The Transistor Wars

[@brianlubeck4184]

This practice ended when the Deceptive Trade Practices Act went into effect and the Federal Trade Commission told the manufacturers they could not do that anymore. The extra transisters were either simply stuck on the board, wired in pairs or wired as diodes. This did no good electrically or performance wise

[@jagmarc]

Nothing has changed today, people still only go by what's written on a china product label, mistakenly believe it actually does what it claims to do when put to use in real everyday conditions. Ask most people how much wattage their microwave heats up with and they'll tell you "printed on the label".

[@jagmarc]

It go so out of control on ebay that they now redact all search results for 18650 lithium cell because results are full of fakes.

[@jagmarc]

My follow up comment saying more has been censored. ( it had mentioned and stated . If I say the words this comment will too dissappear)

[@janath9118]

@brianlubeck4184 Thank you for the information!

[@janath9118]

​@jagmarc Yes, but it is happening only at the present time. The effects of those good and vital Acts of laws were carried on for many decades by almost all of the manufacturers until the economies of countries of some parts of the world started falling down, thereby giving way for the deceptive trade practices again. This thing specially happened in Asia where I live. After the high quality Japanese consumer electronic market began to shrink, the Chinese market gained with cheaper but compromised electronic products.

[@ScottGrammer]

The 14-transistor Juliette shows in its schematic that is does use four transistors as output devices in push-pull parallel to drive the speaker, which could result in more output (schematic at 10:20), but it also completely wastes three transistors as "emitter followers" in the first stage of the audio amp, and these could do nothing but waste battery power. It does make use of an emitter follower before the mixer/oscillator stage, which would not make it more sensitive, but would improve selectivity a tad.

[@janath9118]

@ScottGrammer Thank you for sharing the information!

[@janath9118]

@ScottGrammer Thank you for sharing the information!

[@Steve-GM0HUU]

Interesting, thanks. I am guessing they were betting on Joe Public thinking, "more transistors is better". Also, betting that Joe knew nothing about electronics and the extra transistors using up the batteries faster. 😂

[@janath9118]

@@Steve-GM0HUU 😊

[@musicsoundelectronics5590]

I loved it when they started using transistors as diodes to raise the count. Lol

[@RaymondSwanson-u9y]

CPU's? Trillions. Talking about upping the count.

[@inkey2]

I can remember on school nights, when I was supposed to be sleeping listening to my mini Lafayette radio with ear piece. Each station was so different.....privately owned not so generic and corporate. Here in the Boston burbs it was WRKO, WHDH, WBZ, By the late 60s I was hooked on "The Larry Glick Show" that started at 11pm on WBZ, He was the Johnny Carson of radio. I sure do miss those days.

[@janath9118]

Good memories for you! 😊 I did similar things in the late 70's when I was in school here in South Asia where I live!! I too miss those days.....

[@youneverknow111]

i misss privately owned station they had so good music here and there they speaked and that same radio just simply constanly wont shut up their god damn mouths and put music

[@Eric-Marsh]

When I was a kid I had a three transistor radio. The rich kids had radios with ten transistors.

[@masudashizue777]

I love the fanciful designs of these radios. At the time I was living in Japan where many of these radios were made.

[@janath9118]

But all these radios were made in Hong Kong. Didn't the big Japanese electronic companies like National Panasonic, Sony etc. make Transistor radios of this type!?? If so, they would have been of pretty good quality.

[@billharris6886]

@collectornet, Thank you for showing all of these "transistor stuffed radios" from the 1960's, but especially the circuit boards. I remember these radios well and, you are correct: with all those extra transistors, the performance was the same as the original 6 transistor radio from the latter 1950's. All of the basic pocket transistor radios from 1956 to 1977, used the same circuit (with a few varations): 1 converter transistor, 2 IF transistors, 3 IF transformers, 1 detector diode, one audio driver transistor, and 2 audio output transistors in a push-pull configuration to reduce power consumption to maximize battery life. The only notable exception was with radios that had an RF amplifier before the converter stage. This extra stage greatly increases the sensitivity of the radio, making it a much better performer.

