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Aitron Wrist Radio, 1972

A wristwatch-sized radio was the sort of gadget youngsters back in the 60s and 70s would have given their eye-teeth for. Transistors had revolutionised radio design but the idea of having one so tiny that you could strap it to your wrist was pure science fiction. Yet, amazingly, there were several models, including a variant of the infamous Sinclair Micromatic (it came with a wrist strap).

 

This one is the Aitron and don’t be misled, it’s quite a lump – that’s a 50 pence coin next to it -- and wearing one provided a good workout for the upper and lower arms. Even so, it is still a remarkable feat of miniaturisation, cramming a 5-transisitor superhet radio and speaker into such a confined space. Some clever circuitry and a very unusual 50mm speaker (high-impedance centre-tapped voice coil, for those who care about such things) means it doesn’t need a final stage audio output transformer, which saves a lot of space, and it is powered by a single AA battery, which again is quite a feat considering the power requirements of the transistors of the day.

 

There are only two controls, on/off volume and tuning, the third larger ‘knob’ is actually the battery cap. The strap is a surprisingly high quality item, made of leather with a plastic protective backing, and it’s sturdy too, this one cleans up like new.

What Happened to it?

The Aitron brand seems to have disappeared without trace though this design did carry on until the late seventies and I have seen pictures of later models with a built in LED watch display. I imagine they are extremely rare and probably worth a few bob by now. Even so very few examples of this earlier model will have survived. Wrist radios have come and gone over the years and I saw one recently in our local ‘Pound’ shop, though it was only capable of driving an earphone. The concept also survives in wrist and arm bands for devices like the iPod, though again they are geared to personal playback through ear and headphones

 

This particular example was bought from ebay a while ago for the princely sum of £3.00. It is in excellent condition and works well, though there doesn’t seem to be much to listen to on the medium wave these days. Needless to say it sounds a bit tinny and the volume isn’t much to write home about, but for personal listening, under the bedclothes (it's what we did back then...) it’s great! 


GIZMO GUIDE

First seen:                         1972

Original Price                   £10-£15

Value Today?                   £10-£20

Features:                          On/off volume switch, tuning
Power req.                        1 x AA

Weight:                             0.12kg

Dimensions:                      55 x 75 x 28mm (excluding strap)

Made in:                            Hong Kong

Hen’s Teeth (10 rarest):     7

 


Fidelity HF42 Portable Record Player

Of course the classic 60s and 70s record player has always been the Dansette, though I must say that I don’t recall knowing anyone who actually owned one. Most of my contemporaries either used their parent’s stereograms to play their records, or if they were lucky enough to have a portable record player of their own, the chances are it was cheapo model made by the likes of Pye, Philips, HMV and Fidelity.


The HF42 was a popular choice because they were so cheap and portable. They were available in a number if finishes, including a particularly garish red; this one sports a really tacky mock wood case, but like all models in the range, the case is made of an alarmingly thin plastic that shatters at the slightest touch.

 

It’s very basic, though unusually for a record player of that time it has four speeds, 16, 33.3, 45 and 78rpm. The controls are simple too, just on/off volume and ‘tone’. The arm is one hundred percent manually operated, there’s no lift, or cut out, but it does have the twin flip over stylus for LP and 78s (the latter being larger and more hard wearing). A nice feature is a captive retractable centre adaptor, so you could play records that had the middle pushed out. These were common fitments on record players but somehow they always seem to get lost.

 

It is mains powered but at some point Fidelity obviously made a battery-powered model as on the underside there’s what appears to be a fully functional battery compartment for 6 x D-cells. Sadly it’s not an option on this example as it is fitted with a mains synchronous motor. A simple 4-transitor amplifier with a push-pull output powers the 3.5-inch speaker, located behind the grille underneath the stylus. Needless to say it is not very loud, and in glorious mono. To be fair volume wasn’t an issue for most users back then, parents at that time had very sensitive ears and an acute dislike for the music of the day (nothing changes…) but even by today’s standards it sounds pretty good, and surprisingly mellow, as is often the case on old speakers that have been thoroughly ‘run in’ over the years.

 

What Happened to it?

There’s no need for a rerun of the demise of the vinyl record, we all know CDs virtually wiped them out in the early 80s, though they never completely disappeared and every so often there’s talk of a comeback. Collectors of hi-fi equipment have always prized turntables, but they tend to go for the fancy high-end models, which is why humble little record players like this one are often overlooked and are in danger of becoming quite rare.

