Radiophile.com - Emerson 838

Emerson 838, 1955

Tube complement: 1V6 mixer/oscillator, 1AH4 IF, 1AJ5 detector, plus two transistors in the push-pull audio output stage.

Approximately 6-1/8 inches / 156 mm wide.

This radio's hybrid nature made it difficult to decide where to put it on my Web site: here under transistor radios or there under plastic tube sets. I decided to follow Emerson's lead. They called it a Transistor Pocket Radio right there on its front panel (barely visible in the picture, below the word E M E R S O N). Capitalizing on the high-tech cachet of transistors was sound marketing in 1955.

Here's the first page of the instruction sheet (pardon the wrinkles).


		When first introduced, transistors cost a pretty penny. (From a 1954 Allied Radio catalog page.)