

I was to the restroom, it was in my fanny pack, Not zipped up, Broke in 4 places

What kind of glue can I use for this?

Tape is Temp, Sadly I couldn't find the other piece on the left

Still Works

IMG_0114.JPGIMG_0113.JPG
 
You might try Sugru. It’s a super glue. But I don’t know if it works on thin plastic like that.
www.tesa.com

Sugru

The benefits of original formula + family friendly formula = the best Sugru ever!
www.tesa.com www.tesa.com
 
Mark Roberts said:
Most of the Sony FM Walkmans were of fair-to-poor quality, and got worse as time went on. They were especially prone to front-end overload, causing spurious reception products all over dial. I had an SRF-A1 in Kansas City, where I lived just a few miles from the transmitting sites of KYYS, KCMO-FM, and KQRC, all full class-C stations. On the Sony units, nothing from outside the market could come in at all, particularly not KLZR from Lawrence or 107.3, which was then a rimshot from Odessa. The SRF-A1 was a little better on FM than most other Sony Walkmans, but still had the problem with overloading.

The only two Sony Walkman models that are worthwhile on FM are the first one, the SRF-40W, and its successor, the SRF-30W. The 30W is slightly less sensitive than the 40W but otherwise similar. The 40W was fairly decent for its time and had much less of an overloading problem than the later units. They show up on eBay often.

By the way, the SRF-A100, which was legendary for its AM performance and flexibility in AM stereo decoding, was absolutely horrific on FM. The de-emphasis was wrong, the sensitivity was lacking, and the front end overloading was even worse than a typical Sony FM Walkman.
Click to expand...

For a brief while during the mid-1990s, I owned a Kiowa Walkman-style receiver with the same overloading problem on FM and less sensitivity on AM than with the Panasonic models I owned before and since. (In Fact, in terms of distance reception, all of the Panasonic receivers I've ever had, though none had AM stereo, outperformed all competitors I tried on both AM and FM.)
 


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