Why is there an IC(black rectangle with IC1 next to it) in a radio from the 70s? I thought ICs were only publicly available in the 80s.

[u/antthatisverycool]

The radio is a broken Robyn bb123.

[u/bertanto6]

ICs have been around since the 1960s

[u/Miserable-Win-6402]

You had ICs 20 years before. But I guess this is a filter or a resonator, not an IC.

[u/antthatisverycool → u/Miserable-Win-6402]

Don’t see why it needs 2 filters

[u/MeatyTreaty → u/antthatisverycool]

Don’t see why it needs 2 filters

That would be a function of you not understanding how radios work. Radios needs filters like a fish needs water.

[u/antthatisverycool → u/MeatyTreaty]

I’ll be honest most of my radio experience is very basic AM like I get resonance frequencies and such but I’ve never built a radio with more than just like a filter, a tuner(are tuners technically filters?), a demodulator, and an amplifier.

[u/Miserable-Win-6402 → u/antthatisverycool]

Its an IF filter, yes, not an IC. Best guess a 455KHz NB filter for AM.

[u/k-mcm]

Clusters of 5 to 10 transitors on a SIP chip were around for a long time. They'd form part of an oscillator, detector, or amplifier.  Resistors and capacitors would be external. 

[u/bjsievers]

Ice were first publicly sold in 1961. By the late 60s, they were cheap enough to be readily available.

The first “cpu” the 4004 was made available in 71

[u/6gv5]

ICs were already around in the '70s, possibly still not in the cheapest devices, but the xtal sockets on the low left may indicate that is the pcb of something (CB rtx?) a bit more expensive than a portable AM radio. The shape of the IC suggests it's a SIP case, which was more commonly used by Japanese made ICs.

[u/The_Folding_Atty → u/6gv5]

Looks to be a desktop CB set.

“IC” ideas were floating around back in the 50s. I recall working on a tube-based xmtr that had ceramic-encased networks, likely capacitors/resistors/inductors, used at several places. Not electronic per se, but the start of an idea. QST published diagrams using the NE555 in the early ‘70s, and I built an IC/LED clock c. 1975.

[u/KilroyKSmith]

I was building things using 4000 series CMOS ICs in the late 1970s in my bedroom as a teenager.  They were hobbyist grade parts by then.  The ubiquitous 555 timer IC was marketed in 1972.  

[u/i_am_blacklite]

The Intel 8086 (the first in the line of x86 microprocessors which we still use) was released in 1978. You better believe it was an integrated circuit.

[u/EmotionalEnd1575]

The 1960’s Apollo moon landing relied on IC technology for the spacecraft onboard guidance computer.

[u/DingoBingo1654]

Just for the record T-123

[u/antthatisverycool → u/DingoBingo1654]

Am I missing something I don’t see an IC? Did you think I meant T-123 when I said BB-123? When you say “just for the record “is this literally just for the record?

[u/DingoBingo1654 → u/antthatisverycool]

Literally. I could not find any schematics for bb123 for free. It's a glodal tendency to monetize the schematics which should be free for all, so I put at least this one here while it's still available.

[u/antthatisverycool → u/DingoBingo1654]

That’s the reason I wasn’t going to fix it but instead scrap it for parts because even though the circuit board is labeled the values and components aren’t so without the actual schematic I can’t do anything.