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Sixty years ago, this gentleman was undoubtedly one of the first on his block to own a transistor radio, thanks to the circuit described in the October 1961 issue of Popular Mechanics.

As shown below, the set was an unassuming two-transistor circuit, with a 2N170 serving as detector and 2N107 as audio amplifier. You had to decide which half of the broadcast band you wanted to tune, as the loopstick couldn’t quite tune the whole band, and the value of the capacitor depended on whether you wanted the lower half or upper half.

The set had two alligator clips, one of which served as the on-off switch. The other one was used to hook to a convenient antenna. The set was constructed on a PC board, and the parts list called for the board, the marker, and the etchant solution. The set’s gimmick was the X-shaped paper clip, which could be used to clip the set to your pocket as shown, or to serve as a bookmark while reading.