Seventy years ago this month, the October 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics showed off some of the new pocket portable receivers that were hitting the market. The illustrations at left show the young man fishing while listening to the “Privat-Ear” portable, which weighed in at under six ounces. The young woman is listening to the 5-1/4 ounce “Micro Pocket Radio.” Both sets took advantage of micro tubes developed during the war, and were said to retail for under $20.

Those with a smaller budge but some skill with a soldering iron could put together the slightly larger two tube set described in the same issue. It had a built-in loop antenna and used two 3S4 tubes. One tube served as regenerative detector, with the second serving as audio amplifier.

The set was tested initially in Denver, where it easily pulled in all of the local stations with its built-in loop antenna. Out of town stations hit the dial at night, and with an outdoor antenna at night, stations from hundreds of miles away filled the dial.