Cavalcade of Homebrew Radios, Part II–1961 Transistor Portable Radio

Here’s another one.

Picked this up from eBay around 1998. The seller said it was a kit radio.

When I got the set, I was surprised to find it was a homebrew. This guy cut his own chassis and cabinet.

The layout is identical to an article in Radio-TV Experimenter entitled “Six Transistor Portable Superheterodyne,” by T.A. Blanchard.

According to the signature on the chassis it was built by a J.W. Rundt in January 1961.

The builder probably purchased his parts from a company called Arkay–they had a complete kit available, but he forged ahead and scratchbuilt his set.

Used a 226 cylindrical 9 volt battery. It has since been adapted to a standard 216.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t play. Probably needs its lytics replaced.

Duration : 0:2:53

[youtube a6KJ0mmShB0]

This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 7:04 am and is filed under portable radios. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Cavalcade of Homebrew Radios, Part II–1961 Transistor Portable Radio”

retrochad on November 30th, 2009 at 7:04 am

Looks very …
Looks very substantial…a lot like the Zenith transistor radios of the time which used a metal chassis and high-quality parts.
raymondleeleggs on November 30th, 2009 at 7:04 am

The knobs are huge! …
The knobs are huge! They make it look like the grille of a jeep

Radios