Transistor Radios Around the World

Home --- Timeline --- Radios by Country

Before '54 --- North America --- Western Europe --- Japan and Pacific --- East Europe and USSR


c.1961 Yaou General 6GA-141

Small coat pocket radio, thermoplastic cabinet
5 5/8 x 2 7/8 x 1 1/2 inches / 25.4 x 73 x 38 mm
2-band MW/SW radio, six transistors (Hitachi), one standard 9-volt battery
Manufactured by Yaou Electric Co. Ltd., Japan

A "General"-named radio made by Yaou, this is a unique and uncommon 2-band small coat pocket radio with a vertical slide rule tuning dial. The front half of the cabinet body is a dark green in color. The back half is ivory. The MW/SW band switch is on the back face of the radio. The tuning dial's inside background looks "scruffy" in these photos, but in fact, the background is clean, made of a textured gold foil that picks up light differently from different angles.

And as with several other Yaou radios, there's a lot going on with the cabinet face: in this case, a vertical tuning dial centered on a brushed aluminum dial plate -- black numbering on the right for standard medium wave (AM), white numbering on the left for short wave. The textured metal speaker grille is a lot like that used on the 1961 Webcor B-308, aka Yaou General 6GA-441. On the other side of the tuning plate, there's an ivory plastic area that's blank except for the very '60s stylized gold starburst design in the middle. This area slopes back on the side face to surround the volume and tuning knobs. Along the top of the cabinet face is a long, thin oval-shaped 5" x 1/8" metal GENERAL name plate.

Many Yaou radios come complete with a final inspection date stamped on the inside back of their cabinets -- this one doesn't, and I'm guessing on the manufacture date here as being c.1961, based on other Yaou radio manufacture dates.


Yaou General 6GA-141

Yaou General 6GA-141


Yaou General 6GA-141

Yaou General 6GA-141


Yaou General 6GA-141

Yaou General 6GA-141 chassis


Yaou General 6GA-141

Yaou General 6GA-141 back face


Yaou General 6GA-141

Yaou General 6GA-141 inside back

back to '60s Japan index page



All content © 2014 by Robert Davidson, worldtransistors@gmail.com All Rights Reserved