Thanks again to Chris in North Bay, Ontario for another classic. This is the Citizen JTR-1292 and is exotic for a number of reasons. Obviously most important is the condition. Chris found this at a flea market (screw eBay) with the ad decals still intact! But even more interesting is the tuner on this baby. At first glance, it looks like your average radio tuner…but look closely, and you’ll notice there is no tuning dial. That’s right, this thing has synthesized tuning, controlled with push buttons. But the display has an analog facade! You can also see the LED readout for the programmable tape system. I’m curious about the Citizen brand name. I know this was a popular name in Canada through the ’80s, and equipment I believe equipment was manufactured in Korea, and distributed by a company called JIL. This stuff sold like hotcakes at Consumers Distributing chains. Anyone with any additional information?
Vintage Electronics Have Soul – The Pocket Calculator Show Website
On the one hand: interesting-looking unit! (And a boombox-atypical brand name that seems to be shared by that world-famous timepiece brand.) On the other hand: uhh … how DOES one tune the radio — especially, of course, the shortwave frequencies — on this circular-knobs-averse unit with precision matching that of a decent, knob-controlled, analog-tuner model, let alone with precision comparable to tuning a push-button, digital-tuning model?
made in Japan, not Korea