Overview of another weird alarm clock

Back in October of last year I created an article going over the basics of a rather novel alarm clock from the 1970s. Well, here I am again with another one, only this one isn't so novel, it's just... weird.

Introducing The Controller from Sears, Roebuck and Co. At first glance an ordinary 1980s clock radio which upon closer inspection reveals that it's own name is not what it implies: The Controller controls you, not the other way around. As always, you can click the photos for higher quality versions.

So first of all, let's start with the features. This device comes with a red LED digital clock, an AM/FM/TV radio, and a switched outlet, both of which can be set to activate as the alarm, though only one at a time. You would expect there to be a standard alarm, but for as far as I know there isn't one. This device does have a timer that counts down anywhere from one minute to 59 minutes, and when that reaches zero it sounds a buzzer. However, from what I can tell the only alarms you can set according to the clock are the outlet and the radio. As you can see from the photo below, the control buttons are laid out at random. The snooze button for the radio is at the top of the cluster in between the display and the tuner, however the buttons to turn off the switched outlet or the radio completely are at the bottom of the cluster below the display. And they're each less than half the size of the snooze button.

You may also notice all the buttons are rather cramped together. Well take a look to the right half and you'll see there's barely anything there at all! Just two switches, one that toggles the radio between turning on at a set time, and being on all the time (Which is labled as Auto and On) and the other which toggles between the different bands, AM, FM/TV1 and TV2. Which for those who are too young to remember, Television used to be entirely analog, which meant the signal that carried the audio was going to be about the same as any audio signal that's encoded by frequency modulation (FM). As a result, if you tuned an FM radio higher or lower than what it was designed to go, you would start picking up broadcast TV stations. It just happens that for this radio that's a feature, not a bug. As for why it's FM/TV1 and TV2, with the first position you get the entire FM radio band and half the VHF TV band on one position, and the other half of the VHF TV band in the other position, just so the tuner isn't obnoxiouslly long.

Now, going back to the left half of the radio, you might notice a few buttons missing. With most alarm clocks you are given three buttons to set the time, labled "HOUR", "MINUTE" and "TIME" (Unless you have that neat Spartus clock I talked about last year :]). You hold down the TIME button to put the clock into time set mode, and you hold down either the HOUR or MINUTE buttons simultaneously to advance either part of the clock forward. When you reach 12AM on the hour position or 59 on the minute position, it rolls over. However on this weird radio you have a "FAST" and "SLOW" button. To put the clock into time set mode you set the switch labled "TIME SET" to "Clock". Then, you hold down the FAST button to progress the clock at a ludicrous speed. It's up to you to release the button at the right moment and hold down the SLOW button to get a more precise time. If you go ten minutes over, you can't turn the clock back, and you can't adjust the hours or minutes individually. You have to hold down the FAST button and cycle through all 24 hours to get another shot. The same instructions apply to setting the alarm, only you set the TIME SET switch to "Outlet/Al". At first I thought it was Outlet/AI because of the font, but it's actually short for alarm. Go figure.

Now for something annoying. This clock breaks a very common rule for digital clocks that threw me off before I had the chance to realize it was different. The LED in the corner of the display that indicates whether it's AM or PM? Well, guess what? The LED lights up when it's AM, rather than PM as done in almost every other clock you've ever seen. I'm thankful I didn't miss any appointment because of this, as once I set the alarm for 9PM, when I meant to set it for 9AM. Had I gone to bed any earlier, I wouldn't have woken up at 9AM, and the only reason I realized my mistake is that the alarm went off as I was drifting off to sleep.

The last really weird thing about this clock is the switched outlet. It's rated for 120V, 60Hz, 10 amps and 960 watts maximum. That's all good, but it doesn't do any good when the outlet doesn't accept polarized plugs! I mean, I would assume the outlet is for plugging in a lamp or something, but I can't find a single lamp in the house with a plug that will fit this outlet. In fact, the only thing I can think of that would work with this is my Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster, as those things never came with a polarized plug. Now I know absolutely jack squat about electrical engineering, so for all I know lamps with non-polarized plugs were common in the 80s. But is there really any reason they couldn't just add an outlet that takes polarized plugs? I'd think I would be much safer anyways, so why not?

Other than that, there isn't much to talk about. Radio comes in clear, it looks tacky but stylish at the same time, with it's simulated wood cabinet and almost entirely box-like shape. And just so nobody is left wondering, this was purchased at a yard sale earlier this year for $2. And one last thing to leave you off with, here's a recording of the buzzer when the timer reaches zero.

(So there are other photos to share, so here you go.)

Argot

Page created: Monday, September 28th, 2020