

How to operate your Regency Model TR-1G transistor pocket radio receiver (1954) [pdf] - shawndumas
http://www.regencytr1.com/images/Owners%20Manual%20-%20TR-1G.pdf

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rmason
Technology moved fast in those days as well. My dad bought me a transistor
pocket radio around 1960. It stretched the definition of 'pocket'. Definitely
not a shirt pocket, though it would fit in a pants pocket barely. If I
remember it used two AA batteries.

Gave it to my dad after college so he could listen to Detroit Tiger games. Dad
ended up using it until a couple of years when it finally gave out. I wonder
how many electronic things we buy today would end up lasting a half century?

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dang
[http://www.mequonsteve.com/regency/](http://www.mequonsteve.com/regency/).
Very cool.

It was only manufactured for a year and sold for an astonishingly high price
(for the 1950s) of $49.95.

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alister
That inflation-adjusted price[1] would be $450.19.

It does seem amazing that a lot of people were paying that much for a pocket
radio, but then again $450 is in the same ballpark as a smartphone which
everyone happily buys today.

[1]
[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=US%2449.95+1954+dollars...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=US%2449.95+1954+dollars+in+2015)

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Stratoscope
In the event of an enemy attack, your Regency TR-1G will become one of your
most valued possessions.

But don't forget, you need a Regency No. 215 22½ volt battery!

~~~
gaius
... Which you must remove immediately when it's flat or it will leak. The
improvements in battery technology are one of the most interesting things.

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Kayou
Seems like they may have been the source of inspiration of VALVe for the Team
Fortress 2 manuals:
[http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/440/manuals/Sen...](http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/440/manuals/SentryManual_web.pdf?t=1412282215)
Or this whole generation of manuals in general.

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danjayh
Now I know why older folks think of modern gadgets as complicated and
difficult to use. The dramatic increase in functionality is accompanied by an
equally dramatic increase in complication. Compare the learning curve for
somebody using an ipod for the first time to the learning curve for using this
for the first time.

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allard
nice photo of TR-1 in Wikipedia entry for CONELRAD

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Johnythree
First Commercial Domestic portable perhaps: Definitely not the first
Transistor Radio.

The literature shows many earlier radios from various Research Laboratories
and Radio Amateurs.

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dang
We added "commercial" to the title. Will that suffice?

~~~
Stratoscope
Naw, let's go all in and use the _original_ title:

"How to operate your Regency Model TR-1G transistor pocket radio receiver"

(serious suggestion!)

~~~
dang
Done! (Submitted title was "The manual for the first commercial transistor
radio".)

