A somewhat intense video on transistor radios !

 

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K41knr45xEA

This was an interesting video both because this fellow was a demon for keeping and collecting stuff from childhood, being organized as a kid and for the negative vibe that the video transmits which he apparently got from his parents, classmates and grownups.  Wow, I guess I was spoiled because I never got this kind of discouraging feedback that I can recall.  The video is kind of a downer but interesting - lesson learned: don't treat kids negatively, they may grow up to be content creators and regale future generations with tales of your negativity !  :)

Here is an ad for the second transistor radio I ever owned:

note that the scale and the ironing board were less than half the price of the radio !

Ad was from the December 5, 1965 Milwaukee Journal, here is the semi-obligatory inflated price:

A 10x increase in price !  I was never able to find the ad for the radio I bought, it was less than $5.99 so it might have been a couple of years later as a closeout - there was a place in downtown Milwaukee that would place ads in the Journal, including in the Green Sheet (the comics section).  It *might* have been Erlien's ? -  not sure on that (update 2025-04-20: the GE P1710 radio was bought from Smith Supply, 170 S 2nd ST, Milwaukee).

Anyway that GE radio really wasn't that good (although it was a clean design in my opinion).  A lot was due to being dropped on the floor umpty-ump times (I used to listen in bed, radio under the pillow and it would fall on the floor after I went to sleep).  Those multiple drops didn't do either the first or second transistor radio of mine any good so they both eventually got torn apart by me.

BTW here is the Edison Experiments You Can Do booklet shown in the video:

https://archive.org/details/edisonexperiment0000vand

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm