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Nipper and the transistor radio

Jeff,

I too spent one summer listening to one of the local radio stations using the above pictured GE radio. It still works when I install the battery. I can not remember how much I paid for it, although, I am sure it was not much.

GE and RCA were rivals for many years. That ended when GE bought RCA in the late 80's or early 90's?

Nipper listening to "his master’s voice” has to be one of the great images to represent a company. A picture does tell a story. It was all downhill for RCA when they dropped Nipper from their record labels.

I posed Nipper for the photo. Normally he sits atop one of my AR3's at the front of the listening room. By searching the AK website using the keyword Nipper you may find another picture of him sitting in his usual spot.

tcdriver

Some of my transistor radios.

Here are two old transistor sets that belonged to my grandparents...
I guess they aren't "pocket" sets, though they could probably fit in a coat pocket.:D

The brown leather set is an AM only Regency TR-5, I don't have the right bettery, it took a "sqaure" 9V battery, but when I put in a regular 9V, it won'y work, thought I go it to work one by connecting a 9V adaptor.

The second set is a Philco AM/FM form Japan, I don't knwo the model.
Sadly, my grandma had a habit of leaving the battteries in everything she had after she put them away, including this radio. The corrosion has eaten away the battey contacts, as well as the wires connecting the batteries to the board, and to the power adaptor socket, I have to figure out the wiring, before I can evne plug in an adaptor to check it out.

Found these at the tv shop yesterday. The one on the left is a Pearl Tone T-606. Six transistors. Could not find a listing for it. Tried putting batteries in it, but got nothing.

The one on the right is a Zenith Royal 500H. Eight transistors. My book says it's from 1962/63. Plays like a champ!

Both radios are AM, and use 4 AA batteries.

Sorry, I had to jump in and show off my transistor radios. The odd thing in the middle is a radio that I have had since i was a kid in the early 1970's. It was a radio that you attatched to your bicycle. I had a Sears bananna seat orange bike and this was placed in the center of the big swooping handle bars. It also had a button that sounded a horn. I was really big stuff at that point. It was made by Radio Shack. It also was detatchable and could remove it if you parked your bike.

polaraman

Love Nipper too!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

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.

Funny how the older stuff works better! My Zenith Transoceanics--Both brought back from the dead really pull in AM stations! Running a 3000 tonight. Sat nite swing on Am740 from Toronto. I live in Southeast NY. Lots of fun from those big beasts! :D Got three multibands now 2 TA 3000 and a really cool Mount Wards multiband. Take up less room than my stereos. Still have three hooked up :naughty: Probably give the Tandberg to my lady's daughtor. Fm is cranky but the amp is fine. Listens more to her Cds anyway :thumbsdn: Kids. But she likes Frank Sinatra :thmbsp: Will get her set up when she returns from Italy :) Working on a cool system upgrade for her!!!

Isn't this a fun hobby?!! Eric

I have a Global exactly like the one shown below (I took got this image from another site). When I got it it did not work. Upon opening it up I saw that one of the small glass diodes had broken so I disassembled the radio enough to get the PCB up and soldered in a new 1N4148 diode. A real job as they are built in a 1-way fashion. I don't believe the manufacturers ever expected them to be serviced. The unit works superbly now.

That's a cool looking Global, SM. I was just looking at it in my transistor radio book... it kinda reminds me of an alien communicator from the original Star Trek series. :D

Wife's First Transitor -- From France

This OPTALIX pocket transitor radio from France was my wife's first. It's about 8-inch long X 5-inch high. Her dad was stationed in Monaco at the time, and he bought this for her in the mid-to-late '60s. I don't know anything about it, but can see that it is tuned for Euro-freqs given BBC, EUR, FR1 station logos. The tuner knob is recessed at top-right, and the on/off/volume is below it (both not visible in photos).

