General Electric Superadio III

Romeo Wolf

Romeo Wolf

Super Member
Picked one of these bad boys up at my local Goodwill for just $8, works great. Just needs a new telescoping FM antenna.
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Sounds great too, especially with the wideband AM toggle switch which improves treble response well beyond 10Khz.

Well, I guess I need to collect myself the other two superadios :D
 
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I have the original Superadio here. The big box sounds like a high-quality table radio. I bought mine new in 1979 at a Long’s Drug store in Tracy, CA for $29.88. They had just hit the shelves. You waited and got the better price.

When you are ready for a fidelity upgrade (I know – hard to believe) then try the very similar Panasonic RF-1401D.

Because of Pany’s different electronic tuning, it gets a wee bit less AM reception.

My Superadio has 700mW output (later versions have 900mW.) At higher volume, it gets shrill.

The Pany has a healthier 2W. Louder and more fidelity. It’s fuller and smoother sounding.

Pany has loudness and battery saver switches.

Both sound very ambitious. The modern version radios are good but when compared (I know – ‘compared’ is a such a nasty word today) they sit deep in the shadows of these two great antiques.
 
I've a Pana Tech 1000 in the box, I prefer the Sony 3-band 5450B I got before the Super B and it to the Pana.
 
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I've had them all several times. The II is the best of the 3 both in looks and function. Great carry along radios that are easy on batteries. Anytime I see one in good shape at a cheap price I'll pick them up and pass them along because who doesn't need a great radio.

Here's what I'm listening to now. Made in Japan Sharp FV-1800a multi-band. Had a volume control slider that was causing problems. Couple of light squirts of De-oxit and it plays like a champ.

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We have three SRII's and an SRIII.
The III sits on the floor near the TV for tuning in the local broadcast of the Lions games while the network audio on the TV is muted.
One of the II's is on Fishwife's bedside table, another is on my desk in the basement, and the third is on my worktable basically as a spare. So far, all have been working well.

We first got turned on to them when we visited friends who were living semi-off-grid years ago in the UP. Only one local station with block programming. The SuperRadio was the one that they used to reach out for more variety. Shortly after returning home we bought a new one. The others were all used ones from thrift sales.
 
For a niche product, they sold surprisingly well. I bought my new B model @ an Army PX in Germany out of curiosity because of the features touted on the box.
I have to wonder if one remote target market was Alaska North Slope oil pipeline construction workers.
 
I've owned examples of all three Superadios, plus the Radio Shack look-alike 12-903. The original SR is a fine set; the II is basically the same thing but with the addition of a tweeter, which isn't really necessary for AM listening (probably plays more static than anything, methinks). The III, of course, was the last of the lot; the bandwidth control helps with receiving stations which are close together on the dial, but they tend to have issues with the varactor tuning. I haven't used mine much, but it seems to work OK for the most part. I have owned other high-performance AM/FM (and sometimes SW) radios, including the Zenith Royal 2000 and Grundig Satellit 205/Transistor 5000; the Zenith probably needs new caps by this point, and the Grundig's a bit more involved than your average portable, but both are excellent performers like the SRs when things are working correctly.
-Adam
 
The SR 1&2 generally work fine as-found. My flea mkt 1B find is the only one I know of with a bad chip. Abused and corroded battery compartments are the main problems.
 
Great review of the GE SRs:

https://radiojayallen.com/ge-superadios-evolution-of-a-classic/

They were the radio of choice for AM DXers for a long time, advertised in all the radio magazines. I have an SRIII bought new. Nice find for $8. They are common on eBay but not so much in the wild.

If you are into AM DXing now though, or into just about anything related to radio, its hard to beat an SDR and a computer. Being able to see what signals are present on the spectrum is a huge advantage.
 
GyroTuner said:
Great review of the GE SRs:

https://radiojayallen.com/ge-superadios-evolution-of-a-classic/

They were the radio of choice for AM DXers for a long time, advertised in all the radio magazines. I have an SRIII bought new. Nice find for $8. They are common on eBay but not so much in the wild.

If you are into AM DXing now though, or into just about anything related to radio, its hard to beat an SDR and a computer. Being able to see what signals are present on the spectrum is a huge advantage.
Click to expand...
Have you tried DXing a Crystal set? There are some groups into this, definitely not your basic slider coil sets.
 
GyroTuner said:
Great review of the GE SRs:

https://radiojayallen.com/ge-superadios-evolution-of-a-classic/

They were the radio of choice for AM DXers for a long time, advertised in all the radio magazines. I have an SRIII bought new. Nice find for $8. They are common on eBay but not so much in the wild.

If you are into AM DXing now though, or into just about anything related to radio, its hard to beat an SDR and a computer. Being able to see what signals are present on the spectrum is a huge advantage.
Click to expand...
I like to AM DX on occasion, although I'd be more likely to use my Zenith Trans-Oceanic D7000Y for that (especially since it has a built in dial light)
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The Superadio easily belt-whips the T/O's a** in terms of frequency response though :)
 
GyroTuner said:
No. I played around with very simple crystal radios as a kid but could only receive the strongest local station.

I don’t know how well they work, but some crystal radios are works of art, like those on this site:

http://crystalreceiver.co.uk
Click to expand...
Yes, they are.
We did yearly contesting with logs showing more than 100 different stations with distances more than thousand miles on some. A guy in Hawaii kept coming in first place.
 
Pio1980 said:
This is my first contest set, built on the carcass of a BC-221 frequency meter. I used a indoor 'L' ceiling antenna counterpoised with the HVAC ductwork and did reasonably well.
https://crystalradio.net/crystalsets/tk2/index.shtml
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Cool , I'll check it out later .those Bc-221 are a great.You do have to have the chart with them though as each meter was calibrated to the chart they came with.My dad had one and use to use it to align our radios along with other varius other radios.
 
radioactive said:
Cool , I'll check it out later .those Bc-221 are a great.You do have to have the chart with them though as each meter was calibrated to the chart they came with.My dad had one and use to use it to align our radios along with other varius other radios.
Click to expand...
I have a complete Cardwell Freq Meter.
On this crystal set, the secondary detector stage tuner with the fancy dialwork can be chart calibrated as nothing affects its tracking, the same can't be said for the primary antenna tuner that therefore has a large plain knob for tuning.
 
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