How to bench test a radio

[Peters02]

I have the radio out of my 72.  The car is no where near having any wiring in it, but found time to clean up the radio. 
Question - Anyone know of a way to bench test this thing?  Can I test this thing by hooking up a speaker, grounding it and directly linking it to a 12v battery or will that fry it?

Thanks
Peter

[Bob]

I have the radio out of my 72.  The car is no where near having any wiring in it, but found time to clean up the radio. 
Question - Anyone know of a way to bench test this thing?  Can I test this thing by hooking up a speaker, grounding it and directly linking it to a 12v battery or will that fry it?

Thanks
Peter

I use a jump pack, hook the + and - wires up, run 2 wires for the speakers to a known good speaker, and plug in an old antenna. Works everytime. 

[Neal_J]

To test radios, I've successfully used an old Radio Shack 12 volt power supply to run power to the hot lead, a ground to the chassis, two wires to a known good speaker (with the correct impedence), and an old antenna (which I've also grounded).   Works fine, as would a car batter in lieu of the power supply.

[Peters02]

Thanks guys.  I will give it a go this weekend.

Peter