https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regency_TR-1
Ran across an article in "American Scientists" about these.
I *do* remember seeing them, stashed in drawers and such.
AM 550-1600 khz band only. The receivers weren't all that
sensitive, but good enough, esp near big cities.
The TR-1 was the first commercial transistor radio.
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors
and sold for US $49.95 - a fair chunk of change back
in the day. Depending on how you calc inflation the
price would now be about US $500.
c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regency_TR-1
Ran across an article in "American Scientists" about these.
I *do* remember seeing them, stashed in drawers and such.
AM 550-1600 khz band only. The receivers weren't all that
sensitive, but good enough, esp near big cities.
The TR-1 was the first commercial transistor radio.
I do not have one of those, but I have a very old GE
Transister Radio. It only does AM. I have no idea
how old it is nor how I got it, but it still works
fine.
You can get a pic of it by doing:
$ curl 'gopher://sdf.org/0/users/jmccue/about/pic/ge_tradio.jpg'
<snip>
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors
and sold for US $49.95 - a fair chunk of change back
in the day. Depending on how you calc inflation the
price would now be about US $500.
wow
<snip>
I do not have one of those, but I have a very old GE
Transister Radio. It only does AM. I have no idea
how old it is nor how I got it, but it still works
fine.
You can get a pic of it by doing:
$ curl 'gopher://sdf.org/0/users/jmccue/about/pic/ge_tradio.jpg'
On 2025-08-20 17:30, John McCue wrote:
c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regency_TR-1
Ran across an article in "American Scientists" about these.
I *do* remember seeing them, stashed in drawers and such.
AM 550-1600 khz band only. The receivers weren't all that
sensitive, but good enough, esp near big cities.
The TR-1 was the first commercial transistor radio.
I do not have one of those, but I have a very old GE
Transister Radio. It only does AM. I have no idea
how old it is nor how I got it, but it still works
fine.
You can get a pic of it by doing:
$ curl 'gopher://sdf.org/0/users/jmccue/about/pic/ge_tradio.jpg'
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors and sold for US
$49.95 - a fair chunk of change back in the day. Depending on how you
calc inflation the price would now be about US $500.
wow
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:30:45 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote:
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors and sold for US
$49.95 - a fair chunk of change back in the day. Depending on how you
calc inflation the price would now be about US $500.
wow
You can see why the Americans never had any luck with transistor-based consumer electronics -- it took the Japanese to make a success of that.
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:30:45 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote:
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors and sold for US
$49.95 - a fair chunk of change back in the day. Depending on how you
calc inflation the price would now be about US $500.
wow
You can see why the Americans never had any luck with transistor-based consumer electronics -- it took the Japanese to make a success of that.
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:30:45 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote:
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors and sold for US
$49.95 - a fair chunk of change back in the day. Depending on how you
calc inflation the price would now be about US $500.
wow
You can see why the Americans never had any luck with transistor-based consumer electronics -- it took the Japanese to make a success of that.
On 2025-08-21 08:52, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:30:45 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote:
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors and sold for US
$49.95 - a fair chunk of change back in the day. Depending on how you
calc inflation the price would now be about US $500.
wow
You can see why the Americans never had any luck with transistor-based
consumer electronics -- it took the Japanese to make a success of that.
My parents bought this one: <https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sanyo_9_transistor_9f_823.html>
The leather case is in bad shape, the leader is hard and bent.
It was for many years the only FM radio in the house. The normal house
radio was a valve unit, and it only had AM.
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-transistor-radio-amfm>
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-transistor-radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
BUT, they were PORTABLE.--
On 8/21/25 6:28 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-08-21 08:52, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2025 15:30:45 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote:
It used four Texas Instruments germanium transistors and sold for US >>>>> $49.95 - a fair chunk of change back in the day. Depending on how you >>>>> calc inflation the price would now be about US $500.
wow
You can see why the Americans never had any luck with transistor-based
consumer electronics -- it took the Japanese to make a success of that.
My parents bought this one:
<https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/sanyo_9_transistor_9f_823.html>
The leather case is in bad shape, the leader is hard and bent.
It was for many years the only FM radio in the house. The normal house
radio was a valve unit, and it only had AM.
Similar in my house, the main unit was all valves,
AM only. Surprisingly good sound.
Of course we didn't HAVE a local FM station for
quite awhile ... and when we did it was 95%
very dull classical.
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-transistor-
radio-amfm>
I remember those ! :-)
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
BUT, they were PORTABLE.
