Yes, but you end up with a mono out, low power radio and I'm guessing relatively high distortion on the aux in such that you can barely hear over the wind noise. I want to plug in my USB stick holding an SDC card jam packed with enough music to listen to for a week without ever hearing a repeat... in stereo, loud and clear enough to drown out my own singing.

 

I have already done that. Only getting FM would be nice as would refreshing the electrical components of 53 year old radio.

 

That's the coolest thing i've seen all day. Tektronix, eh? Those things cost as much as a house at one time.

 

The distortion wasn't as bad as I would have expected. The Bendix AM radio only has 3 watts of power though. Have you listened to it in the truck while driving?

 

That's 3 watts of pure vacuum tube power baby!! Solid state transistor distorts differently than hollow state, square wave odd order distortion is very harsh to ears. That's one reason tube amplifiers are favored by guitarists, they sound better as they go into clipping gracefully, instead of blowing speakers.

 

I remove all of the + or - 10% range old carbon resistors and replace them with new wire wound 1% military grade resistors. It helps reduce station drift due to components changing value as they heat, etc. and if you want FM you could try pulling up you favorite FM station on your phone directly or using iHeart radio and stream it. This way, too, you can still listen to your favorite stations even when you are out of town.

 

Audio Output of at least the 1966 AM radio is 3 watts minimum. The upper rating of the output transistor is 25 watts. Here's a direct replacement GE-3 power transistor still in the shrink wrap.

Not sure you can see but the 25 watt rating is printed there.

 

Tubes were only used in the 1961-63 Bendix AM radios. Even then it was 2 tubes and 2 transistors. That was the model 12BT (Conventional) or 12BU (Econoline) Radio.

1964-66 eliminated all tubes and uses only transistors. If you look at the face plate (assuming it has not been swapped out) of the various years if it has a 12 in the dial numbers it is a tube radio and if it has a 13 in the dial numbers instead it is a transistor only radio.

1964 - 4TBT - Truck
1964 - 4TBU - Econoline

1965 - 5TBT - Truck
1965 - 5TBU - Econoline

1966 - 6TBT - Truck
1966 - 6TBU - Econoline
1966 - 6TBB - Bronco

 

Interestingly, vacuum tubes basically have an indefinite shelf life. So long as the envelope isn't broken, they are good to go. Transistors run into problems. Germanium types are getting hard to source for some applications. It is true there are universal replacements but they don't always work quite right. For an AM radio it wouldn't matter. It looks like they used a hybrid design? Transistor for the audio output, and tubes for the RF and IF section. Interesting.

 

There is a strong vintage radio club, mostly non-automotive, here in the Bay Area, they regularly hold swap meets. Around 20 years ago, I was into vintage radios, and was told that Japanese buyers started snatching up old vacuum tubes at these meets. Apparently, at that time at least, collecting classic American radios was coming into vogue in Japan .They were paying higher prices than had been common, creating shortages. That is exactly why I never balk at buying NOS parts - they’re not making any more of them, and they are not likely to go down in price or become more common. Gotta pay if you want to dance.

 

The older 12BT from 1961-63 did use both tubes and transistors in a hybrid (custom) design. 1964 and newer are just transistors, no tubes.

 

I think it was a little bit longer ago than that, but the gist of the story of it is correct. A couple well heeled guys travelled the entire US armed with little more than regional phone books and $$$ and old advertisements hit up every remaining long time brick and mortar radio and tv shop still left. There were still quite a few of them then. They have a thing not for radios, but for American tube audio, hi-fi output tubes and speakers, old triode and single ended amplifier designs. WD-11, globe 45s, EL-34s and bought up all they could find.

Anything branded Western Electric for a time was going for stupid money, transformers, hookup wire, horn speakers, even rolls of Western Electric solder would garner pretty damn good money. Cloth covered wire. But there definitely was an effort by a few individuals to scoop up the desirable types of US and European NOS output tubes. Hi-fi folks can get really weird and obsessive. They claim to be able to hear differences in vintage wire, it sounds better, special power cords, you name it.

 

I guess I missed the "min" in the service manual:

So what determined the amount of power output?

 

Yeah, Ted, it is still happening here, and was when I was restoring a couple floor console radios from the 30/s40s. And at least out here, was way more than just two guys. The Japanese also, at that same time, had a taste for some big classic American cars and were, I am told, causing prices to rise in that area. They have good taste, I don’t blame them, they are smart. And beside, alls fair in love, war, and capitalism!

 

The volume ****.