Collaborate Disseminate
Many Hackaday readers have an interest in retro technology, but we are not the only group who scour the flea markets. Alongside us are the collectors, whose interest is as …read more Continue reading When Transistor Count Mattered
When you think of Sony, you probably think of a technology company that’s been around forever. However, as [Asianometry] points out, it really formed in the tough years after World …read more Continue reading How Sony Mastered the Transistor
The humble transistor radio is one of those consumer devices that stubbornly refuses to go away, but it’s fair to say that it’s not the mover and shaker in the …read more Continue reading Transistor Radio Repair, More Complex Than It Seems
Here in 2023 the field of electronics covers a breathtaking variety of devices and applications, but if we were to go back in time far enough we’d enter an age …read more Continue reading A Vintage Transistor Radio Gets a Repair
If you are a certain age, it is hard to wrap your head around the fact that an old radio might have transistors — the old ones all had tubes, …read more Continue reading AJAX COMMAND Radio is an Oldie but Goodie
When a Hackaday article proclaims that its subject is a book you should read, you might imagine that we would be talking of a seminal text known only by its authors’ names. Horowitz and Hill, perhaps, or maybe Kernigan and Ritchie. The kind of book from which you learn your craft, and to which you continuously return to as a work of reference. Those books that you don’t sell on at the end of your university career.
So you might find it a little unexpected then that our subject here is a children’s book. Making A Transistor Radio …read more
Continue reading Books You Should Read: Making A Transistor Radio
When a Hackaday article proclaims that its subject is a book you should read, you might imagine that we would be talking of a seminal text known only by its authors’ names. Horowitz and Hill, perhaps, or maybe Kernigan and Ritchie. The kind of book from which you learn your craft, and to which you continuously return to as a work of reference. Those books that you don’t sell on at the end of your university career.
So you might find it a little unexpected then that our subject here is a children’s book. Making A Transistor Radio …read more
Continue reading Books You Should Read: Making A Transistor Radio
Transistors have come a long way. Like everything else electronic, they’ve become both better and cheaper. According to a recent IEEE article, a transistor cost about $8 in today’s money back in the 1960’s. Consider the Regency TR-1, the first transistor radio from TI and IDEA. In late 1954, the four-transistor device went on sale for $49.95. That doesn’t sound like much until you realize that in 1954, this was equivalent to about $441 (a new car cost about $1,700 and a copy of life magazine cost 20 cents). Even at that price, they sold about 150,000 radios.
Part of …read more
