20080330

Half My Age - GE 7-4956B






Cleaning up around the house, I found this old orphan buried under stuff on my chest of drawers. I'm fairly certain I bought this old fellow some time when I was in the Navy. It is at least as old as my oldest daughter. I used it for years, but replaced it with a fancy new-fangled CD playing thing...a couple of them, actually. These newer devices were really quite "functional". Read "lots of buttons". When I'm sleepy before going to sleep and sleepy when I wake up are not times to make me hunt around for buttons or read their lables. As I was looking at this thing, I realized that it had a function that I had not purchased in these other radio alarm clocks--9 volt battery backup! I shook it a bit. Darn! Something was shaking around loose inside. Darn! Probably broken. I flipped it over and checked for screws. It has seven small, easily accessible phillips head screws. Joy! It was a penny rattling around inside. Probably something one of the girls dropped in it a decade or so ago. I cleaned out a ton of dust, much of which was stuck on the speaker, put it back together, and tested it. The radio and alarm functions still worked fine.

Thinking to myself, "Hmmm...I wonder if the cassette tape player/recorder still works? Ahh...who cares...wait! What if my cheap little cassette deck audio adapter would work?" Out to the truck...in it went. It hummed. YYYEEESSSSS!! I plugged in my newest little Digital Audio Player (Iriver T60 - 4 Gig) and out came WONDERFUL (Mono) sound!

"Arielle! Want a good radio alarm clock?"

I gave her the newer CD playing one. Which DOES NOT, by the way, have a way to hook up an MP3 player. Back to the future, again.

I'm listening to an old sermon right now. This is GROOVY!
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6 comments:

Rel said...

lol.
I can tell you're excited. You've written this exactly as you'd say it... I was actually hearing your voice as I read :-D
I remember listening to Patch the Pirate on this thing!
goooood days...

Anonymous said...

Hello,

I have a question, I just got the same exact GE alarm clock today, I notice that I don't have to slide the volume up too far for the sound to be too loud. Is this normal with your GE alarm clock as well?

Thanks
Frankie,

Anonymous said...

Wow. A GE 7-4956B in pristine condition. Beautiful. I wish I had taken better care of mine.

To anonymous, yes, the alarm clock has a very dynamic range- not much volume is needed to wake up the entire block. That is the #1 reason why I bought the 7-4956B for $40 circa 1990.

If I had only realized how long it was going to last, how many other alarm clocks it was going to outlive, and exactly how awesome it was... I would have taken much better care of it.

Now I'm stuck hoping that I can find a replacement someday before mine finally kicks the bucket for good.

The only serious complaint I have about it is that when setting the time the clock will only move in very large increments. It is takes about 10 tries to set the time to the closest five minutes. To the minute is an even bigger challenge.

The snooze button still works flawlessly with very little effort though. I'd rather that button work than any of the others!

Anonymous said...

Just bought this today at the local thrift store for 3 bucks... works perfectly

Anonymous said...

I can't get the "OFF" button to shut off the radio. Help anyone??

Anonymous said...

I got mine for a high school graduation present in June 1989 from my parents. I have used it every day and it still is ticking as of July 2013. If you had yours unplugged and out of comission for awhile, it will probably last the rest of your life.