 

There are still plenty of bargains around, though. This one cost me 99 pence on ebay recently, plus a tenner in postage… They’re never going to become seriously valuable but they are a genuinely interesting gadget, and a lot more representative of what the kids in the 60s and 70s actually listened to in their bedrooms. 


GIZMO GUIDE

First seen:                         1972

Original Price                   £25

Value Today?                   £10

Features:                          4 speeds (16, 33.3, 45 & 78rpm), variable tone, twin stylus pickup (LP/78), 3.5-inch speaker, 4-transistor amplifier, retractable centre, carry handle, detachable lid

Power req.                        230 bolts AC mains

Weight:                             2kg

Dimensions:                     325 x 260 x 100mm

Made in:                            England

Hen’s Teeth (10 rarest):   5

 


Hitachi WH-638, 2 Band 6 Transistor Radio 1967

In the same way that personal media players and mobile phones are standard kit for today’s teens, then back in the 60s you were nowhere man unless you had a tranny. Most of us had to put up with fairly basic cheapie pocket size medium wave jobbies but if you had rich parents you might have one of these, a 2-wave MW/LW model. It was a bit like owning a no-nameMP3 player when all of your mates had 4Gb iPods… The thing about long wave reception was that it allowed you to hear Radio Luxembourg a whole lot better than the notoriously unreliable medium wave signal on 208 metres.

 

Hitachi, along with Sony and Pioneer built their reputation and future global brand on humble transistor radios like these, though they were often outsourced to smaller companies and quite often the same chassis would turn up under a variety of different names. This one is a typical 6-transisitor (germanium type) superhetrodyne design with one densely packed, hand-assembled circuit board crammed full of coils, capacitors and resistors, and drenched with a liberal dollop of wax and varnish, to stop anything moving around. These circuits were so sensitive that any movement of the components would throw the tuning off bonk.

 

It’s powered by a single 9 volt ‘PP3’ type battery and has just three controls, for on/off volume, tuning and wave selection (on the back). There’s an earphone socket (3.5mm, mono, of course) on the side and it would have come with an earphone and a carry pouch, which fitted, on the leather case carry strap. They were very solidly built, and apart from a crackly volume, this one works fine, with the characteristic tinny sound coming from the 3-inch speaker.  

 

What Happened To It?

Pocket two-band trannies continued well into the 70s then gradually models with higher quality FM reception began to take over. The development of more efficient silicon transistors and then micro chips meant radios could be made smaller, cheaper and more reliable, and by that time cassette tape had become established but the magic of listening to Luxembourg, then the offshore pirates under the bedclothes had disappeared and I guess we all grew up….

 

This one came to me courtesy of ebay for a couple of quid or around a third of the price of the postage, and as an added bonus it came with it’s original leather case, which is also in very good condition. Technically it’s nothing special, nevertheless, I really do think 60’s radios are a seriously underrated as collectibles and examples in good condition can only increase in value so get in quick, before I buy them all up!

  


GIZMO GUIDE

First seen:                         1967

Original Price                   £10?

Value Today?                   £5

Features:                          On/off volume switch, tuning, MW/LW, earphone socket
Power req.                        9volt PP3

Weight:                             0.3kg

Dimensions:                     130 x 77 x 35mm

Made in:                            Japan

Hen’s Teeth (10 rarest):   3


Technicolor 212 Portable VCR, 1981

For a brief period in the early 1980s the Technicolor 212 portable VCR looked as though it could be the future of portable video. This was at a time when the only other portable video systems were huge ‘luggable’ VHS machines that weighed a ton and cost a small fortune.

 

The 212 used Compact Video Cassettes (CVC) spooled with ordinary quarter inch audio tape, similar in size and shape to a regular audio cassettes. It used a helical scaning system, similar to most VCRs and camcorders, with a linear tape speed of just 1.26 inches/sec (32.1mm/sec). Back then the 212 was regarded as a minor revolution in miniaturisation, though JVC and Sony were poised to launch the Compact VHS (VHS-C) and 8mm formats.

 

At the time Technicolor was best know for making movie film, so the appearance of this machine was a bit of a surprise. In fact it was jointly developed with the Japanese tape company Funai, who briefly marketed this machine under its own name. A 'combi' version with a built-in TV screen was also made though I don’t think it was ever sold in the UK.

