Transistor Radios Around the World

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Before '54 --- North America --- Western Europe --- Japan and Pacific --- East Bloc and USSR


c.1960/61 Philco T-51

Shirt pocket radio, thermoplastic cabinet
4 5/8 x 3 1/8 x 1 7/8 inches / 117 x 79 x 48 mm
Five transistors (Philco, T-1001, 2x T-1005A (gold colored), T-1460, T-1542, one diode (1N60A)
Superheterodyne circuit
Two very small P-640 2.6V batteries

One of my very favorite US shirt pocket radios, plain and simple in design and very much overweight, impossible to mistake for a slim and sleek Japanese shirt pocket radio of the time. This example appears to have been made in 1961 but the T-51 model may have begun production in 1960.

Philco T-51

Philco T-51


Philco T-51

Philco T-51


Philco T-51

Philco T-51 chassis — click on the photo for a larger image


Philco T-51

a pair of very small 2.6V batteries
power the T-51's 5.2-volt circuit


Philco T-51

A "preliminary" schematic included in the T-51's box -- the transistor makeup
shown here is a bit different from what is found in this example's chassis


Philco T-51 box

from the 1999 M31 site's Philco T-51 page:

I found this particular T-51 in its box with papers in 1993. It was lying on the bottom shelf of a glass display cabinet in a hardware store in Bath, Maine, where it very likely had awaited a buyer for more than thirty years. It cost me $5.


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