[@janath9118]

@billharris6886 Thank you for sharing the valuable information!

[@ZommBleed]

Who used to disassemble all of their things when they were kids? Who used to turn the pots and rheostats?

[@billharris6886]

@@ZommBleed That's me, I would do all those things and more with whatever I could get my hands on.

[@glennanderson6052]

Old zenith transistor radios were some of the best sounding and very good quality.

[@luisalthaus7249]

I am a Zenith guy nothing better.

[@RCAvhstape]

That space age industrial design of those radios is fantastic.

[@olafzijnbuis]

The same happened with the number of jewels in watches.

[@thrillscience]

The Jade 12 (and a few others) had a schematic! Can you post an image of it so we can see how they used these transistors?

[@stanleybest8833]

Emerson Atlas 888 Nevabreak Pocket Radio. I had one stolen. Early transistors were gems. I remember the strong sweet smell of circuit boards.

[@pcno2832]

I still remember the smell of the first transistor radio I got for my 7th birthday as I took it out of the plastic after getting home from Radio Shack. It probably wasn't the healthiest stuff in the world, but it smelled cool. That Radio Shack also had a memorable smell, especially in the back stairs which went up to the store or down to a tunnel that was used to move carts to to the other stores in the mall. I remember venturing a few feet into the tunnel a few times, then chickening out before getting any further.

[@stanleybest8833]

@pcno2832 Good believable smells are very important to retail.

[@TheDoodybutch]

Just prior to World War II the same thing happened with vacuum tube radios. Zenith, for example, marketed wooden-cased table and console radios with increasing number of vacuum tubes as the cost went up. The most expensive radios, (like H.H. Scott) marketed to the beautiful people, had 20 tubes or more. Like the transistor radios, the large number of tubes did not necessarily correlate with better performance.

[@allanredford6070]

interearinf. I thought gcompanies like HHScott, Fisher, would be above that. cimpetition frtom Jspsnese makers, probably 'art of reason fo it. I know Fisher brand wqent to sanyo. Marantz turned to Japan for manufacturing, too. the millions of US jobs off-shored to China, in the past few decades, will be hard tp get back, whatever Mr T says. lotof Chinese -made stuff is defective.they only concern themselves with meeting production number targets, not QC, often.,y first toaster(1980) was a US-made Procter-Silex, smart chrome hob, cost me £5 at retail, in the UK. lasted for many ,many years.whatever new tariffs are imposed, some extra patriotism needed, imo. here in Euriope, we like American products, made in the USA.

[@15743_Hertz]

38 cents for cigarettes!? It truly was a faraway time...

[@pauljanssen7594]

You have to remember when it got to 10 transistors.Then to the new integrated circuits And? Did I mention we were starting to have f m radios.

[@Pootycat8359]

ICs didn't hit the consumer market until the early 70s, several years after the end of the "war."

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

I was given a 9 transistor radio to repair. 3 of them were soldered all in shorts. When I unsoldered them in hope to use them as replacements I found they were all faulty!

[@RPlace-m5c]

Nice video. Great voiceover. Interesting subject. Thanks.

[@Pootycat8359]

I well remember the "Transistor Wars." However, the radios I encountered DIDN'T simply have extra transistors which did nothing. The required transistors were as follows: #1 = converter, #2 & 3 = IF amps, #4 = audio preamp, #5 & 6 = audio power amp. But the radio also required numerous DIODES, for the AM detector, bias current temperature stabilization, etc. So they'd use TRANSISTORS as diodes, by only connecting two leads. This practice was evident, from the schematic diagrams of the radios.

[@jeffking4176]

🤣FANTASTIC video. I have 5 of those radios, but I also have the Global 9. As for ‘style’, yeah, but they are still interesting. I’m on the hunt for that particular‘gaudy’ Juliette. I have 2 similar styled Juliette radios, one being an AM/FM. [ you could have gone just a touch deeper and mentioned how the government had to step in, with new regulations.] Still , great video. 📻🙂

[@collectornet]

Thanks. I don't know anything about the governments stepping in with new regulations. If you'd care to share that info here, I'm sure other readers of these comments--including me--would be happy to know it.

