Gerard's Clarville PP8

270
Item nr.

Clarville PP8 Portable

Youth memory.

**Data for Clarville PP8**
Production	France, 1962. Price was FF159.
Bands	LW, MW.
Cabinet	Plastic. Size 22x14x6 cm. Weight 900 gr.
Power	Batt 2x4.5V.
Documents	Schema (from inside sticker).

The Design

My very first radio, an old portable I got from my parents around 1971, looked very much like this one. It isn't the same though, my radio was a Philips. Clarville is a French radio brand, though the radios were actually produced by Sonolor. The French design is clearly recognizable, for example from the antenna plug and the use of flat 4.5V batteries. This radio also uses the center voltage of the batteries, as you can see from the schema, which makes it impossible to supply the radio from a 9V battery or adapter. (Though the LS isn't supposed to carry DC current, so alternatively, the speaker can be disconnected from the battery and connected to ground through a capacitor instead. I have not tried this.)

Obtained	2/2006 from Karin Lampen; sn=0656751.
Condition	8; crck in dial, otherwise neat and complete.
Value (est.)	10€.
Sound sample	PLAY SOUND French song: in your nose there is a little hole.

This Object

Inside picture, showing the (empty) Philips batteries that were inside when I got the radio. The battery compartment has only three contacts. The long stripe of one battery must be folded over to share the contact with the short strip of the other one.

Of the four stations listed on the LW dial, three are still operational in 2020: France1 on 162kHz carries no sound but still transmits time signals, BBC still works but now on 198kHz, and RTL Luxemburg on 234kHz is still crystal clear all over Western Europe.

Part of Gerard's Radio Corner.
Generated by SiteBuilder on 26/2/2024 by Gerard (g.tel@uu.nl)