An old — on second thought, make that “very old” — Sony AM/FM broadcast transistor, which I somehow acquired, finally got a little too cranky for me, Figure 1. The analog-dial tuning knob was sluggish ...

Today pocket transistor radios manufactured in the 1950s are very collectable. Some models are highly sought after by collectors and regularly sell for hundreds of dollars. It is not uncommon to find ...

The humble transistor radio is one of those consumer devices that stubbornly refuses to go away, but it’s fair to say that it’s not the mover and shaker in the world of electronics it might once have ...

A handheld AM or FM radio. All handheld radios, as well as desktop radios, use transistors, both discrete as well as contained in chips. The transistor radio was one of the first consumer devices that ...

So What Was the Transistor Good For? Transistors may have been useful to the phone company and to a handful of scientists building computers, but that wasn't enough to build an industry. Companies ...

My first battery-powered radio — a ten-transistor Realtone — came from my Aunt Ina when I was about seven. I used to think I was ten, but the songs from 1973 would be wrong: I distinctly remember ...

Q: I would like a battery-powered FM transistor radio for my bathroom counter. I had one with decent sound but it quit working, and the ones I have tried since all have sounded tinny. It doesn't need ...

As World War II gripped Europe, Winston Churchill knew that the conflict would be fought on two fronts—on the battlefield and in the scientific lab. The race between the Allies and the Axis powers to ...

If you cultivate an interest in building radios it’s likely that you’ll at some point make a simple receiver. Perhaps a regenerative receiver, or maybe a direct conversion design, it’ll take a couple ...

And now a page from our "Sunday Morning" Almanac: October 18th, 1954, 61 years ago today ... the day Dick Tracy's wristwatch radio came its closest yet to reality. For that was the day Texas ...

Growing up is daunting. All those “rites of passage” through which we must travel. The first day of school, exams, dating, awkward holidays with distant relatives. Speaking to young people I find that ...