[@KongKingman]

@@collectorneta fellow commentator mentioned the Federal Trade Commission put a stop to manufacturers being deceptive

[@aimforthecenter]

​@@collectornetI knew where to find it because I had researched the issue previously and had read it. Google using these search terms: federal trade commission transistor radio pdf The result should be the first one returned. Title 16 PART 414-DECEPTION AS TO TRANSISTOR COUNT OF RADIO RECEIVING SETS, INCLUDING TRANSCEIVERS It's a good read. And as always, thank you for another great informative video. I also collect radios, tube and transistor. I have more than a few of these transistor radios where these various deceptive means are used to increase the transistor count.

[@solitaire5142]

I bet ALL of those radio`s still work though..

[@ghostmantagshome-er6pb]

Do they they still have that rainy day circuit board smell when opened?

[@elmofeneken4364]

Another great video. Your collection must limit the living space at your residence, or you have a shop or garage that is abundantly glowing with old radios. Either way you present a great service to us that can remember some of these gems. I remember the Lafayette units my dad bought us for Christmas and the Browni multi band W/Shortwave from another Christmas. Wish I had them now.

[@nicholaskalogris9985]

Great to know that marketing wars go way back!

[@bigfoottoo2841]

I found it interesting that many transistor radios of the 50s and 60s used PNP transistors

[@PRR1954]

> "......used PNP transistors" In the early Germanium process it was easier to do the body in N-type dope and then the junctions of P-stuff, thus PNP. Early Silicon was easier as NPN. It was the late 1960s before we got good Si complements. I remember bicycling🚴 to the next town to get some.

[@xsc1000]

@@PRR1954 First germanium transistors were NPN. In early 60s technology changed and PNP germanium transistors were better and easier to produce than NPN. They were also fast enough to built FM transistor radio and lately UHF tuners. Btw I prefer 7 transistors AM radios than 6 transistors one. When 4 transistors were used for AF, there was enough gain to use negative feedback from output to preamplifier. It improved audio fidelity.

[@MikeBracewell]

Maybe, it's just me, bit I like the less fussy designs, probably because I love black! Theses later radios look a lot more modern & less toy-like, IMHO, but having redundant transistors bunged in just to say they have them, is just so ridiculous & a complete con! Love stuff like this. You've gained a subscriber.

[@glasslinger]

Nice presentation! On the other end of the spectrum there was one transistor radio (that I know of) that had only two transistors and yet had reasonable volume on strong stations! It was a regenerative design. I lost that radio somewhen. (At 79 I have a long somewhen!)

[@collectornet]

Thank you. There are several videos on this channel about the 2-transistor "Boy's Radios."

[@Pootycat8359]

I made a similar one, which I put in a little clear plastic case. It was a TRF design. It required an external antenna, of course, and an external amp, for any kind of volume. But because of its broad selectivity, it produced excellent fidelity. It used two FETs.

[@jeremycole3008]

I like the circuits that used one single transistor. Never cared for PNP with positive considered "ground"

[@nicolasuribestanko]

Well, my first radio was from 1957.... when I was eight. It was a crystal radio shaped like a rocket ship. I had to listen to it through an ear plug.

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

Thanks for the amusing and informative presentation, it is nice to seen the insides of the sets and compare the component layout. I did not appreciate the quality of those set at the time but compared to what is made now they are top draw. Best wishes from UK

[@Pyrolonn]

I remember getting a Scooby Doo shaped transistor radio for my birthday. I see on ebay a working one sells for about $60. I guess that had a design. It says 1972, but it would have been at least 1977 before I had it. I was less than thrilled with it. By then AM radio was already becoming a dinosaur.

[@John-wg6xw]

Regardless, I still want them all.

[@robertusa1234]

Manufacturers didn’t value design because it didn’t sell. Most people in the market for transistor radio at the time aka teenagers were driven by price not style.

[@collectornet]

Of course design sells. Corporations always make the excuse that it "doesn't sell" to cover their failure to do it well or their failure to listen to, or pay for, the people who know how to do it well. In other words, it's those CORPORATIONS who don't value design, not their customers. That said, of course you are right that price drives consumer decisions and can often override other considerations.

