I added this Soviet multi-band radio here because I thought SWLers in Western countries might be intrigued to read that:
a) the Soviets actually could and did make some pretty good radios in the day, and,
b) shortwave radios were widely available throughout the USSR during the Cold War era. This Spidola was only the first of legions.
The Spidola was a 7-band SW/MW/LW, 10-transistor set using a Superheterodyne circuit and powered by two 4.5v batts or six 1.5v cells. It was
manufactured at VEF (Valst Elektrotechniska Fabrika) in Riga, Latvia from 1960 to at least 1964 and maybe quite a bit longer. At first glance, it's a big and frumpy plastic lunchbox job -- but a closer look reveals its carefully considered design that outmatches almost anything made in Western Europe at the time. The cabinet was designed by the well-known Latvian industrial designer, Adolfs Irbite.
The Spidola holds several "firsts" to its name: the first Soviet multi-band transistor radio, the first Soviet transistor radio made for export outside the USSR, and the first REALLY mass-produced Soviet transistor radio -- you can find examples today on UK eBay and eBay Germany all day long. The Spidola wasn't a set for serious SWLing, but then it wasn't meant to be.
This was the first of many VEF radio models over the years named "Spidola", yet this original model remained in production until 1964 or later. No matter what the year of manufacture, the original Spidola is a great radio and certainly an important piece of Cold War history. To those of us in the West who grew up during the Cold War era, it seems almost inconceivable now to realize that the most popular and best-selling Soviet radio ever made was a multi-band shortwave radio capable of receiving broadcasts from all over the world, including the US and Western Europe. This certainly helps to explain the ubiquitous nature of those Soviet jammer stations that could be heard up and down the short wave dial throughout the Cold War era: they weren't simply blocking reception by some few individuals who had a short wave receiver -- they were blocking reception by the whole populace of the East Bloc.
And in fact this radio was front-and-center in a number of Soviet political investigations regarding "illicit" receptions of broadcasts from the West. It's been said that by the late 1960s the name "Spidola" in Russia had become nearly synonymous with the word, "radio". An explanation provided to me by vintage radio collectors in Russia of why Soviet authorities would allow short wave radios to be produced for use throughout the USSR can be found in my article from the May, 2018 issue of Radio User, Transistor Radios Behind the Curtain.
The Spidola's original sale price was 73 Rubles -- about $2.50 in today's currency, and considered quite pricey at the time.
If you're curious about this set, check out the Spidola page on my Transistor Radios Around the World web site.
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