Show us your vintage pocket transistor radios!
 

Decades before the Sony Walkman, shirt or coat pocket transistor radios were a must have for any of us growing up between the mid-1950's to the 70's. Not much larger than a pack of smokes (and some actully smaller than that), these single battery powered sets came in a huge variety of colors and styles. They delivered to us The Beatles, The Mamas & The Pappas, and news such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy with the tinny sound of a little speaker.

Here is a Sony 3F-66W from the late 60's. I found this in a little shop in Ybor City, FL a few years ago. Not a scratch on it, and played perfectly. I think I paid 8 bucks for it. Has the leather case, and the antenna is still there with the little red ball on top. This is a 9V AM/FM.

Here is the same radio in it's leather case. Still has a crease in the strap.

This is a 1967 Westinghouse H-902P6-GPA. Man! That's a lot of model number for something so small! This little set is like new, and the only wear is the slot where you put a penny to open the back... and it's really minor wear. This radio wasn't used much either. It's AM and 9V.

I got this Silvertone 4204 by mistake. I saw an ad in ARC several years back for a red Silvertone 4204 radio for 5 bucks. I thought it was going to be a tube set. Sears obviously used the same model numbers more than once, so i was really surprised when I received this little transistor radio in the mail. It's got a few scratches here and there. Evidently was used quite often. It's AM with a round 9V battery. I put a connector on it for a square battery to see if it worked (which it did), but the square battery won't fit in the case. I believe this set is from the early to mid 60's.

Solar Power!
 

This little radio belongs to my 93 year old neighbor. It's a Hoffman model PP-706 "Trans-Solar" AM radio. It uses either a 4.7v mercury battery, or the solor panels on top of the set. She paid $75.00 for it back in the late 50's! That was quite a bit for a transistor radio. Hoffman made several models of transistor sets with solar panels.

The little set works great! On a sunny day, the solar panels give it plenty of juice to pump out the tunes. It will even work under a 60 watt light bulb.

Since 4.7v mercury batteries are no longer available, I was able to slightly modify the connectors and use a 4.5 photo-flash battery to operate the set. I wrapped electrical tape around the battery to make it a little fatter so it wouldn't move around inside the compartment. Worked like a charm!

Wow I didn't know they even had solar cells in the 50's! That's got to be one of the niftiest little radios I think I've ever seen.

When my neighbor first told me about her little radio, i thought she was mistaken telling me she had a solar powered set she bought in 1958! After seeing it, I was amazed!

I'm not at all surprised that she bought this radio. Even at her age, she's one to like the latest in technology. Buying a solar powered set in 1958 would certainly be high-tech!

Although not the most attractive, this Kensington 8 transistor set plays pretty good. I can't find a model number on it, but I'd guess it to be late 1960's. I've also got the little clear plastic carrying case that came with it.

Truetone model DC3906C. This 9v AM radio plays really good. I've got the box it came in, and the original reciept.

Here is the Western Auto sales ticket... dated Sept 4, 1963. This radio sold for $2.99 back then!

My fave
 

Here's one of the faves from my collection. One of the first I found at a garage sale. Two transistor radios were called "Boy's Radios"
and were labelled as such on the back. This subjected them to lower tariffs as they were classified as toys rather than radios.

Next time you watch the movie "Hud", look closely in Lon's shirt pocket and you will see this radio.

BTW, the Hoffman solar was the first practical use of solar cells, made possible by the invention in 1954 of solar cells and the fact that transistor radios did not require the wattage of tube portables.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...,2139125.story

The Hoffmans are some of the most desirable to collectors and fetch 100 - 200 in good condition.

Lee

OOPS here's the pic
 

Better late than never

Solar
 

That was an interesting article. I am somewhat surprised that battery/solar powered consumer items are not offered more often. I am sure that solar panels have come a long way since the 50's, and that they would be able to power some of the small electonics we use today. The only thing I see them on in the consumer market it calculators. If they could power a small radio such as the Hoffman, why not make them on today's products?

My neighbor's Hoffman has very few hours on it. She told me they used it now and then while working outside years ago, but in the past several years, it is only used during power outages. I've noticed that she is very firm about holding on to it. She feels that it's the best little radio she has ever owned (and during her 93-year lifetime... that's a lot of radios!). She just won't part with it! :(

That boy's radio looks great! Very attractive looking! I assume that only having 2 transistors limits its range?

Yeah, doesn't pull in a a lot of stations, but plays just as loud as more complex radios.

Keep working on that Hoffman. Let her know that you're someone who really appreciates the history of it!

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.

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!
 

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