[@oldradiosnphonographs]

I can just hear the narrator break out in a chorus of “Womp womp” “bor-iiing”

[@bobn2805]

Its funny how a modern phone has billions of them

[@Advancedkid]

thanks for putting a smile on my face.. These designs were pretty awful. Just reminded me when I was a kid, used to hear my parent's making jokes about products made in Hong Kong and telling others to stay away from them.. Oh, and that black Viscount 12 T radio reminded me of my toy joke camera that spashed water onto the victim subject's face, and that by the way was made in Hong Kong!! Speaking of Hong Kong, can't help thinking of the movie King Kong as it was it's year 🙂

[@nallo69]

Love your sense of humor.

[@pcno2832]

3:30 The "USA" markings on those transistors is no surprise; most of the early pocket radios were built of rejected transistors from the U.S. defense and computer industries. The worst thing about all these radios was not the lack of design, it was the terrible sound from those 2.5" pancake speakers. Sadly, once the public got used to that sound, the pancake speakers (and the crunchy push-pull amplifier designs) spread to clock-radios, table-radios, as well as record and tape players. The music was pretty good during those years, but it didn't sound good on these cheap devices.

[@collectornet]

You say "most of the early pocket radios were built of rejected transistors from the U.S. defense and computer industries." I'd like to see some documentation of that claim because in my experience that just is not so.

[@Craig_Spurlock]

Earl "Madman" Muntz would like a word with the designers/engineers!

[@WA1LBK]

I remember having a blue Global 9, & I know I have one of the black Jetstream 14 transistors sitting in a draw a few feet away from me (& I know it still works!). 😉 Looking at the tiny schematic diagram inside is HILARIOUS 🤣 - at least half of the transistors are wired up as diodes or resistors! A really hilarious comparison would be to amateur radio equipment; I have a vintage ( working) Kenwood TS-520SE HF amateur transceiver which, if I remember correctly, had a (LEGITIMATE!) transistor count of 95, plus something like an additional 14 FET's & I forget how many diodes (and this was a high-quality amateur transceiver designed to litteraly talk around the world; & it still can! (And this is a totally ANALOG radio). It would be staggering to consider the transistor count of something like my ICOM IC-705 HF / VHF / UHF SDR transceiver; it must be well into the thousands! 😆

[@garyfishel9612]

You can bet that people were convinced their high count transistor radios picked up more stations! I still have my Dad's Arvin radio from about 1961. It's light green with a brown case. It still worked about a year ago and was made in the USA.

[@collectornet]

I'm sure you're right. You may find your radio in the video on Arvin-- on this channel, You might want to check that out.

[@RJDA.Dakota]

And to think that most items now, even your phone, has hundreds of transistors in it. Your smart TV has thousands!

[@robg77]

More like billions. The average ARM based CPU is made up of around 15 billion transistors.

[@billharris6886]

The main difference is, those huge numbers of transistors within the integrated circuits of modern devices (such as cell phones) are actually each doing a useful purpose. With these high transistor count pocket transistor radios in the 1960's, the additional transistors served no purpose, other than to boost the transistor count. The performance was still the same as the original 6 transistor radio.

[@Pyrolonn]

@@robg77 That's what I was thinking. People in any modern society have more transistors than anything else.

[@Kihidokid]

dude just roasting radios

[@max_e_maxxy_]

Well, to each their own, I love the Juliet and the (first) Raleigh, such classy early 60s styling 📻 I agree most of them weren't very good looking but I did like a few

[@TJMoir]

You can use a Bipolar transistor as a diode so they weren't lying per se! Very few knew what a transistor was or did anyway and used to call the radio itself a transistor.

[@RaymondSwanson-u9y]

9 Transistors! As opposed to the billions in just a smart watch. I think they were on to something. BTW, I was a kid during the Transistor Wars. There was also a transistor war in computing at the same time. TTL logic circuits.

