15 January 2018

Time travel to 1956: Radiomarelli RD-160 Amico

I finally did it: I bought a valve AM radio.

Radiomarelli RD-160 "Amico".

It is a Radiomarelli RD-160 "Amico" built on or after 1956. It was sold as non-working for "just" 5 € after nobody bought it for months. No wonder... In the worst case, individual parts are worth more (if bought individually, for other projects, not on the current market).

The first, off-grid, check reveals that the case is clean whereas cracked (it's plastic, can be glued together). The circuit is relatively clean and not rusty, all valves are present. The audio transformer is a bit loose and has one suspicious floating wire. The volume knob turns indefinitely and doesn't click on/off. The tuning knob runs the indicator bar just fine. Looks like a good troubleshooting playground and, at worst, I will retrofit it with some sort of Internet-radio receiver (not my original idea).