Transistor Radios Around the World

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c.1960 Loewe Opta 5910 "Luxy"

Shirt pocket radio, thermoplastic cabinet
4 5/8 x 2 3/4 x 1 5/16 inches / 117 x 70 x 33 mm
2-band LW/MW radio, six transistors (2x Valvo OC169, etc., see below), two diodes
Superheterodyne circuit
One standard 9-volt battery
Manufactured by Loewe-(Opta), West Germany

The Luxy's cabinet design makes it difficult to tell from a photo that it's a shirt pocket radio, but it truly is, just about the same size as, for example, the Crown TR-666. It's also hard to imagine that this classic very-'50s-looking radio was produced around the same time as the gorgeous but quite '60s-looking Loewe Opta "Dandy". What a fabulous looking little radio this Luxy is! I love how its cabinet is reminiscent of much larger tube tabletop radios of an earlier era.

Unlike most 2-band LW/MW shirt pocket radios of the time, this set provided full coverage of the long wave broadcast band, 150 to 280 kHz, which was used a great deal in Europe in the 1950s and '60s. The Luxy's LW tuning scale is marked as kHz/10 ("15—30"). The MW scale is marked as kHz/100 ("5.2—16").

If you look at the chassis photo below, you'll note that three of the five visible transistors are mounted upside-down and packed tightly in the circuitry, making identifying them not worth pulling the chassis apart and possibly damaging it in the process. The two identifiable transistors are "right-side-up" large-can Valvo OC169s. The two diodes here are visible but their markings have been obscured. A Radiomuseum page gives several combinations for both the transistors and the diodes.


Loewe Opta 5910 Luxy

Loewe Opta "Luxy"



Loewe Opta 5910 Luxy

Loewe Opta "Luxy"



Loewe Opta 5910 Luxy

back face


Loewe Opta 5910 Luxy

chassis — click on photo for a larger view

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