[@michaelturner4457]

Many of the transistors used in these cheap HK made radios were actually manufacturer rejects. There's a radio called a LaSonic, made by Funny Electronics Co in HK circa 1968, that uses transistors as diodes and power rectifiers, just to get the transistor count up.

[@joewoodchuck3824]

Excess tube count worked the same way before transistors came along.

[@nsdfuguoierj]

They did then samething in the 30's with tube count in radio. A lot of tube were used as a dropping resistor by using only the filament wired up in series with other tubes...same same.

[@durrcodurr]

Interesting! Do they still work? If so, you could showcase the audio and reception quality of them, it'd be interesting to know if the transistor count made any difference.

[@collectornet]

I don't even test them so I don't know if they work. Why don't I play the radios? Three reasons: 1. You would not really be "hearing" the radio itself at all. Think about it. You'd be hearing my microphone, a lot of electronics between me and you, and eventually your own speakers or earphones. 2. What about the radio's performance? Well, we judge a radio's reception by how it performs compared to others at our location. Is it really meaningful to compare a radio's performance in a video at MY location with the reception you experience at yours? It may be a nice bit of theater to turn on a radio and hear it play but when you think about it, other than theater it doesn't mean much. And then there's the risk: 3. Any amount of any random thing that comes out of any radio I would play in a KZbin video can be claimed as copyrighted material by its creator (music, ball game, etc.). This can cause any number of hassles from demonetization all the way up to and including the video being taken down. Given all that, in my judgment the risk to this channel and subsequently its viewers is just not worth it. Thanks for watching anyway!

[@durrcodurr]

@@collectornet 3) True, the risk is there -- IDK how many seconds of consecutive recording is permitted without causing a copyright claim or strike. 2) Sure, the reception quality depends on the quality broadcasting. But it also depends on the quality of the circuitry. 1) I'm aware that the audio is recorded, compressed, stored and then recalled, uncompressed and then played back. Still, there are people on KZbin who compare radios. But the ones I know are not located in the US, and some have their own weak transmitters to broadcast a localized program consisting of music from the so-called KZbin Library (which is exempt from copyright clearance).

[@collectornet]

I don't know either. And you are right that others do it. And you are right that there are alternatives involving using my own transmitter with copyright-free content or with content on which I own the copyright. And I have a transmitter and I own music copyrights. But as I say, I don't even test the radios myself usually so this is just not something I will pursue. I realize that there are folks who are interested in hearing the radios, but most of them don't, I think, realize the points I made in my initial response here to you. My videos focus on historical, social, product design, and business aspects. It is hoped that viewers focused on an item's performance will be able to enjoy my videos for all that they ARE and not focus on what they believe they lack.

[@Bob-1802]

I noticed few of these radios just say "12" or "14" with no mention of "transistor" on their cases. I may be wrong but it can be a wise marketing technique because if someone finds out it is not 12 or 14 transistors, well this is the model number sir 🤗

[@YenTran-eg7cy]

See it, like it ! ❤🎉

[@quaztron]

These portables all look like AM-only. When did portables pick up FM? FM got rolling in the 1950s, expanded in the 1960s, and took the lead by the late 1970s.

[@1McMurdoSilver]

I had to google if a diode was considered a transistor, just to be sure....

[@R.B.]

That O. M. G. S. Suburbia was at least innovative in that the battery harness looks like it could use either a 9v or 6 AA cells. That suggests that with 12 transistors it could at least power the set longer than the others.

[@RadioHist]

The highest transistor count for a medium wave AM only transistor set I ever had was 23..... But it is not a pocket set. It is about the size of a cigar box.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

Imagine if someone got back in time and put a SOC chip on a radio then claim 100 million transistors.

[@collectornet]

The reaction would be: "Why? That would make the radio way too loud."

[@marktubeie07]

I love your copywriting - masterfully constructed & delivered & often hilarious. 👏👏👏👏

[@collectornet]

Thank you for saying this. I really appreciate it. I know the writing is what I value most in the things I personally enjoy, even though it often seems that to other people the writing is secondary to the acting or singing or whatever else.