 

At around £650 the 212 was quite expensive – remember this was over a quarter of a century ago… -- and you still needed a camera. In the UK it was supplied with a Hitachi model, which bumped the price up by another £550. Blank tapes cost around £6.00. It came with a companion mains power supply and RF adaptor, and an optional TV tuner/timer was also available (model No 5112), however, since only 30 minutes tapes were available (45 minute tapes did appear briefly), it wasn’t much use for serious time-shifting

 

It’s a lovely looking piece of kit with it’s clunky ‘piano-key’ controls, all of the sockets are mounted on the side; the large one is for the video camera connection, which draws its power form the VCRs internal rechargeable battery. As I recall picture quality was surprisingly good, though obviously not a patch on today’s portable video systems, however, much depended on the quality of the tape and dropouts – causing streaks and flashes on the picture – were quite common.

 

What Happened To it?

As soon as the technically superior VHS-C and 8mm formats appeared on the scene, backed by the world’s biggest electronic companies, it was curtains for Technicolour and CVC and the 212 quietly disappeared from view. Remaining stocks were sold off in shops in London’s Edgware Road for the giveaway price of only £75. A sad end to a brave attempt to take on the big boys, and who knows, if it had been launched a couple of years earlier things might have turned out differently.

 

Technicolor 212s still turn up on ebay from time to time, usually faulty and selling for a few pounds. I first reviewed the machine in early 1982 and I still have a small stock of CVC tapes in my collection, including one unopened one, which must be incredibly rare, all I need now is a working 212…

 

My thanks to fellow journalist and gadget collector Martin Pipe for his help with this one.


GIZMO GUIDE

First seen:                         1981

Original Price                    £650 (camera £550, tapes £6.00)

Value Today?                    £50

Features:                           Tape speed: 1.26 ips (32.1 mm/sec), Video Resolution: 240 lines, Audio S/N: 40 dB, Audio Frequency Response: 100Hz to 8 kHz, audio dub, still frame, 40 minutes recording time on rechargeable battery pack,
Power req.                        1 x AA cell

Weight:                             3.2kg

Dimensions:                      246 x 76 x 259 mm

Made in:                           Japan

Hen’s Teeth (10 rarest):     8


Sanyo G2001 Music Centre 1980 (manual)

The Music Centre was a classic piece of seventies technology. It was a complete home hi-fi system in a single box, well, three boxes, if you count the separate speakers. It was the natural successor to radiograms of the fifties and sixties, which were more often than not large unwieldy wooden boxes, usually designed more as a piece of furniture than hi-fi equipment.

 

The Music Centre broke free of the radiogram’s fuddy-duddy image and didn’t try to disguise its purpose behind wooden doors and lids. The turntable, tape deck and tuner were on display and protected by a smoked acrylic cover that more often than not would be cracked or broken within six months. Manufacturers found it hard to give up their old ways and most 70s and early 80s models had mockwood panels, and laminated chipboard speaker boxes but by the mid 80s these had given way to flashier designs. 

 

The G2001 is one of dozens of models aimed at middle-aged buyers, who back then were the ones with the money. It’s conservatively styled, not too many controls or winky lights and still capable of playing 78rpm records. The cassette deck was one of the first to sport the ‘new’ Dolby noise reduction system, for de-hissing tapes and it had the slightly controversial ability to record directly from records. This example has survived intact, the lid is uncracked, everything still works and it actually sounds pretty good.

 

What Happened To It?

One box audio systems are still with us but the bulky music centre was killed off by the rise and rise of Compact Disc throughout the 1980s. As turntables started to disappear from audio systems they were replaced by CD decks, which allowed manufacturers to shrink the sizes of their boxes. Music centres gradually morphed into one-piece tower systems, then mini towers and micro systems. Nowadays you can pack 10,000 tunes in a box that fits in your pocket, and if you want to listen to your music through speakers you plug it into a docking system.

 

There’s still plenty of early music centres on ebay, often selling for less than the cost of shipping. If you’ve still got a collection of LPs or tapes in the loft it’s a great way of reviving those old sounds. Shortlist models from the better-known manufacturers as these tended to be built to a higher standard. Spares, like replacement styli and drive belts are also usually still obtainable and a good working example should still have a few years life left in it.

 


GIZMO GUIDE

First seen:                          1980

Original Price                    £125

Value Today?                    £20

Features:                           Turntable (33/45/78rpm), cassette deck with Dolby Noise Reduction, FM/MW/LW receiver, twin speakers, 6W channel stereo amplifier

Power req.                        mains

Weight:                             4.5kg

Dimensions:                       525 x 174 x 379 mm

Made in:                           Japan

Hen’s Teeth (10 rarest):     4


 

 

 

 

 

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