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) look completely European in design. 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.
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