[@paulbray3138]

Back in the 60's I unsoldered one of these extra transistors all 3 leads soldered together tested it and it was a good transistor ,these dummy non functioning transistors were actually good transistors

[@Bartok_J]

Note how none of these had more than three IF transformers, so RF performance no better. I think there was something similar in the 1930s with American sets boasting ridiculous numbers of vacuum tubes. :-(

[@vegetablepolice1]

❤❤ that rilly cool man if everyone has the skamadic you could un soder the unedded transistors

[@P7777-u7r]

If you were an electronics shadetree at the time this could be a deal. Radios dont really need many transistors so find the radio with the most amount of unused transistors and take them out you now have a bunch of transistors you can just use and a usable radio which was more important then.

[@truthslayerone264]

I used to have a little 1” x 1.25” radio from Japan, smallest radio I’ve seen with standard size discrete components crammed in it.

[@collectornet]

Did it have a speaker in it, or was it earphone-only?

[@truthslayerone264]

@ it had a tiny speaker and headphone jack, it took little mercury cells.

[@collectornet]

Oh! That's good! That makes it what collectors call a "micro" radio. It's probably in that book "Vintage Micro Transistor Radios."

[@Pootycat8359]

Heh, heh, in 1968, when I was 16, I made a little AM transmitter, which was encapsulated in an epoxy cube, 0.75 in. to a side. It was GREAT for bugging telephones! 🤗

[@lurkersmith810]

Ah yes, the Viscount 12 Transistor, my first transistor radio, received for my 10th birthday, allowing me to hear The Real Don Steele on 93 KHJ. That guy used to really annoy me once I discovered I could record songs off the radio on my cassette recorder, because he, like most AM Jocks, would talk over the intro to the songs. But none offended worse than Wolf Man Jack, who would continue to talk all through the songs if he wanted to! Yes, I bought into the transistor count scam and scoffed at radios with a mere 6 transistors! (Even though those were as good, if not better.)

[@lurkersmith810]

By the way, my 10 year old self wants to know why it isn't pronounced "Viss-Count" like it's spelled?

[@collectornet]

Ha! Yes, I did the same thing. Hoping the DJ would shut up! I still have one of those tapes.

[@lurkersmith810]

@@collectornet I still have most of my old childhood tapes that I'm in the process of digitizing. The DJ chatter, every tape flaw and warble from when the tape got eaten and straightened out and spliced are all part of my childhood memories.

[@collectornet]

Great! Keep cleaning that playback head as you go. Old tapes generally shed their coatings and gum up the heads. You get high frequency loss both (I think) from the tape loss and the gummed up heads. But I'll bet you know this already!

[@lurkersmith810]

@@collectornet Oh, those high frequencies were gone before 1972! (I could only afford those cheap drug store tapes like Certron...) I'm sure one day you'll do a segment on late 1960s and early 1970s mono cassette recorders. (Miy first was branded "Encore" and I've yet to find any info on it on line.) I did catch a glimpse of my old Craig tape recorder / radio in your previous video!

[@ronalddevine9587]

Back in the late 70s I worked for a local (NY, NJ,and CT) discount department store. They used to sell their own brand of transistor radio for either 99 cents or two dollars on sale. Pure junk as I remember.

[@townhall05446]

I've collected a lot of transistor radios - mostly in years gone by - and in the early 60's they went to black and chrome - ugly and boring - and 'HONG KONG' on the back denoted a definite throwaway radio. I've got so many radios that are SO much better looking (and desirable). Most in fact are AM/SW, I find those to be the most interesting.

[@hieronymus9]

A fairer comparison of styles would take note of the years. Cars were boxier and less fanciful in, say, ‘62 compared to ‘59 too.

[@collectornet]

Doesn't the video do and show exactly that? Or perhaps I am thinking of another of my videos that does.