Interestingly, it opens up like a lady's compact -- with a push-in button clip opposite a piano hinge for the two halves. The case is molded plastic with a cream-colored leatherette cloth covering. Once inside the internals are visible on one side, and it has a heavy paper cover over the two 4.5V batteries, which my father-in-law had "wired" (kludged) to accept a single 9-volt. It has the tiniest Audax speaker I've ever seen (red button is the back). The "A" is a rubber plug that covers the earphone jack.

Does this show up in anyone's books?

Interesting. The white switch at the top is obviously the band selector. I wonder what the red switch at the bottom does? Attractive set! Looks like it was well cared for.

I didn't find that brand in my book, but, I did find one on the internet. I looks the same as yours, but in a different color. They even show a pic of the insides with the 4.5 volt batteries in place.

http://www.hilberink.nl/toptalix.htm

I have here a Elgin-10
ten transistors
Model R-3100
AM only

Sorry about the aweful picture quality, my digital camera is almost 10 years old.

Hi Charlie:

Thanks for the link and extra info on the OPTALIX. I'll see if my wife can remember what the red switch does. Her French is fluent, but she might not remember what it was for.

Optalix Red Switch Purpose

Charlie: I got my wife to examine the Optalix and she pointed out that I thought the switch moved between "C" (at top of slider) and "R" (at bottom of slide); but she corrected me -- it is really "C" and "A".

The "A" I pointed out earlier from the inside images, is not an earphone jack -- it is a power jack. I found an earphone jack just under the strap's mounting pin.

So, she thinks "A" on the switch stands for Auxiliary, as in external power source, and the "C" on the switch is for running it off its batteries. The fact it is a red switch makes it likely it is power related, too, I think.

She was 13 when she got it and never hooked it up to "A" -- "I always walked around with it up to my ear tuned to Radio Luxembourg."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie

it kinda reminds me of an alien communicator from the original Star Trek series. :D

And that is E-X-A-C-T-L-Y what I thought it was when I saw it at a yard sale a couple summers back. Figured it was a Playmates or similar version as shown below. From 10 feet away, that is how it looked to me. I guess Trekkie minds think alike!

This little radio was the very first purchase my Dad ever made using money he had earned doing an egg delivery route in about 1965 or so. Originally, it was an AM-FM unit, and it ran on 6V (4 AAs in a plastic battery holder), however my Dad shelved it sometime in the early 80s, and it sat in his closet, rotting, until about 1996, when it caught my eye.

I don't remember what I said or what happened, but soon thereafter he was excitedly telling me the story of his old radio and leading me out to the workbench all while I prayed he had removed the batteries. He hadn't. I'm sure any experienced audiophile can imagine what 15 year old Duracells looked like. My dad used a knife to free the batteries, and the electrodes in the battery holder were so rotted, they came right out with them! However, I couldn't help but notice the contacts for the battery holder are identical to a 9V socket. So I hooked one up...and it worked! But AM only. The radio is on when you switch it to FM, but you can't get any reception. Once or twice, I've put headphones on and turned the volume all the way up and I've BARELY heard the strongest local signals. Either the antenna's lost its ground or a transistor is blown. After all the board did spend a decade in battery acid.

The radio has served me well, and it used to compliment my old beat up Walkman with broken AM tuning circutry rather well. I used it to go to sleep when I was in Europe and could actually pull in an AM station. (Heh, the first broadcast I ever heard in Europe was on this radio, about a "common event" where a street gang had got hold of some nuculear waste and was trying to sell it on the black market. Made me wonder about what I was getting into! EDIT: Going to Europe, that is.)

I fired the radio for the first time in several years tonight, and I'm pleased to say it still works! It seems tired though, maybe it's the introduction of 9V into a 6V party, or maybe it's just age, or maybe it's that about half of the contacts are swimming in corrosion; I had to turn the volume almost to max to hear it pick up a strong local station weakly. Yeah, I could fix it up, but I really don't have the time, and I'd rather leave well enough alone, because it has a lot more sententimental value than usefulness.

Plus, I never have heard of anyone else with a Koyo. :)