[BC] 1950s' transistor radios pointed to more tech changes

[RichardBJohnson at comcast.net]

I got a radio given to me by a paper route customer. I had previously made an oatmeal-box crystal set, but I was not able to find a sensitive spot on the galena crystal. Later on, I found that the schoolteacher had given me some coal, claiming it was galena, never thinking that I could actually attempt to build a crystal set. That's one of the reasons I learned to hate schoolteachers!

The radio was missing its box. It was made by Philco and I later learned that it was called the "All American five." It had five tubes, 12SA7, 12SK7, 12SQ7, 50L6, and 35Z5. There were many AA5 sets, I would later discover. Here is one of the later models with miniature tubes and a power switch that switched ground!

http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/mounted/5tube.html

I would lay in bed, my face warmed by the soft glow of the 50L6, and listen to WLWO in Cincinnati.  As it would fade in and out, I would hear the sounds of faraway places that I would visit in my dreams. That was the marvel of radio for me as a young boy. I could hear places so far away that, in my wildest imagination, I could never visit, so I thought.

My sisters also had a radio,but it was a more modern "store-bought" one that my eldest sister had gotten for Christmas. The girls would listen to their "girly music" as they went off to sleep. I learned that I could connect some wire to the oscillator tuning capacitor and transmit a signal that would cause my sister's radio to squeal. I got caught and my radio was taken away --forever. 

Cheers,
Richard B. Johnson
Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: "George Brand" <george at bud-jones-insurance-agency.com>

first radio was a Tiny Tim crystal radio, used to ground it to my clock
until Dad caught me and explained how that was not a good idea to have 110
in the ear. Next radio was a junk picked all American five, Dad showed me
how to fix it. I was about 6 at the time, next year I built a Heathkit am
transmitter. Yes, we started young....

George wa8sco