Two-way Pocket Radio (Apr, 1947)
Two-way Pocket Radio
made during the war by Tele-Radio, Ltd., for British secret service work will soon be on the market. -It has a range of one mile with the power-pack shown, but manufacturers say its power can easily be increased. The firm will offer manufacturing rights to interested parties in the United States and Canada. Below, the set is compared in size with a cigarette case.
“the set is compared in size with a cigarette case”… For really, really fat cigarettes perhaps.
hip
Comment by hip2b2 — October 26, 2010 @ 3:33 am
Only one mile? Of course they may have not had repeaters in those days.
Comment by Kosher Ham — October 26, 2010 @ 11:03 am
hip2b2: No, that thing in the guy’s right hand is the cigarette case that he is in fact comparing it to. As in “Wow look at the size of this radio in comparison to this cigarette case!”
Comment by Firebrand38 — October 26, 2010 @ 11:19 am
What they are not showing is the knapsack size battery.
Comment by Myles — October 26, 2010 @ 1:23 pm
Myles: Well, they show it here and it’s hardly a “knapsack”.
You still didn’t win but thanks for playing. Your parting gift is the home version of Modern Mechanix.
Comment by Firebrand38 — October 26, 2010 @ 1:59 pm
He got that idea from Dick Tracy comics…..didn’t he? Tracy had one that looked like a wristwatch. Now everyone on the planet has one….almost.
Comment by DouglasUrantia — October 26, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
or the size of an early “walkman” …
Comment by Christoph — October 26, 2010 @ 3:43 pm
DouglasUrantia: No, Dick Tracy got his wrist radio in a January 1946 comic strip. This was based on efforts to make clandestine radios for the intelligence services.
http://www.militaryradio.com/s.....eanor.html
This WW2 British radio receiver was disguised as a tin of biscuits http://www.vq5x79.f2s.com/greenradio/MCR1.html
While this pocket receiver was developed for the Polish resistance in 1943 http://www.vq5x79.f2s.com/gree.....s.html#OP3
Comment by Firebrand38 — October 26, 2010 @ 4:01 pm
I bet someday they might be even smaller and allow us to talk anywhere in the world. Perhaps even transmit pictures!
Comment by Darla — October 26, 2010 @ 4:49 pm
Darla: Are you trying to steal my idea?
Comment by DouglasUrantia — October 26, 2010 @ 5:02 pm
hahahhahahahaha!!! Good one Darla. I suppose it’ll take movie’s too!…and I’d be able to talk to anyone anywhere on the planet, or in space! I suppose it’ll tell me what time it is to, and what time to get up, or to get off to a meeting…hahaahhahahahah! If only your bank account were as big as your ideas!
Comment by pryapart — October 27, 2010 @ 4:42 pm
“Tracy had one that looked like a wristwatch. Now everyone on the planet has one….almost.”
I haven’t seen any sold in the US, but look on sites like alibaba.com and there’s actually some wrist watch cell phones for sale. I have no idea how anyone dials a phone that small, a few have a tiny speaker in them and the rest use bluetooth.
Anyway, this thing’s pretty small considering the transistor had not been invented yet — it must use pretty small vacuum tubes!
Comment by hwertz — October 27, 2010 @ 9:08 pm
hwertz: Look at the photo, there’s one showing. Thinner than his thumb, thicker that his other fingers. I’d say normal normal subminiature tubes.
Comment by Jari — October 28, 2010 @ 11:07 am
I’m counting two submini tubes [Firefox can zoom in only so far, and at that, the image becomes grainy]; probably one is a crystal-controlled oscillator, and the other a modulator/receive-audio amplifier.
In any event, it’d be nice to know the frequency at which this operated, and to see a schematic diagram.
Comment by Michael, N5RLR — November 7, 2010 @ 11:10 am