The young men in this picture would, in just a few years, be on their way overseas to fight the Germans and the Japanese, but in 1938, they were relaxing outside, and enjoying a radio broadcast thanks to the four-tube superheterodyne receiver described in the December 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics.

The magazine pointed out that many earlier so-called portables weren’t very portable at all, due to their size. But this one weighed in at only ten pounds, including batteries. The performance was said to be above average, and the drain on the battery was low. It drew only 8 mA from the 90 volt B battery, and 300 mA from the A battery.