Gregory Mosher writes:
The Mrs. and I went for a drive yesterday, we ended up in an antique dealer about 25 miles south of here. I spied a radio I'd seen the last time I was there (2 years ago) same spot on shelf, same sticker, more dust. Sticker said it worked, no apparent damage, good cosmetics. What the heck - I decided to make an offer. We haggled and the thing followed me home. A Nordmende Globetraveler III, a multi-band portable built in 1969 - my first Vintage German made Transistor radio.
Specs:
Size: Rectangular 12.25" x 4.24" x 8.25"
Weight: 11.25 lbs with batteries (5- D cell)
Bands: LW, AM, Marine Band (1.7-3.5 MHz), FM, and 11 SW band (broadcast 13-80 meters)
5" speaker w/ separate tweeter.
Extras: 50" telescoping antenna that rotates\swivels, FM AFC switch, Wide\Narrow bandwidth switch, separate Bass & Treble knobs, tuning meter. The Bass knob also serves as a dial light - turn for Bass adjust and push for dial lights. The Treble knob similar - push for battery test.
First thing I did after getting home was find the batteries, Windex, rubbing alcohol, Armor-all, q-tips and paper towels. Installed the batteries and gave it a quick test drive. Powers on, no scratchy pots (bonus) dial lights work and this thing receives on all bands - woohoo.
The radio cabinet is black leatherette covered wood - bottom is plastic and top is where the faceplate\dial are - it's plexiglass with a real metal chrome surround. Band selector buttons are metal chrome and knobs are chrome colored plastic. There is also a real metal chrome & plastic handle to carry and pivot so as to prop up faceplate for access while radio on it's side. Speaker grill on one side is aluminum (pictured) and opposite side has a smaller grill made of chrome.
Spend a few hours cleaning & polishing - shined up nice!
I noticed only two problems:
A: LW, AM, and Marine Band share same tuning knob - and MAN is that tuning stiff - hard to turn it - probably dried up great somewhere.
B: The SW band selector switch is rotary - 11 band positions in all. I noticed that a few of the Bands - at first were dead - until I wiggled the band switch knob - sounds like some poor contacts.
Tonight I decided to address these issues - took the thing apart - removal of three screws on the bottom which allow for removal of the top faceplate and then the wood body slides up and off - leaving the metal chassis - a densely compact mass of late 1960's electronics and wires.
Deoxit was the cure for both problems.
The LW, AM, Marine band tuning knob shaft travels through two long brass collars. I sprayed a bit of deoxit at the top of each and then let capillary action and knob twisting work it's magic. Thirty seconds later there was virtually no resistance to turn the knob - deoxit loosened up the grease in there. Used a q-tip to remove excess deoxit.
The SW band selector knob shaft turns ~ six thin round wafer disks, each separated by a inch or so. Each wafer disk has flat metal plates around it's perimeter - these line up with a variety of connectors when rotated - different connectors to make each band come alive. This whole thing was approx 6 inches long - sort of making a cylindrical assembly. This assembly was behind\surrounded by several tiny wire coils all hooking into the jumble of connections the wafer disks are connected to. The wire is like 40-gauge. Tiny-small and thin... My spidy-senses were tingling looking at that assembly. I carefully guided the deoxit plastic tube tip through the wire mess at each disk and deposited a SMALL amount of deoxit - followed by multiple turns of the selector knob. This was to clean the various contacts. Where possible I used a q-tip to suck up any extra deoxit. Also being careful to NOT to get deoxit into any of the coils.
A bit more cleaning, vacuuming up of foam dust and then reassembly.
Now the radio LW, AM, Marine Band knob is easy to turn and all the SW bands make proper electrical contact w/o wiggling the knob.
So - how does this thing work? Overall I'm very pleased - sound is fantastic - perhaps better than my other radios. That large speaker and wood cabinet makes a difference.
NPR classical on FM sounds great
AM sensitivity is good - Albeit, this is not a Panny RF2200. All the northeast US and Canada 50kw stations were there. Selectivity good too - I could clearly hear 50KW 1170 WRVA - some 300 miles away even though 1180 WHAM is a local 50KW station ~15 miles away.
All the usual international broadcasters were there on SW - Cuba, Spain, China on 49 & 31 meters, New Zealand, and Radio Australia were loud and clear on 19 meters. Seems wherever I was there were plenty of US religious stations too. With no BFO or SSB utilities will not be your thing.
While not much on LW these days I did hear the local NAV beacons.
Both AM and SW were greatly improved with a long wire clipped to the telescoping antenna.
I did notice a antenna\ground connection on the side of the unit - I'll have to look into trying those
Regards,
Gregory Mosher
Pictures:
Radio front side and top, then pic of radio on it's side using the handle to,prop it up, then a shot of the front with speaker grill. Telescoping antenna is upper left on faceplate.
It looks fantastic. Nice style----sort of reminds me of a 1960s era car!
