Looks quite familiar, I've had this one for many years :)

I'm looking for a Hitachi TH-621, 6 trans portable. 9 v - AM only

I think it's about 1960-61 vintage.

It has a white ivory case, with black rotary dial on the face.
I think it has a black leather case. Will try to find it.

I have one that I've had for many years and it still works pretty well.
Would like to find a couple for parts or a real nice one too.

Do you have any info on the Htachi, or know how to find info?

I just found the same radio, but another color on Ebay.

Too high, but I think I'll get it for the box, etc.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...240764348&rd=1

Hitachi TH621 1959
 

I have a good little book here on transistor sets. it mainly gives a description, year, and appx value. Many sets are listed. There are some photos of a few of the sets.

I also have another book that gives some great photos and a bit of history on transistor radios.

From what this book says, your TH-621 is from 1959. It claims that the value is somewhere between 65 to 85 dollars, but this book came out way before ebay hit the web (which made various items go up or down in value).

More web research found the Hitachi! Made about 1958.

This is pix I found on web, mines not nearly as nice.

My Zenith Royal 20
 

Here are some pictures of my early-sixties, eight-transistor Zenith Royal 20 radio. It's in excellent condition and plays beautifully. The Royal 20 is a fairly common model, but seems to be very well-designed and constructed. It was one of the first portables that Zenith made in Hong Kong, having at last thrown in the towel in trying to compete with the Japanese in this line.

The entire front of the radio is a single zinc die casting, heavily chromed on the exterior. The chrome plating is in mint condition, except that it is starting to show some small pits (just like that huge, potmetal hood ornament on your granddaddy's DeSoto). But these are down in the grooved areas, and don't show up too much. The one-piece pebbled back cover is made of plastic, and is like new. There's no separate door or cover to access the batteries, you have to remove a single, coin-slot screw, and remove the entire cover. This radio uses the now-discontinued E640 camera batteries, though they can still be found if you look around.

An interesting feature of this radio is its angled volume control. On radios where the tuning knob is mounted directly to the tuning capacitor's shaft (not "geared down" in some fashion), it is desirable to have as large a diameter knob as will practically fit within the overall design of the radio, as it makes it easier to "fine-tune". The designers of the Royal 20 made its tuning knob almost as wide as the radio itself, and this required them to mount the volume control at an angle, as you can somewhat see in the picture below. The two knobs actually "overlap" slightly, and the volume control knob is cone-shaped to make its knurled circumference parallel with the side of the radio.

An unfortunate consequence of using such a large tuning knob is that the size of the speaker had to be restricted. The oval-shaped speaker only occupies the bottom half of the face, and measures a scant 1-1/8 x 1-3/4 inches.

The radio itself measures 2-3/8 x 2-3/4 x 1-1/4 inches, and was obviously designed to compete with a number of other manufacturers who were turning out "sub-miniature" radios. Even so, as you can see from the picture below, the Royal 20 is a hulk compared to Standard's Micronic Ruby.

Paula

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...os/ROYCOMP.jpg

CLEAN Zenith! That little puppy must weigh a good bit for a small radio considering all of the metal on the front.

THis forum is WAY cool! A couple of years ago I found one on them early Sony "sports" radios with HF bands.
When I was a kid, I remember someone brought that radio to the beach. Talk about coveting a talk box. I finally found one for five bucks at a garage sale. I still use it.:D

Here's my first radio, a Lafayette transistor. I had to replace all the electrolytics to get it working again recently. I have more at my transistor web page

Re: The 2-Transistor radios. They were simply an amplified crystal radio.

Thanks, Charlie! Yes, it does seem heavy for such a small radio!

And LOUD, too! It seems like as soon as you turn it on, it's at about 3/4 volume, and then it only gets slightly louder as you turn it up. Any ideas what might be causing this? :confused:

I do know that the original mercury batteries were rated at 1.4 volts, and the alkaline batteries I'm using are 1.5 volts, but that slight difference in voltage shouldn't make that much of a difference, should it? :dunno:

Paula

volume
 

Does it sound scratchy as well? Try some cleaner spray and see what happens. Even if it isn't scratchy, it may correct it. I had a similar problem with the balance control on an old Pioneer SX3600. Turn it just a little, and it would act as if you turned it alot! Some spray fixed it right up... made the changes in the balance smooth and even.

Re: volume
 

No, it's not scratchy sounding at all. And it worked perfectly just a few days ago.

On your advice, I did go ahead and treat it with some DeoxIT®, and then CaiLube®, and it didn't make any difference at all :no: (other than making the knob easier to turn). It looks like I'll have to dig a bit deeper into this one... :headscrat

Paula

GE transistor radio
 

GE pocket transitor radio. Not mint. Not valuable. Not like the radio I had as a kid. It is the radio I had as a kid. My best guess is that it dates from about 1965.

Re: GE transistor radio
 

I grew up in the '60s and '70s. Would walk around my neighborhood in my hometown as a kid with a transistor pocket radio all the time in the summer. No earphone, just the speaker near my ear. AM radio was a lot more fun to listen to in those days than it is now (more variety of programming then). One odd thing, though, I've never quite figured out. There was an AM radio station in Cleveland, 50 kW, 1220 KHz, top 40 and all that, which came in great in my hometown, a suburb of Cleveland. The part I can't figure out even now, 30-some years later, is why, when I would walk past a certain spot near a metal pole supporting a flashing school speed-limit sign, the station would always come in much louder than at any other area in the neighborhood. Perhaps that was close to the station's main antenna pattern, or in line with it, or something like that? :dunno: My hometown is about 20 miles east of Cleveland and some 30 miles southwest of where the city's radio and TV stations have their towers; believe me, I had better AM radio reception there than where I live now, in a small town (I am now about 30 miles from Cleveland and 45[!] miles from the city's broadcasting stations, radio and TV; the AM radio reception is often poor, with a 500-watt oldies station 20 miles from here simply fading into the noise when it cuts its power to 42 watts, among others in Cleveland whose reception here is good during the day, but fair to poor at night).

FM reception here, however, is really good. I can hear every Cleveland station as well as I did when I lived in the suburbs. My stereo, however (Aiwa NSX-888A) doesn't seem to bring in FM stations that well on an indoor wire dipole; I had to get a special amplified antenna for it. It works well now, but, as I said, stereo reception is very poor using the dipole. This makes me wonder, as I have a 1973 Sony AM/FM stereo portable radio which brings in every Cleveland FM station in stereo, using only its built-in whip antenna. I read somewhere that the FM tuners in many bookshelf stereos are not as good as a good transistor radio; I wonder if that may be why my Sony receiver will work well on an indoor antenna in my area, whereas my stereo, with a digital AM/FM tuner, needs a special amplified antenna to bring in the local stations properly.


BTW, I like your hi-fi speaker setup, what little I can see of it in the image you attached to your post. For four years I had my own system's speakers on the floor in my apartment, on either side of my desk. About two months ago I finally got around to putting the speakers on stands (TechCraft 21" ones). Not only do they sound better now, they look better as well (at the same location as they were before, only 21" higher now).

I like how you have your GE pocket radio sitting near RCA's "Nipper" dog statuette. Brings back memories of when GE and RCA were American companies. I have always liked Nipper, especially the picture of him sitting before the horn of an old wind-up phonograph, listening to "His Master's Voice". I often get tears in my eyes looking at that picture, as it makes me wonder if Nipper missed his master when he was listening to the latter's voice on that phonograph; but that's just me.