The First Transistor Radio

The video linked in the article looks so quaint, but it was only 70 years ago!

The ladies putting in the components work pretty fast, about 5s per component for smaller ones, so about 720 cph. Top speed pick and place robots can now do 200k cph (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pick-and-place_machine) so ~300 or so faster. This increase pales considerably to any other aspect of such a process, eg cost of a transistor.

Got a transistor radio as a birthday gift as a young boy, near as I can remember it would have been early sixties. It was a Zenith and didn't look a lot different from the one in the picture. The Detroit music scene was vibrant back then on AM radio Also late at night got introduced to blues on a Chicago station and was never quite the same.

After fifty years the radio was still going strong and I gifted it to my Dad so he could listen to his beloved Detroit Tigers when a game wasn't on cable. I wanted to reclaim it when he passed away but we could never find it in his room. I'd like to think someone is still using it.

Very applicable to today's AI market moving so quickly. NVIDIA's recent open models are effectively the same as TI building a Radio to sell transistors.

I build a replica of the first Chinese domestically produced single (germanium) transistor radio but using ‘modern’ components. This model 636 radio was released in 1953 or 1954 (sources are not clear). Check out the files here[1] and build your own!

Sadly I still need to write up the very interesting and complex history of this radio but do not have the time/funding at the moment.

[1] https://dennisdebel.nl/2017/2023-636_Radio_DIY/

The shape of the TR-1 reminds me of a Radio Shack(Realistic?) transistor radio my amateur radio licensed uncle modified for me probably 20 years after the TR-1 to receive the airbands. I spent hours huddled around that thing listening to the local general aviation traffic dreaming about one day calling out to local traffic while setting up my final. Great article.

Great story. I'm struck by the design similarity to the first iPod models, with the large wheel moved to the center.

I added OC72 to my crystal set in 1961. It costed 530 markka, while children's tram ticket was 30 markka !1!!

A fine story about American capitalism!