A sad find - Westinghouse transistor portable

[mhardy6647]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Agree ! looks just like the speaker in my 4 tube Motorola 54L1.... extra points; where are the tubes?

jr

Whoa that thing is cool! Is that a consumer radio with "pencil" tubes!?

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by mhardy6647

Whoa that thing is cool! Is that a consumer radio with "pencil" tubes!?

Yes! it is a Motorola 54L1, which is a "full size" (about 8"x10"x3.5") AC/DC/Battery portable from the mid 50s. I nearly passed it up because of the ugly re-paint job, until I looked inside and saw the unusual "inverted" speaker and the sub-mini tubes! Most of the radios that I have seen with the sub-mini tubes have been much smaller, about the size of "pocket" transistor sets of the era. I suspect that this rather plain Motorola is often overlooked by collectors.

jr

[batterymaker]

I think that Westinghouse is one of their first transistor receivers. It could be powered by either six D cells or a large cardboard case battery--I want to say it was a 2701, don't hold me to that number. It's one that I want to build a replica of and power my yellow-and-white Westy with.

The plug for the battery is tucked away in a corner of the set, plugged into a socket.

[batterymaker]

That Motorola is usually looked over because they also brought out a same-chassis portable that had a wind-up clock in it--and that's the one collectors really go after.

[jr_tech]

No question that the earlier 53LC2 clock radio has much more eye appeal then the plain 54L1 that I posted above... This site says that even the clock radio is often overlooked :

http://www.radiolaguy.com/Showcase/MotorolaPortaClk.htm

Note that the "inverted" speaker on this earlier set is a different design than the one used in the Westinghouse transistor portable and the 54L1, looks like the later design might have been cheaper to produce.

jr

[akent36]

Originally Posted by batterymaker

That Motorola is usually looked over because they also brought out a same-chassis portable that had a wind-up clock in it--and that's the one collectors really go after.

Yeah, mine has the clock--cost $2 at a radio meet earlier this year.