How to Make a Bluetooth Adapter for your Vintage Tube Radio

Schematics for a tube radio bluetooth adapter
This design works with vintage tube radios that have a phono input.

Parts list

KRC-86B v4.0 Bluetooth Module
TP4056 1A Battery Charger Module
18650 Battery Holder
18650 Battery
Panel mount micro USB female connector
Adafruit 16mm Illuminated Pushbutton Switch
2x 15K resistors
1/4″ mono jack plug
project box

I love vintage tube radios. They look cool and the tubes give off a warmer sound. While you can obviously play AM and FM radio stations on them, unfortunately there aren’t as many radio stations as there use to be before the internet and streaming music apps came along.

One option to enjoy your tube radio even more is to add a Bluetooth Receiver to it. That way you can play anything you can get on your phone through your old tube radio like music streaming apps Pandora and Spotify. You can even listen to old radio shows like the vintage crime radio series, Dragnet, for an added touch of nostalgia.

This Buetooth Adapter plugs into the existing phono input of a radio. Not all radios have a phono-input so check your radio and make sure it has a phono-input before you go out and buy the parts for this Bluetooth Adapter. Since it plugs into the existing phono-input jack on your radio, it doesn’t require any modifications of the original circuitry to work. That’s pretty important to vintage radio collectors.

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