59
Item nr.
First transistorized Philips portable.
| Production | The Netherlands, 1957.
Price was 188 guilders. |
|---|---|
| Bands | LW (1132-2000m), MW (184-580m); IF is 452kHz. |
| Semi- conductors | OC44 (mixer), 2xOC45 (MF stages), OA79 (det.), 2xOC71 (AF stges), 2xOC72 (Output). |
| Cabinet | Wood and plastic. Size 27x18x9 cm. |
| Power | Batt 4xD (12mA silent, 39mA for 50mW output). |
| Documents | John's site, Circuit diagram, Slide deck. |
This happened indeed, but not quite overnight. The first commercial transistor radio appeared on the market late 1954 (the Regency TR1, now very much demanded by collectors). Philips had always been a bit slow to change to new technologies. Indeed, they were very good in exploiting the old ones. But in 1957 (following 1956 experiments with Radiola and Philips radios in France) Philips could not wait any longer and came out with a transistorized portable, the one shown here. As you can see on this advertisement, the rest of the portable collection was tubed.
Although all Dutch collectors seem to agree that this is the first transistorized Philips, I am not completely sure this is the case. I think there were earlier models (in 1956) from the Philips departments in France. Although the type number suggests 1956, the Philips L3F60T Portaletta was launched in 1957. It is almost identical to the Radiola RA388T Superstor.
| Obtained | 3/1997 from NVHR Swap Meet, sn=A48623. |
|---|---|
| Condition | 8. |
| Value (est.) | 22€. |
| Sound sample | PLAY SOUND What about information privacy in The Netherlands? The security services RID and AIVD have investigated the private life of Dutch politicians to be. So far no problem, but they should not leave the diskettes in a car they sell. The diskettes with State Secrets ended with Crime Journalist Peter R. de Vries. De Vries has political aspirations as well, and, as the national newspaper Nederlands Dagblad wrote, he started his political campain, but in the wrong arena. My advice for Peter: we already have bad or average politicians enough, but only few good crime journalists. Please keep doing what you are good at! Peter R. de Vries was killed in July, 2021. |
The transistors are mounted on a metal chassis like we know from tube portables, not on a circuit board. This radio plays on four cells (giving 6V), while many later models used six (9V supply). The first run of the model (L3X71T/00) had a tone switch, while later runs (L3X71T/01) had a local/remote switch instead. The local setting reduces the Q-factor of the MF-transformer, making the selectivity smaller. This results in better sound quality, but can only be done for strong stations because otherwise noises from adjacent channels disturb the effect.
Looking under the chassis, we still find a lot of the technology used in tubed sets, only not the tubes. Decoupling capacitors of 100nF (green) are of 125V types and most are cracked. I replaced some capacitors, lubricated the pushbuttons, and rewired the dial chord string in November 2020. In this model, the thumb wheel drives the tuning cap directly, and the chord is only needed for the dial pointer. So, even with a broken dial chord, you can tune the set, only you won't be able to see what you tune.