Vintage Radio App

[Old Henry]

Recently had to get a smart phone for my business and more recently installed the Vintage Radio App on it. Wow! What a great app. 40,000 radio shows from the 30's through 50's. I play them through my radio speaker and the "time machine" is even more effective. Dad really loves them when I take him for a ride as he remembers when that's all they had. Here's the info about it for anyone interested: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vint...455577974?mt=8

[Lawson Cox]

Hey Professor. Don't get too Hi Tec or Old Henry might get his feelings hurt and try to get back at 'ya. (I hope not.) LOL

[Fibber Mcgee]

I have XM and listen to the old shows for hours every night at work and love it . Jack Benny, George and Gracie, Jonny Dollar, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Our Miss Brooks. .... I would listen to old time radio before watching TV anytime.

[30-9]

Curious how do you play through your radio speaker?

[HCO41]

Hey Fibber, you forgot one of my favorites, the Fibber McGee and Molly show. Gotta love 'em. Those old shows and cast members had a lot more class than the crap we get today. Mine stays on 082 except for a few Sinatra or 1940, 50 and '60 tunes.

[HCO41]

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30-9, to play though your radio, you'll have to splice in a 3mm female pin connector into the "hot" wire going to the speaker. You can mount the connector into or under dash or in glove box. Once installed correctly your radio will play normally through the speaker. When you plug your device in, the connector interrupts the radio signal and your device will play through the speaker, mono, of course. Check at Radio Shack, they have what you need.
Howard
P.S. I believe pin housing has to be grounded ie., mounted in metal or wire grounded to metal dash etc.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by 30-9

Curious how do you play through your radio speaker?

Although it sounds simple to just "play through the radio speaker" it's a bit more complicated than might be thought. For one, the earphone signal from the phone doesn't really put out enough to play the speaker at desired volumes so I introduced the most powerful headphone amp I could find.



It is very small but boosts the signal to the speaker to normal listening levels. It runs on a 9 volt battery but that battery doesn't last long running the speaker so I made an external 9 volt battery pack with 6 D cell batteries that lasts a year or more.

This is a picture of my original setup using a CD player playing only one side of the stereo signal through the mono speaker. The mp3 player or iPhone are now in the place of the CD player and the output from the amp goes to the speaker switch as explained below.



Then, the other problem is combining stereo outputs into the mono speaker. For most output, particularly the radio shows that were only mono, playing just one side of the stereo output through the speaker was satisfactory. But some more modern music, particularly the Beatles, had strongly separated stereo tracks so that it sounded weird to just listen to one. Every method I tried to combine the stereo tracks caused distortion. So, I installed a stereo speaker in the dash so that I could hear both tracks together.





Now that I had stereo speakers in the dash, I had to figure out how to switch it between the stereo amp where the mp3 player and iPhone played through and the mono stock AM radio in the dash. If I could have found a quad post double throw switch I could have done it with one switch but I couldn't. So, I used two double post double throw Radio Shack switches to do the job. The two leads from each speaker are connected to the center common terminals on the switch. Each pair of wires from the amp are connected to the terminals on one side of each switch. On the other side of the switch the mono signal from the radio is connected with one wire going to one terminal of each switch and a jumper wire connecting the other two terminals so that when the speakers are played from the radio mono signal they play in series rather than parallel to keep the ohms at the higher rate that the radio needs. The switches are mounted side by side in the top of the glove box and are both switched together to either side for the desired effect.



The lead from the amp to plug into the mp3 player or iPhone is kept in the glove box and just brought out when needed to be plugged in.

You can see the two switches on the left of the top of the glove box for switching the speakers between the radio and the stereo. The right switch is for the glove box light. The blue in the back is the 9 volt power pack.

[30-9]

Thanks - I now know why your a professor

[tiger.1000]

Henry.....I just love your simple approach to electricity. Right up my street. I do however hope you keep a fire extinguisher under your passenger's seat !

[B-O-B]

OLD HENRY you do not need a glove box You need a trunk for all your gadgets!!!
Pretty kool set up tho. I however would rather just listen to the wind & the old V/8 exhaust. Besides in a roadster you don't get anything but wind & exhaust. Kinda like a motorcycle I never could understand having a stereo on a bike.

[flatford8]

Originally Posted by Fibber Mcgee

I have XM and listen to the old shows for hours every night at work and love it . Jack Benny, George and Gracie, Jonny Dollar, Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Our Miss Brooks. .... I would listen to old time radio before watching TV anytime.

Hey Fib....I drive a truck 12 hrs. a night and enjoy the old shows...I think the commercials are entertainment too.....MARK

[flatford8]

Originally Posted by 30-9

thanks - i now know why your a professor

!!!!!...x2.....!!!!!!!......mark

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by B-O-B

Pretty kool set up tho. I however would rather just listen to the wind & the old V/8 exhaust. Besides in a roadster you don't get anything but wind & exhaust. Kinda like a motorcycle I never could understand having a stereo on a bike.

There are many times I do shut off the sound system and just listen to the wind and the motor. But, driving the many hours at a time that I do it is sometimes nice to have something else to listen to. Did a two hour cruise to the top of the canyon over the pass at 8,000 feet last night just for fun, mostly without any sound other than the engine except for a short period of my Pandora relaxation music through my phone when I first started out to calm me down from the stress I was escaping from.

[Fibber Mcgee]

Originally Posted by flatford8

Hey Fib....I drive a truck 12 hrs. a night and enjoy the old shows...I think the commercials are entertainment too.....MARK

We must have the same job. XM sure beats the days of trying to find a station every hour or listening to Coast to Coast on AM.