Anybody remember their 1st transistor radio?

Dudly

Active Member
I was just amazed that it had no wires and it still worked. You could hold it up in the air and turn in a circle and it still worked.
 
The very first one I had on my own looked like this:

transistor-radio-flying-saucer_0936.jpg
 
Yep, 1961 and it was a no name Japanese radio with six, count em', six transistors and an appetite for 9 volt batteries! I used to take it to bed with me and see if I could wake up before the station went on the air not knowing at the age of five that they didn't sign off at night like the tv stations:dunno:

J.R.
 
Originally when I was very young I had a Archer Walkie Talkie set which had an AM radio in it, although when I was about four in 1980 my father gave me a Realistic MTA-8 (of course mine was not missing the knob fascias and I later replaced the knobs with more attractive ones). He actually still has this radio, although I am not sure if he is using it or not. This was responsible for shaping most of my musical tastes.

Realistic_MTA-8_Reilly.jpg
 
Yep, had a small Japanese one, silver finish in a brown leather case. Got mine from Gramps, too! It was a really special thing to own one of the new, small radios. I was the King of the neighborhood for awhile, lol.
 
Yeah. I used to listen to local country radio which was big. Great reception under the bed covers. Then got a 9 transistor, and bigger radios. Never really the same.

But even before that, my most awesome treasured 3 or 4" crystal radio set molded in the shape of a yellow plastic rocket with a white round nose tip that pulled out to select stations. I think it was named ... rooose...budddd ....
 
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Yep. Magnavox six-transistor like this one. Snuck it into school to listen to the World Series.

I used to sneak mine under the covers to listen to talk from the purple onion in San Fransisco. Looked similar to this one. Had a crystal set before that.
 
Sure do...and here it is. Dad was an engineer who worked for GM and on one of his many business trips brought this back from Texas as a gift for me...that was in 1959.

It never left my hands for several months, even when I was sleeping. My friends at school were all jealous and as I remember it was an expensive gift for the time.
 

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Hi PM!
I had one of them too. It lasted pretty long. I was maybe 8. The battery went dead one time and I didn't have another. So I hooked it up to an HO train transformer. Some little do-dad in there blew up and shot up to the ceiling like a bottle rocket LOL
The best part was............ It Still Worked!:yes:
Made a really bad stank too. Not including myself:D
Thanks for the memories
 
I had a little plastic one in the early 70s...we were playing basketball in the driveway one day, with it playing on the sidelines. The monster kid from across the street (probably 2 years old then) picked it up, held it over his head and threw it down off the retaining wall he was at the top of, onto the driveway, smashing it to bits.

I got a little black plastic and stainless Precor after that, that I still have.

This kid went on (at the age of 4) to back his parents' car out of the driveway and smash our mailbox. He also went into our back yard, climbed up on our golden retriever's doghouse while the dog was sleeping in the sun and took a flying leap onto the dog's ribs. The dog reacted instinctively, putting his mouth around the little bastard's head, but didn't bite hard enough to draw blood, just left some teethmark bruises. Animal control quarantined OUR dog for a month, but did nothing about the 2-legged monster that had the run of the neighborhood.

What were we talking about?
 
remember my first crystal set.
That was amazing. no batteries nothing.
My dad ran a restaurant in a depressed area.
People would offer him stuff and he woud give them money
and put the stuff on a shelf in his office ( which became very large)
If they never came back he would bring some stuff home.
So I had a profusion of transistor radios ( usually like little suitacses )
and small tape recorders and 9 inch TV's and just all kinds of stuff.
I DO remember a pink 3x3" Toshiba transistor That my father was quite fond of putting under his pillow.
That one gave its life to my younger brother's technical curiosity ( if you know what I mean)
 
early 70s

I remember a blue thing, about 1970 I suppose. Had crappy sound. A friend with an elecronics interest/hobby that ended up being a mentor and inspiration to learn electronics now "fixed" it. He also made me bike all the way across town to see a MacIntosh Tube Stereo.

I really didn't get it then. I was too young to realize the changes in the world around me.
 
My first one (1961) was some off-brand p.o.s. that was basically a crystal set with two transistors and ate batteries like crazy.
Had a few other radios, but they were RCA and Westinghouse tube table models.
 
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