I don’t remember the exact conditions under which I purchased this, I’m just assuming I bought it from Goodwill or another thrift store at some point. Because it looked “neat”.
It’s actually not nearly as interesting visually as the previous vintage junk entry (the Panasonic). But the brand I’ve never heard of and the many frequency bands makes worth doing a double-take.
The plastic battery compartment seems to have degraded significantly over the many decades. I assume a lot of other parts inside the device are also quite degraded.
I’m pretty sure that weather band no longer exists and I know the analog TV bands were turned off. Leaving this as just a plain old AM/FM radio that likely won’t even function that well unless/until it’s restored. Which I have no interest in.
I wasn’t actually able to peel the leather (faux-leather?) case off if it. I don’t think it was made to and I wasn’t interested in trying any harder.
Here is the less-than itneresting side of device, just a an earphone jack.
This is also isn’t that interesting as it doesn’t really provide any hints as to the model number or a year of manufacture.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this SONNET brand was actually some kind of generic cheap thing back in the 70s and/or 80s.
Opening it up
The inside is actually a little interesting in that it’s again full sized parts instead of surface mount and it has something of a greasy look to it. I assume it was exposed to moisture at some point or it just has hasn’t survived the past 4 or five decades because it was never intended to.
The size of the parts actually implies to me it is more likely from the 70s versus the 80s.
Much like the Panasonic I think very few parts could be re-used in this device. The speaker looks quite generic but I could probably find a use for it if I tried and maybe some analog dials. Actually the chassis itself with that support bar would not be a terrible thing to keep.
The conclusion of this particular exploration is that it is a rather worthless piece of equipment that I should not have purchased.
Other entries on “vintage junk” can be found under the “vintage hardware” tag.
Tildes on the side 