Sixty years ago this month, the May 1956 issue of Popular Electronics carried the plans for this four-transistor portable radio “with a punch.”  It promised loudspeaker volume at home or at the beach, all without an external antenna.

As revealed by the schematic below, the radio was basically a crystal set, with the four transistors serving as an audio amplifier.  Sixty years ago, the germanium transistors (CK721 and CK722) available for hobbyists weren’t quite ready for prime time when it came to RF.  The crystal set was designed to work without an external antenna by using a ferrite-core coil as the antenna, with the tuning capacitor in parallel with the entire coil.  But to match the impedance of the diode detector and maintain a high Q factor, the coil was tapped at one end for connection to the diode.  The article promised that loudspeaker volume on local stations could be achieved with this setup.

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