1993 VEF-221-1 World Band Radio, Unboxing and Using 1st Time in 20 Years

As am also into radios as much as I am into watches so here's my 1993 VEF-221-1 World Band Radio, Unboxing and Using for first time in a couple of decades in a Russian-language video.

The main entry on this radio is in this post.

 More info is via that link above but I am also going to note a few things here.

The VEF-221-1 is a world band radio by virtue of having 3 SW bands in addition to 1 LW, 1 MW and  1 FM band.

It is basically a post-WWII transistor radio but it has some things going for it - it has an automatic frequency control feature, a noiseless tuning on FM feature (FM band is provided via some microchip) and it still works at 24 years of age.

llya's Radio Shack: 1993 VEF-221-1 World Band Radio, Unboxing and Usin...: 1993 VEF-221-1 World Band Radio, Unboxing and Using for first time in a couple of decades. The main entry on this radio is in this post . ...

Shortwave Radio Receiver VEF 221-1

My Radio Receiver VEF 221-1 from 1993 made by the Riga State Electrotechnical Factory, Latvia, (VEF, Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika).

I believe its products were once known in Britain too, in particular.

A Soviet postage stamp -- 50 Years of the VEF Factory! ... 30 more years to go before the end.

VEF 221

To be exact, VEF-221-1, a penultimate model, there apparently was also a VEF-222.

The VEF factory was created in the pre-Soviet Latvia, flourished in the Soviet period but went bankrupt in 1999 soon after independence. 

I think Latvia now has no industry worth mentioning. But in the Soviet times, Riga had two major radio factories - VEF and Radiotekhnica, a major car factory and a commuter train-making plant -- all gone now [ETA May 6, 2014: scratch that bit - new information - the train building factory is up and running - RVR]. 

Funny, how the arrival of Western capitalists almost always spells an end to the domestic industry in Central or Eastern Europe. Maybe, that is exactly the idea. Anyway, back to the radio.

This radio was made in 1993 -- probably one of the last batches of VEF products.

It's plugged and working!

I should say the pictures are not quite as good as I would like them to be -- my little camera refused to focus properly. I tried to add a little sharpness and to remove glare and all via a picture processor but we get what we get. I am not going to re-do them -- time constraints and the end (a different or better) result is by no means assured given I would have to use the same camera again. 

The box is rare too, so I start with it. 

This is an original box, it contained this very radio and still does, although it pictures a previous modification of the VEF 221 radio -- a different speaker grille.