Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Transistor Radio

So, I'm a product of the 1960's. I grew up with transistor radios, The Sony Walkman came out when I was in high school.

Last week, I recall when I was a kid, fishing at the lake, sitting on a stand, or milling around camp listening
to my trusty Panasonic AM transistor radio. I recall my Grandfather doing the same on fishing trips to the Snake
River, or Flaming Gorge Reservoir,

We'd listen to music, Saturday college football games and Paul Harvey.

So, I went on a search and destroy mission to see if I could find my old radio, and alas, I could not.

So, Amazon helped me out. This was on their deal of the day special for $10.50, plus a $2.00
discount coupon. Such a deal $8.50 shipped. It arrived today. Works great. Now I need to
get one of the old style monaural single ear buds like we used back in the 60's & 70's.

Next is to get out and enjoy reminiscing my youth and time spent with my father and grandfather.


How many of you have the same types of memories ?

Van Morrison: "Brown-Eyed Girl"

I still have one hanging in the back yard when working out there. Makes me feel of a different better time hearing Rock, County and the ball game on a Sunday afternoon. I have my Dad's that he had as a kid growing up.

I have a couple AM-FM small transistor radios from radio shack. The digital ones that go for 30 bucks on their web site. Like them a lot and use them sometimes when I want to listen to something when I'm outside. They run on 3 "AAA" batteries. Except I looked them up on Radioshack.com to see the price and they are currently sold out. If they get 'em back they're pretty good for the money. One of mine's at least 4 years old now and the other's about 2 and no problems with either one. They're a real flashback for us old guys.

I have a radio shack am.fm and shortwave that I bought probably 30 years ago. I dig it out when I go camping.

kwg

Got a couple like that, but with a generator crank on them for when you can't get batteries.

When Dad came back from Korea in 1960 he brought me (7) a Mitsubisi portable short wave, (BCB, 3.5 - 12 Mc). An 8 transistor, betting all germanium, delight except some brilliant engineer designed in round 9V batteries, increasingly expensive and hard to find. Until the kid converted it to 9V rectangular. Decent set but, man, would that thing eat batteries! Still have it.

Panasonic from 1967. Lots of late night classic rock from omaha and little rock when I was supposed to be sleeping. It's in my shop and still works even after my brother broke the antennae in 1974.

We have at least two. One medium size AM/FM with a carry handle that I use when the power goes out to help mask my tinnitus and one strictly AM pocket size still in it's original box from back in the late '50s - early '60s.

A transistor radio was on my Christmas wish list a few years ago (and I got it!) My old Panasonic finally gave up the ghost and I wanted a replacement. I now carry it in my fishing boat but when I was working construction I had it playing. Nowadays everybody has little portable boom boxes on construction sites, but like you guys I'm old school.

We use transistor radios at camp all the time. The radio on the fish rack prevents bear and raven troubles, and the batteries last a long time... two weeks 24/7 at least.

One portable I like is the old GE Super Radio. Now discontinued but still available. Good sound but it's main virtue is it has a "hot" AM front end, pulls in distant stations. A dandy feature on the prairie. There are spots in this state where even a car radio, which are pretty good, only get a tribal station. Boom boom boom boom. Hayahhha ah haaa! Boom boom boom boom.

Got a 9-transistor radio for Christmas when I was 12 or 13. I'd stick it under my pillow and listen to it at night whilst I was supposed to be sleeping, with the earphone stuck between my head and the pillow. Never got busted for that, but it's probably about the only thing I ever got away with besides the joyride in my mom's 1960 Desoto. Whole nuther story. But that radio, it ate batteries so I didn't get to use it very much. It served its purpose, I guess, because I took everything apart in those days to see how things work. When I opened up the radio, it was all "WTF???" That prompted me to go into avionics when I joined the Navy, and that was a pivotal decision in my life---for better or for worse. Fixed a few thousand transmitters and receivers since then but now completely out of the RF game.

NINE transistors? Fancy. The numbers game got to the point where some manufacturers soldered transistors to the board unconnected just to claim a higher number. Now the cheapest radio has thousands of transistors. The mind boggles.

Mine is like Barry mentioned, crank it up to listen.

I have a little Grundig too, that one is battery powered.

I remember playing with an old Hallicrafters radio as a kid in the 60s, listening to what we later learned was Portuguese.
also a lot of Morse back in the day.

In 1956 I got a Zenith Royal 500 radio for Christmas. Late at night I used to listen to Doug Pledger on Shakey's (Pizza Parlor) Whoopee Hour From SF CA, broadcast in Reno NV on station KOH. It featured Dixieland and European oompa bands. At 15 I was playing tuba at our local Shakey's in a 5-piece German band. It was great fun in lieu of decent pay.

The Zenith lasted until the late 1990s. These were good quality electronics with hand soldered circuits. The case was a red/maroon color.

Truly. I recall one Christmas I was with my mom at a mall, probably about 1969 or maybe '70. She spied a digital watch in a display window and was intrigued. I think it was TI branded. The dang thing carried a price tag of $1200, IIRC, and that was 1970 dollars! The thing had the old red LED display. She was so enthralled with it that she actually considered buying it for my dad. I think he woulda sch!t enough bricks to build a skyscraper. I remember standing there with my mouth open at the prospect of her paying $1200 for the damned thing.

I think my Android phone has more computing power than the old tactical computer that was used on the P-3C Orion in the mid-70s. If I recall correctly, that thing clocked at 1 kHz. I may be mistaken on that...but it weighed about 900 pounds, at least. I don't think I'm mistaken about THAT.

Actually, I'm not positive the radio had nine transistors, but I'm pretty sure it had either eight, nine, or ten. I'd put it in a small cardboard box sometimes. It gave it a richer sounding tone and squelch the tinniness a bit. I remember hearing Donovan sing "Mellow Yellow" listening to that radio.

Damn I remeber those types of Shakeys when as a kid. Pizza and Pipes as well.

Dick Biondi, WLS, Chicago:

I had a state of the art Sears 7 transistor radio in the mids 60s. It was state of the art and I used it often.