[@pecosimplu7070]

tranzistors not even connected in the circuit? that's unlikely... i repaired many radios, never find one like that

[@jamesslick4790]

This reminds me of the "Megapixel Wars" that's still going on. (Less bragged about by "real" camera makers than cellphone makers today) I've been a photographer since the 1970s and my PHONE (A decidedly mid-range:~$300 Moto G Stylus) claims 50 megapixels, My REAL "good" camera, a Nikon D-850 (A nearly $3,000 DSLR) "only" has 47.5 megapixels! Guess what ANY phone is NOT at any price? A Nikon D-850! 🤔

[@Steve-GM0HUU]

This reminds of the Spinal Tap movie and the coveted amplifier that went up to 11. Capitalism at it's best - consumer demands more transistors, consumers gets more transistors.😂

[@alexb.1320]

You might 'so what' the OMGS, but I see a nice sized ferrite core antenna.

[@collectornet]

I "so-whatted" the styling, not the antenna!

[@alexb.1320]

@@collectornet I know. That antenna though, it just jumped out at me, I can overlook the styling for something with a decent sized antenna in it.

[@Madness832]

Yeah, they increased the count by either: wirin' as diodes, parallelin' or placin' unconnected weak/dead ones.

[@jamesslick4790]

0:44 That looks like my mother with a '57 Chevy Bel-Air 'vert. Weird as my mother always drove CHRYSLERS. LOL.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

These two-lobe grills look to me like an attempt to evoke the appearance of two speakers, as though the radio were stereo.

[@collectornet]

Yeah!

[@oriraykai3610]

They all probably bought the circuit board from the same vendor and added stuff (if the marketing department deemed it necessary). 😆

[@VidNudistKid]

0:40 hey i think that's Chillicothe or Waverly, Ohio

[@EdwinRimmer-u3s]

The transistor radios worked the best for medium wave dxing

[@jacobreviewseverything]

I absolutely love the commentary laying the distain for these things on thick.

[@collectornet]

Thanks! A few people did not at all appreciate my critical commentary and got pretty mad at me over it!

[@156dave]

Were they using more than 1 IF frequency dual heterodyne for better sensitivity and discrimination this would require more transistors also active tone controls and impedance matching for the earphone output

[@156dave]

The same snake oil is used in high end HI FI and speaker cable just more expensive

[@tarstarkusz]

Consumers were the biggest losers. It turned the entire segment into a joke. Some of the early examples are both very handsome and perform very well. The people who lied and drove up their transistor count invariably had the worst performance. Unless you lived in a city with good coverage, they were useless. If you lived out in the country, they wouldn't pick up anything. Poor quality nearly always drives good quality out of business. Not only did they not perform well or look good, the sound quality fell through the floor as well. They are too small to be usable. They sound awful. It's not like you could improve it by using an earphone or external speaker. The audio circuitry was terrible too.

[@PaulHayman-tq5kb]

The service station are a head Of their Time and still carried on to day from America the petrol station price wars

[@coolbluelights]

OMG 12 transistors lol

[@markmarkofkane8167]

I read in the 70's that a popular mechanics book mentions transistor count not meaning much. It's the quality of the transistors.

[@ZommBleed]

Yeah, but transistors.

[@moefuzz5909]

Want some cheese with your wine? You certainly fail to see the beauty in these designs. UNSUBSCRIBED

[@collectornet]

Well I will certainly miss hearing your opinion that I am not entitled to my opinion.

[@asteverino8569]

What does this narrator usually read, children's stories?

[@collectornet]

You have a problem with clear enunciation? Is it your position that only children deserve to be communicated with clearly?

[@billharris6886]

You are probably used to the quality level of videos posted by the average young person on one of the many social media platforms. Actually, the video author here is using refined speech, which provides a broad range of listeners (including those where English is not their primary language) easy understanding.

[@ProfessorEchoMedia]

Even the fonts got boring! Juliette is about the only nice one and then they bury it at the very bottom. If you ever do a video with the Bottom 10 dullest transistor radios ever made, I put my vote in for that NOBILITY 15 one you show here with that Raleigh 12 one hitting sloppy seconds. 😴

[@collectornet]

Oh yeah. Such a video is in the works.

[@A3Kr0n]

thumbs down if youtube won't let me watch the video

[@collectornet]

You punish the video's creator? He has nothing to do with any issue you have with KZbin.

[@themoviemaniac8416]

I disagree with you on the designs of those radios. To me they are quite representative of their time and attractive. After all, they are meant to be simple and functional, not a piece of furniture like a console entertainment set.

