GEC person needed.

[60 oldjohn]

Anyone know of any GEC radio museum curator or archivist who would know about the company first ventures into Transistor radios.

TIA, John.

[simpsons]

John

I am sure I have an article from Wireless World which describes GEC's prototype transistor radio.

I'll dig this out later today and pass on the details.

Chris

[paulsherwin]

The GEC/Marconi archives are in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, but are not generally accessible to the public.

[60 oldjohn]

Originally Posted by simpsons

John

I am sure I have an article from Wireless World which describes GEC's prototype transistor radio.



Chris

Thank you Chris, They had a prototype transistor receiver at GEC in 1951. I would be interested to see what is in your WW.

John.

[60 oldjohn]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

The GEC/Marconi archives are in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, but are not generally accessible to the public.

Thank You Paul, Sorry we did not live closer, May have stood a chance of viewing their Archives.

John.

[emeritus]

Wireless world used to review new products shown at the annual Radio Shows. I think back issues are available online from a US radio web site. They were certainly using transistors in 1957. I have prevously posted the attached note that a now deceased colleage at GEC had made about technology used in products at the 1957 Radio Show.

What went to Oxford was mostly the Marconi archives. When Hirst closed, I was one of a small team that went through the GEC archives kept there, in a filthy windowless Nissen hut (I could have done with a boiler suit). I don't recall any stuff about domestic radios, possibly any info would have been kept at the business unit where the activity took place, as GEC was run as a group of discrete companies. The collection should however contain some leaflets relating to early 1950's GEC stuff. The aforementioned colleague had collected lots of manufacturers' leaflets at early 1950's Radio Shows, and I passed the Marconi and GEC ones to the archivist.

Some GEC stuff from Hirst did get put in with the Marconi stuff. The Marconi collection at Oxford does have an on-line catalogue, based on the inventory that was drawn up by the auctioneers when Marconi decided to sell the collection to raise cash when the company started going downhill. The sale and dispersal of the archive was blocked by the diligence of the trustees, who established that the valuable part of the collection had been the personal property of Marconi and was not the company's to sell.

The catalogue is not error-free, and when I notified the curators at Oxford of the ones I had come across, they were not the slightest bit interested, and the last time I checked, the catalogue remained uncorrected.

[snowman_al]

Wireless World January 1954 has a GEC transistor radio on page 2.
https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Wir...4-01-S-OCR.pdf

[simpsons]

Hi John

What an interesting topic.

GEC called transistors "a germanium crystal triode" and the October 1951 edition of Wireless World, pages 390 & 391, included the experimental receiver details and concluded that it would be some time before germanium crystal triodes would be used in consumer electronics.

Search http:worldradiohistory.com

Should you be unfamiliar with the site, select W on the box shown and amongst the list of publications shown LHS, select Wireless World and choose the edition quoted.

Unfortunately, I cannot download a scan of the pages as, in pdf format, they exceed the maximum an attachment to this post allows.

Chris

[60 oldjohn]

Hi Chris, that experimental receiver is featured on page 345 of "The Set Makers" I am surprised that GEC decided to display it at a trade fair, They had not perfected it and I would have thought a lot of competitors would be interested for all the wrong reasons.

Link to the WW mag here https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Wir...ld-1951-10.pdf scroll down to P390-391.

A lot of early transistorised circuits designated the transistor as VT1 (Valve Transistor)

John.

[60 oldjohn]

Originally Posted by snowman_al

Wireless World January 1954 has a GEC transistor radio on page 2.
https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Wir...4-01-S-OCR.pdf

That circuit was a few weeks before the first ever transistor sets were sold in the USA. Seems strange the Transistor being drawn on its side as we are used to it now.

John.

[Paul_RK]

The first commercial GEC transistor portable, the BC1650 from August 1957, seems a very rare bird, I've still only ever seen the one I have. I posted a few photos and some notes long ago and in another place, I hope a link is permissible:

https://www.radios-tv.co.uk/community/radio/gec-bc1650/

Paul

[60 oldjohn]

Thank you Paul, Very interesting.

John.

[Radio Wrangler]

A lot of very early transistor circuitry took the view that grounded base was needed to get enough frequency response to be useful, and the sideways way of drawing was a relic of that.

Many designers were stuck in the mode of thinking of them as if they were valves. This is also why the depletion mode JFET was adopted with opened arms. It took a different kind of thinking, The Ebers-Moll model, and H-parameters before transistor circuit design gained its independence.

That's what I find interesting in these really early sets, the designers were feeling their way around, almost blind. Solutions were found to the major requirements and adoption spread rapidly, soon to become boilerplate. Reliable and stable audio power amps came along after some time. TV line outputs came along last as high-stress devices evolved.

David