circa 1959 Matsushita National AB-235
Coat pocket radio, thermosetting plastic cabinet
5 3/4 x 3 3/8 x 1 1/2 inches / 146 x 86 x 38 mm
Six transistors (National: MC101 (bright green can), OC45B (yellow), OC45C (yellow) OC71 (black), 2x OC72, + MA23 varistor (dark green), OA70 diode), four 1.5-volt "AA" cells
Manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., Japan
A white reverse-painted plastic tuning area with a silver chevron-framed tuning window displaying a red tuning dial, a yellow on/off volume knob, and a textured aluminum mesh grille -- this is a very cool radio! And like many of the earlier Japanese transistor radios, this National has a thermosetting plastic cabinet rather than the much more common thermoplastic cabinet such as ABS. The electrolytics here date from mid-1959, but that doesn't help much in determining the original manufacture date of this model — thus my "circa 1959" designation. Three of the transistors here (the black OC71 and the two yellow ones) are European. As Alan Kastner explains on his National AB-145 page, National bought transistor production rights from Philips Corp., and apparently National was the only Japanese manufacturer to have done so.
|