[@collectornet]

Yes they (or some of them, anyway) are representative of their time--a time when the "sheerform" style was ascendent. Collectors of these things, for what it's worth, consider that era a nadir of product design while holding in higher regard both earlier and later styles (from the 1950s and from the late '60s and into the '70s). Yes, you are entitled to like them, of course! And that can work to your advantage if you wanted to collect these radios because they have so little value in the collector market at present. Of course, that may change! But for now, most collectors think those early-to-mid-'60s radios featured in this video look the way they do not as a result of anything but cheapness on the part of their manufacturers. Your statement that they were "meant to be simple and functional" I think betrays a misunderstanding of the whole enterprise. What they were "meant" for was to make a profit. And if the importers could skimp on design and fudge the transistor numbers to make that profit, they did.

[@themoviemaniac8416]

@@collectornet It's basically the same thing. I didn't misunderstand, I know they wanted to make a profit, and keeping the design down to simple and functional helped to do that. Many things during that period were designed the same way, from appliances to furniture to automobiles. These fit right in.

[@collectornet]

Yes, they "fit right in." Another name for that is conformity. The style you find attractive here is called "sheerform," as I mentioned. Had you heard of that? Did you realize it was a named style? Many of the examples in the video are bastardizations of the style incorporating other elements that compromise the style. The makers of these radios were obviously not purists, nor were the appliance makers that added Spanish Colonial lattice-work to "decorate" an otherwise sheerform refrigerator. Why did they do that? Because many consumers objected to consumer products being stripped of decoration. Many rejected that sort of "less-is-more modernism" even as it was being forced on them. It should be said that the thumbnail picture in this video, the Global GR-900, is most definitely NOT sheerform. In addition to its comment on the "Transistor Wars," this video documents changing product design from the exuberance of the Global radio to the sheerform that followed it. All these designs interest me and in some sense I like them all--as witness the fact that all these sheerform radios in the video ARE IN MY COLLECTION. My gripe is about the conformity--the economic model that a new style must drive every other style out of the marketplace in order to render those now obsolete objects ripe for replacement. I object to that happening then, and I object to it happening now--and that's what I'm calling out to you in this back-and-forth we are having. I favor diversity and choice. Corporations favor the things that best serve their mass-market interests: conformity and planned obsolescence.

[@themoviemaniac8416]

@@collectornet Brother, you need to relax and not get so wound up over someone having a different opinion from you. By "fit right in" I mean they are stylistically similar to other items of the time. It's always that way. A style becomes popular and then it is followed, until someone moves on to a new style that catches peoples' fancy. The radios you appreciate from other periods are the same way, they stylistically fit within their time periods. I'm not just a dope on this subject since my Dad had a radio-TV-appliance repair shop where I worked from elementary school through college. I still restore & repair vintage electronics. Hope you'll let me off the hook now, please.

[@collectornet]

Oh, sorry. I thought we were having a back & forth where we might both learn something. That seems not to be what you're interested in. Apparently you just want to disagree with me and literally do not care to hear another opinion, no matter how knowledgeable or qualified. I took the time here to help you understand some things about design. For my effort I'm told I "need to relax." OK, then. I'm a busy man who willingly gave you my time in an effort to be helpful. I'll give no more of it and you can just stay ignorant.

[@townhall05446]

Love your weary description of boring radios!

[@collectornet]

Thanks! Some viewers get real defensive over that--and mad at me!

[@MistahJigglah]

Don't you know, Anything with color or anything interesting about it whatsoever isn't "tasteful". I'm convinced "tasteful" is a term designed by an accountant to cover for zero effort design.

[@bobconnolly1614]

Can you imagine if phone manufacturers still engaged in transistor war marketing? 15 billion transistors…🥹

[@joewoodchuck3824]

Actually the transistor count is legitimately rising due to increasingly complex phones. Not visible transistors but the actual multiple billions of them contained in integrated circuits. What did you think was inside those black devices?

[@bobconnolly1614]

@ Of course…I was referring to the transistor count in phones being used as a marketing ploy…it’s called irony…