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaper
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-transistor-
radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
And sensitivity soon got down towards the thermal noise
BUT, they were PORTABLE.
On 2025-08-22 20:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaper
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-transistor- radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
It came from adding intermediate frequency transformer stages, which
were not cheap nor easy to adjust.
And sensitivity soon got down towards the thermal noise
BUT, they were PORTABLE.
Of course we didn't HAVE a local FM station for quite awhile ... and
when we did it was 95% very dull classical.
On 22/08/2025 19:37, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-08-22 20:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaper
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-
transistor- radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
It came from adding intermediate frequency transformer stages, which
were not cheap nor easy to adjust.
They were cheap and they were *really* easy to adjust.
I build several portable radios.
On Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:41:33 -0400, c186282 wrote:
Of course we didn't HAVE a local FM station for quite awhile ... and
when we did it was 95% very dull classical.
The first CDs were much the same, classical stuff for audiophiles. It
didn't take long for sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll to subvert the media.
On 2025-08-22 21:00, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 19:37, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-08-22 20:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaper
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-
transistor- radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
It came from adding intermediate frequency transformer stages, which
were not cheap nor easy to adjust.
They were cheap and they were *really* easy to adjust.
I build several portable radios.
Time consuming.
I built just one.
We had an FM station with classical music some 45 Km away, in the
provincial capital. Even when my parents bought a nice stereo system,
that station was a bit noisy, spoiling the joy.
It was later that "talk" FM stations appeared, in the 80's. And now at
least one of those networks is killing their AM transmitters. Pity,
there are rural and mountainous areas where FM reception is bad. They
tell people to use an Android App instead (with registration!).
On Fri, 22 Aug 2025 20:35:53 +0200, Carlos E.R. wrote:
We had an FM station with classical music some 45 Km away, in the
provincial capital. Even when my parents bought a nice stereo system,
that station was a bit noisy, spoiling the joy.
In the tropics, we had frequent thunderstorms.
One occasional side-effect, which I noticed more than once after a thunderstorm, was the ability to receive TV stations (very noisily and poorly) from well outside the normal range.
We didn’t get FM radio until later, so I can’t recall getting the same effect with that (though I’m sure it would have applied).
It was later that "talk" FM stations appeared, in the 80's. And now at
least one of those networks is killing their AM transmitters. Pity,
there are rural and mountainous areas where FM reception is bad. They
tell people to use an Android App instead (with registration!).
No plans to repurpose the MW band for digital radio?
On 2025-08-23 00:26, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
No plans to repurpose the MW band for digital radio?
I don't think so, I have not heard of that. There is digital radio,
DAB/DAB+, but they are using other bands.
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaper
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-transistor-radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
And sensitivity soon got down towards the thermal noise
On 2025-08-22 20:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaper
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-transistor- radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
It came from adding intermediate frequency transformer stages, which
were not cheap nor easy to adjust.
On 22/08/2025 19:37, Carlos E.R. wrote:transistor-
On 2025-08-22 20:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaperradio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather poor sensitivity
plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
It came from adding intermediate frequency transformer stages, which
were not cheap nor easy to adjust.
They were cheap and they were *really* easy to adjust.
I build several portable radios.
One occasional side-effect, which I noticed more than once after a thunderstorm, was the ability to receive TV stations (very noisily and poorly) from well outside the normal range.
On Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:41:33 -0400, c186282 wrote:
Of course we didn't HAVE a local FM station for quite awhile ... and
when we did it was 95% very dull classical.
The first CDs were much the same, classical stuff for audiophiles. It
didn't take long for sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll to subvert the media.
On 22/08/2025 20:48, rbowman wrote:
On Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:41:33 -0400, c186282 wrote:
Of course we didn't HAVE a local FM station for quite awhile ...
and when we did it was 95% very dull classical.
The first CDs were much the same, classical stuff for audiophiles. It
didn't take long for sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll to subvert the media.
That ain't subversion,. That's enhancement
On 2025-08-22 21:00, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 19:37, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 2025-08-22 20:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 22/08/2025 14:41, c186282 wrote:
Actually selectivity came easy as adding transistors was way cheaper
I got this one when I went to uni:
<https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/1791229461/vintage-sanyo-
transistor- radio-amfm>
I remember those ! 🙂
Alas most of those little old radios had rather
poor sensitivity plus poor selectivity.
than adding valves.
It came from adding intermediate frequency transformer stages, which
were not cheap nor easy to adjust.
They were cheap and they were *really* easy to adjust.
I build several portable radios.
Time consuming.
I built just one.
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