Hello BBers,
I recently acquired an interesting Soviet radio named VEF 221. It´s manufactured in 1988 i guess, it´s 5 band radio (FM,MW,LW,SW1,SW2) and it´s export version which means that it has english lettering, 88-108 Mhz FM band and slight cosmetical changes, built quality is quite the same on Soviet version.
Here is one photo of it front, forgot to make photo myself of it. I opened it up ( It even had one seal on one screw that had a VEF factory logo on it, like a seal of quarantee)
I opened it up, it dismantles into 3 sections- back cover, front cover and middle section where all electronics are attached, that´s a clever engineering
Here is the circuit board when back cover is taken off
This is how it looks like from the front when front cover is taken off, looks like there´s some space for playing around too. I still wonder how it still works as soviet electronical components don´t last too long. But it works ! Sliders in the upper left needed some deoxit, that´s all.
This grey metal box is actually a huge variable capacitor, for 1988 it sure looks very old technology.
Here is the rotating band selector, with each circuit on the side for each band, this one on photo shows FM circuit, when you turn the band selector it switches to another circuit and makes contact with circuit board. This is also quite old way to do it, think about it, this in 1988 ?
And here is it´s loudspeaker that produces "Soviet average" sound.
Here is a photo of it´s russian domestic version, the VEF 214.
This one had OIRT FM band (65-74Mhz) and people actually made decent money from making FM conversion circuits Oh the times. I have one VEF 214 too with rebuilt FM circuit, fun thing on those both VEF radios is that radio dial moves from right to left, i´ve never seen anything like that before.
This radio is a nice piece from Latvia with a hint of Soviet manufacturing culture, in VEF and RRR plant they actually made quite nice audio equipment, for example, Radiotehnika amplifiers, tuners, cassette decks and turntables and this kind of boomboxes
That´s all for now, plenty of those around, very cheap but many of them don´t work anymore because of poor electronics inside. Soviet made boomboxes are quite rare here and also with poor electronics and engineering, but fun to have, just hard to operate
I recently acquired an interesting Soviet radio named VEF 221. It´s manufactured in 1988 i guess, it´s 5 band radio (FM,MW,LW,SW1,SW2) and it´s export version which means that it has english lettering, 88-108 Mhz FM band and slight cosmetical changes, built quality is quite the same on Soviet version.
Here is one photo of it front, forgot to make photo myself of it. I opened it up ( It even had one seal on one screw that had a VEF factory logo on it, like a seal of quarantee)
I opened it up, it dismantles into 3 sections- back cover, front cover and middle section where all electronics are attached, that´s a clever engineering
Here is the circuit board when back cover is taken off
This is how it looks like from the front when front cover is taken off, looks like there´s some space for playing around too. I still wonder how it still works as soviet electronical components don´t last too long. But it works ! Sliders in the upper left needed some deoxit, that´s all.
This grey metal box is actually a huge variable capacitor, for 1988 it sure looks very old technology.
Here is the rotating band selector, with each circuit on the side for each band, this one on photo shows FM circuit, when you turn the band selector it switches to another circuit and makes contact with circuit board. This is also quite old way to do it, think about it, this in 1988 ?
And here is it´s loudspeaker that produces "Soviet average" sound.
Here is a photo of it´s russian domestic version, the VEF 214.
This one had OIRT FM band (65-74Mhz) and people actually made decent money from making FM conversion circuits
Oh the times. I have one VEF 214 too with rebuilt FM circuit, fun thing on those both VEF radios is that radio dial moves from right to left, i´ve never seen anything like that before. This radio is a nice piece from Latvia with a hint of Soviet manufacturing culture, in VEF and RRR plant they actually made quite nice audio equipment, for example, Radiotehnika amplifiers, tuners, cassette decks and turntables and this kind of boomboxes
That´s all for now, plenty of those around, very cheap but many of them don´t work anymore because of poor electronics inside. Soviet made boomboxes are quite rare here and also with poor electronics and engineering, but fun to have, just hard to operate
