509
Item nr.


Grundig Ocean Boy 820 Portable

Wannabee world receiver.


Data for Grundig Ocean Boy 820
ProductionGermany, 1980.
Price was fl 406.
BandsLW (146-270 kHz), MW (520-1611 kHz), SW1 (3.5-6.5 MHz), SW2 (6.5-12 MHz), SW3 (12-22 MHz), FM 88-108 MHz).
CabinetPlastic. Size 35x23x10cm. Weight 2.9kg.
PowerBatt (6xD) or AC.
DocumentsRmorg.

The Design

The Grundig Ocean Boy 820 International is a big 1980 portable, with good sound quality and usable Short Wave reception. The inside reveals a clean PCB and big speaker. Wave selection is by two rotating switches. The top switch selects between Phono, FM, Long, Medium, and Short Wave, while the switch in the lower right corner selects between SW1, SW2, and SW3. The radio has some, but not all Tropical Bands: the 75 and 60 meter bands are on the SW1 dial, but the 90 and 120 meters are not covered. So far I've never been able to receive any stations on these bands, so the loss doesn't feel terrible, but with these bands I couldn't even continue trying.

There is mechanical fine tuning. When pushed in, the tuning knob rotates three turns to pass the full dial, while when pulled out this takes about 20 turns. Below the dial you'll find an S-meter. There is no BFO (for morse or SSB listening), no connection for an external antenna, and there is no dial illumination.


Obtained1/2020 from Cees (at Radiocafé).
Condition7; non-original knob, damaged antenna, broken power switch.
DisposedSold 2/2020.

This Object

This radio was given to me by one of the attendants when I gave my lecture on the Hurricane.

A nice, above-average radio in 1980, it is not very valuable anymore after 40 years. The whip antenna is damaged, the power switch lever broken off, and one of the knobs isn't the original one.

The power supply is neatly separated on the back panel. The wires have connectors that can be taken loose without soldering. The built in transformer consumes 2.4W when the radio is turned off (which costs about 5 euros per year) and 3.4W when playing FM. If you ever want to use a Grundig radio like this, make sure to install a Switched Mode power supply. This will seriously harm the reception on the AM bands, but FM still sounds fine.


Part of Gerard's Radio Corner.
Generated by SiteBuilder on 26/2/2024 by Gerard (g.tel@uu.nl)