Posted by: Angelo | July 15, 2013 at 03:38 AM
This radio in its day was on a par with Grundig Satelits,if you search you'll find the Nordmende comes with different colour cases,even a wood effect,it was available with SW broadcast bands on the rotary tuner & an amatuer band version,I have about 4 versions in my collection,cannot verify exact number as collection is in storage due to restricted house space for 100 odd radios!You did well to restore it after it apparently being on the shelf for years in the shop
Posted by: Bob Balser | July 15, 2013 at 04:21 AM
I have several NordMende Globetrotters/travelers too, and they beat my best Grundig 5000 and 6000 models from that time on both sound and station getting here. The simpler Globetrotter II is very good on AM and FM and the limited SW coverage it has as well. If you tune carefully you can find really weak AM and FM stations next to powerhouses, and hear the weak ones without interference. They are easy to miss without careful tuning.
Posted by: FARMERIK/Richard Hayden | July 15, 2013 at 12:41 PM
The NordMende radios were designed for use in 6 volt autos, and run fine on 6 volts instead of 7.5. Most have a Motorola antenna jack for a car antenna, but some have a European antenna jack. They also have powerful audio amps in them for portables, and drive efficient Hi-Fi speakers VERY nicely too. Both Grundig and NordMende large portables usually have 5 pin DIN sockets with stereo line in and outs for tape or home use.
Posted by: FARMERIK/Richard Hayden | July 15, 2013 at 01:23 PM
Does she tune past 104 on the FM dial?
Posted by: Drive-In-Freak | July 15, 2013 at 04:30 PM
Never mind. I see the 108 in one of the pictures. Cool.
A lot of those strange looking Euro models like that one had 104 as the top of the FM dial. Also most of them had a backwards dial for some reason.
Posted by: Drive-In-Freak | July 15, 2013 at 04:34 PM
Yea, FM goes to 108. The Nordmende Globemaster named units were for export to USA, thus the proper freq range for FM. The comparable unit in Germany were named Globetrotter. Apparently RCA owned that name for radios here, so Nordmende changed it for US export. Some stuff was not changed - all the input\output jacks on the side of the radio - for audio, power, antenna are weird, non standard from stuff I'm familiar with.
I spent some more time tonite after sunset doing a side-by-side compare against a Panasonic rf 2200. Sound quality with a good signal was better on the Nordmande but it does not equal the Panny for selectivity/sensitivity. Still - fun the tune around on.
Seems I'll also have to crack the case again sometime - the Marine band select switch needs a cleaning as sometimes one has to "engage" it a few times to activate the band.
Farmerik - I recognize your name from ultralightdx. Do you have a manual for one of these things. I'd pay you for photocopy\postage chgs.
Regards,
Gregory
Posted by: Gregory Mosher | July 15, 2013 at 08:44 PM
Gregory
Sockets etc were standard for Europe,DIN etc Others have mentioned 104 on FM not being standard, that was standard at the time for Europe,there has always been a world outside the USA! (lol)
Posted by: Bob Balser | July 16, 2013 at 01:29 AM
Sorry for my poor wording - yes, there are equipment standards other than what is used here in the US.
Posted by: Gregory Mosher | July 16, 2013 at 10:09 AM
No manuals here, just many years experience owning them. When looking for weak stations, use both hands and turn up the volume as you tune away from strong stations, and the weak ones appear. If you don't do that you will miss them. Some of these vintage radios have two or three gang 'volume' controls which are custom made for the model, and connect to the RF, IF and Audio amplifier stages with different tapers. It takes a little time to get used to the quirks, but once you do you should hear far more than most any other portable. Years ago a friend had a brand new Panasonic RF-2900, and my mid level NordMende [Globemaster?] heard more on every band it tuned and cost less than half as much.
Posted by: FARMERIK/Richard Hayden | July 16, 2013 at 10:14 AM
I have this radius friend
but I have no idea how to turn on, then turning the right mouse button pressed down should stop folowing button on the right if let loose this button gives hear absolutely listen, can you explain as turning the radio please?
Posted by: alex | July 16, 2013 at 11:59 AM
Gregory
I have this radius friend
but I have no idea how to turn on, then turning the right mouse button pressed down should stop folowing button on the right if let loose this button gives hear absolutely listen, can you explain as turning the radio please?
Posted by: alex | July 16, 2013 at 01:02 PM
The on-off switch is in the volume control which is in the lower left corner when the numbers on the dials are right side up. It is on the same end of the radio as the pull up whip antenna. Mine has a tiny square window next to the volume and on-off switch in which you can see red when the radio is on and white when it is off. Then you still have to push down one of the 5 square buttons to the right to select which band to listen to. If both the FM and MB buttons are down, you have selected the Tape or Auxiliary input from the DIN jack, and you will hear nothing.
Posted by: FARMERIK/Richard Hayden | July 17, 2013 at 11:38 AM
Thanks Richard, I already did, but still not heard, even I press and hold the second button (circular, silver has drawn a spotlight and spiral) to be heard on radio, only in this way can hear AM and FM if I release the button (which automaically jump up) no longer hear anything. You know something?. in advance thank you very much for everything
Posted by: alex | July 17, 2013 at 04:16 PM
That is not the way it should work. When you push that knob, it should light the dial lamps. Rotating that knob is the bass control. There should be a C clef symbol for bass. Next to that knob is treble control marked with a G clef symbol [as used in written western music] Push that knob to test the battery which will show on the tuning indicator while you hold it down.
Sounds like a poor connection of power which only works with the added load of the dial light bulb. Battery contacts or power plug, and switch contacts could be dirty.
Posted by: FARMERIK/Richard Hayden | July 17, 2013 at 08:32 PM