In the late 1960's/early 1970's, I had 2 radios in succession, a dreadful little japanese set which was free with cereal packet tops, followed by a KB Starlight Rhapsody, a good set, but old & secondhand. One thing they had in common with each other, and 99% of all radios in the UK, was LW & MW coverage, and nothing else. In March, 1972, a colleague of my father brought his new radio to work, a Grundig Yacht Boy 210. My father was so impressed with the sound, he got one. He gave me his Bush TR130, as he no longer needed it, but it still only had MW & LW. Out of habit, my father only ever used those two wavebands on his new set, but when he wasn't using it, I explored the new world of FM, with it's incredible quality, and SW, with it's access to the world. It had a proper tape input/output socket, which I plugged my father's Pye spool tape recorder into, and about 18 months later, my own Murphy BA200 cassette recorder.
Then, in December 1974, having just turned 16, I got my first Grundig, a Signal 500 E, made in Portugal, smaller than the Yacht Boy, but still with impressive sound, and with greater SW coverage. Click here to go to the page of the one I have now (not my original one, sadly). The case is in a plain black military style, but the insides were the same as the stylish Elite Boy 600. The instruction book can be seen by clicking here, or going to the Operating instructions section.
A year later, I replaced the less than impressive Murphy BA200. The Murphy was a rebadged version of the Bush TP66 (which I recently (2002) bought a near-mint example of, via ebay), and the Murphy came without the Bush's carrying case. It was replaced with a Grundig C235, (styled differently, but internally identical to the C231 detailed in the 1974/75 catalogue) a truly brilliant upright style cassette recorder made at the Northern Ireland factory. This cassette recorder was stolen from a friend's house in 1981. I have now bought a C260 via Ebay, which is a very similar machine. I also still have the C235 instruction book, however, which also covers the C230 and C231.
My next purchase was in 1979, and the Signal 500 E was sold to help fund the purchase, of a C6200 mono radio cassette recorder, a real monster, which I kept for less than a year, trading it in for the C8800, covered elsewhere on this site.
In 1996, on July 12, my father died, on his 81st birthday. I have inherited his Yacht Boy, which is featured on this site.
During the 70's Grundig had an enviable reputation as producers of fine radios, the best in fact, in terms of reception, sound quality and build quality. As far eastern manufacturers crushed the UK electronics industry, and began to dominate the market with cheaper sets, Grundig were pushed back a little, as their sets were hardly budget, but for the discerning buyer, they remained the best buy.
