I took apart scrapping an old HP photo and document scanner/printer and salvaged the RGB light source

and used it in my homebrew cabinet AM/FM radio

Here I have it set up to have the dial light up cyan (blue and green, no red) when FM is selected, and light up a yellowish green (green and some red, no blue) when AM is selected. The green is always on, if AM is selected the red is turned on, if FM is selected blue is turned on. As the AM/FM switch power section switched the positive supply, I ended up using transistors to light up the desired LEDs in this common anode light stick.

The light stick uses red, green and blue LEDs, common anode. The LEDs light up bright enough with about 2ma DC current, and with all three LEDs with current like this, will burn about 30mW. Should be more than low enough for safe operation.

This stick is longer than the dail, but I didn't need to shorten it. Besides, there is a mirror of sorts at the far end, to reflect and distribute the light more evenly. I mounted this light stick to the inside of the cabinet about 5cm above the dial window, to get reasonably even lighting of the dial, and to avoid fouling the dial pointer mechanism. A long cable with a small connector connects the LED light stick to the radio circuitry.

Look for the red shaded and blue shaded transistor symbols and "Dial Light" upper left in the schematic below:


The radio when off:

It has 4 more transistors now. So it should be 22 transistors. Remember when transistor radios bragged about how many they had?

Hi Wa2ise,

I sure do remember. As a kid I would take my 6 transistor National "tranny" to bed and wait until the local station shut down around midnight.
The station played pop and bubblegum stuff (to put it kindly) and being 20 miles away would dominate.

After midnight a fantastic thing would happen. Interstate radio stations from NSW would filter through with treasures like Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doors, Small Faces, Chain, etc.

Next day at school my sleep deprived mates and I would yap for hours about our radios being able to pick up stations from New South Wales,
hundreds of miles away, and marvel at the power of our tiny radios while cursing the local station. And funny enough, six, seven and even eight transistors all seemed to pick up those distant stations quite well (we did not know about the ionosphere or AGC)

As serendipity would have it, fifty odd years later I found a 'new' station just the other day while testing a Beverage antenna. The station is in Tasmania, 2SE, and wow, do they play real music; deja vu kicking in here-----.

Tasmania, 2SE

Is that a typo? Tas station call signs would normally begin with 7.

Yes, sorry, 7SE. Still thinking New South.

No new AM stations in Tasmania, that I know of.
Maybe you mean 7SD in the north east of the state.
Been operating since 1954.
JJ

Could well be, SD sounds similar to SE. Launceston businesses are often mentioned during commercial breaks.
I better revise my log book if SE doesn't exist.

I wish VIC had AM stations like yours and NSW. Although many years ago, I remember a show from NSW called "Room to move" which would reach my airspace after midnight, but I'm not sure which station it was. 2SM?

7SD is on FM according to their site. I can't find a station called 7SE.

What frequency (roughly) do you have the radio tuned to?

WA2ISE: Valve radios here were promoted on valve number at times too, even though most were four or five valve. Some were heavily pushed with the extra valve or two even though in reality, five was plenty for most purposes.

Fast forward to today, a radio inside a mobile phone has a billion or two...

UPDATE: Take your pick from this list of Tasmanian callsigns...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_station_callsigns_in_Tasmania

Yes, I listen to 7SD from the Latrobe Valley in Vic most days without issue. Located 540kHz on the dial. With a strong station close by 531kHz cross talk can sometimes be an issue though.

Most likely a translator located right near the coast. The signal would have no trouble getting across the strait.

Yes my Super radios have no issues pulling it in. I am about 100km inland with the Strzelecki Ranges between me and the coast. The set I mainly use listen to 7SD is my National AKN 6volt valve radio. Yes it needs a long wire but it's performance at the lower end of the dial is very good to say the least.

It's in that list you linked to: 7SD, 540kHz, Scottsdale.

So it is. I wonder why they don't advertise that on their website. They state three FM frequencies only. Maybe that is the fashion these days.

Probably in a hope they can close down and switch off the AM transmitter.

They would love to shut down AM, first they have to figure out how to reach bush dwellers with their short-range FM transmissions.

"7SD previously operated from studios in Scottsdale's King Street. It provided a community service by joining together locals over the large north-east Tasmania area by for example publishing cooking books filled with recipes by locals. There are no longer local radio broadcasts from Scottsdale itself. 7SD and SeaFM are both now retransmitted from Launceston with Sea FM becoming Chilli North East a retranslated version of 90.1 Chilli FM, 540 7SD is a retranslated version of 89.3 LAFM (formerly 7LA Launceston)."

From Wikipedia.

When my family lived at Mirboo North in the Strezlecki Ranges, 7AD (Devonport) & 7BU (Burnie) would romp in during the day as clear as 3TR (Sale) and 3UL (Warragul).

I don't ever recall listening to 7SD though.