Transistor Radios Around the World

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


1962 TED Saint Germain

Pocketbook radio, leather-over-plastic cabinet
6 1/4 x 3 7/8 x 1 inches / 159 x 99 x 25 mm
2-band MW/LW, six transistors, superheterodyne circuit
One 9-volt battery
Manufactured by TED (Technique et Décoration); Amiens, France

A transistor radio much loved by the French in its day, and it's still highly valued by collectors in France today — made by TED (Technique et Décoration), later known as Optalix. This set has a bone-white plastic cabinet body, part of which is the speaker grille, overlaid with leather. Lots of brass elements here too, including a brass easel stand for tabletop listening — all of this making for a very rich-looking "pocketbook" radio!

Many years later (1976!) the Saint Germain was reincarnated by the then-named Optalix corporation, looking very similar to the original but with a metal speaker grille, a 6-volt circuit, and silicon transistors rather than germanium.

James Butters' TED Saint Germain web page has lots of gorgeous photos of this radio and its various elements, as well as some interesting historical notes.

Like many European MW/LW radios, this set's MW band is calibrated in meters and the LW band displays the handful of LW broadcasters by name. Radios made in France designated their bands as "PO" (Petites ondes) and "GO" (Grandes ondes), "PO" being MW, and "GO" LW.


TED Saint Germain

1962 TED Saint Germain


TED Saint Germain

inside the pocketbook — note the glossy white plastic inside body on
both halves of the cabinet and also the inside holder for the carry strap

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