No comments about Bakelite Radios: A Fully Illustrated Guide For The Bakelite Radio Enthusiast.

1 comments about The Portable Radio in American Life (Culture & Technology).

1. Elegant and well-written, this is one of the few books to take a realistic look at American popular cultural technology. Historians and archaeologists coupld learn a lot from this case study.

No comments about Old Gramophones (Shire Library).

4 comments about Made in Japan.

1. A wonderful pictorial book about transistor radios, 175 of them, not only photographed but put in the context of fifties and sixties design. The spread on 60-61 shows six radios mixed with close-up photos of chrome styling from fifties cars. I loved the chapter on design with its photos of grills and lettering, even a spread on 9-volt batteries.

   This is the kind of book that Chronicle do so well, interesting subjct, well designed and printed all for the general reader. If you collect these radios you will certainly want to have a copy but don't expect to get lots of technical detail or a price guide. For that have a look at 'Collector's Guide to Transistor Radios' by Marty and Sue Bunis, plenty of text about seven hundred models, some photos and that all-important identification and price information.




2. This is an excellently photographed book with upbeat and "time related" narrative on the subject. Unfortunately for those interested in the history or actual dates of when each of these radios were issued the reader will have to guess. Somewhere between 1950 & 1960. Not a great resource for someone starting a collection or trying to date that artifact found in your attic.



3. This is possible the only radio book, that, when left out on a coffee table, will start a conversation with non-collectors. But I advise against leaving your only copy on display, since it might get stolen. The layout and photos in this collaboration turn already beautiful radios into nearly sexual fetishes. Nice historical information, and an intriguing layout make this true eye candy. .... Find one for the coffee table, and another to hide away someplace safe! Printed in Japan.



4. A wonderful book full of exuberant, fun design. Don't let the other review here by this sad person at Booknews spoil it for you (execrable?? quotesqueries?? Sheeesh!!).

3 comments about Retro-Electro: Collecting Technology from Atari to Walkman.

1. Pepe Tozzo's Retro Electro sounded so cool that I preordered it sight-unseen. A good book on the topic of technostalgia is long overdue and I was eager to see what this self-described "only book to survey the trend" would contain. I now wish I had seen and browsed it beforehand. It's a neatly designed little book with some very nice pictures, but it is just falls too short of my expectations.
   
   There are only one or two items per page in this 8.8 x 8.6, 160 page book and the layout favors large, attractive photos over descriptive text. So in the end there were not as many items as I would have liked to have seen and the descriptions are sometimes not very substantial. I am more interested in obscure facts about the design, creation, function and uniqueness of these things. There are informative and enlightening entries here, but again, more in-depth information on a greater selection of items would have been nice. Also, in a world where collector prices change faster than ink dries, any attempt to print price guides in a hardbound book form seems pointless. So the price guide feature doesn't thrill me.
   
   There are way too many memorable electronic gadgets from our consumer past that are conspicuously absent. Missing are the giant Sylvania entertainment consoles of the 70s, Egg shaped 8-Track players, the Donut Phones, Soundburger (Mr. Disc) portable record players, quadraphonic headphones (yes, they exist) and various other classics. Heck, one could devote several pages to the dozens of groovy Panasonic portable radios and 8-track players of the 70s, but there are no "Dynamite" 8 track players or "Panapets" here... just the Toot-A-Loop is represented.
   
   I'm not particularly excited that items from the 90s and current decade are represented. We can see these kinds of things in retail stores or Sharper Image catalogs today. So I don't see why they should have such equal billing in this book. Though there is probably a good case to leave out items from the well documented 1950s and earlier, I would rather the book included good old Philco Predictas than Sony Playstations. Sure, there are a few things from the early 90s that are interesting, and yes, a cursory mention about what things today may seem retro later might be appealing, but I didn't buy this book to see full page spreads of a 2002 IPOD or a 2004 watch. Other items that seem out of place are things like Smartphones, PDAs, Star Trek Phasers and 2003 Dalek toys. Retro Electronics? Not in my opinion.
   
   The page layouts are attractive, the pictures are very nice and there was a strong effort made here to run the whole gambit of electronic collectables. Retro Electro may be more interesting to folks with only a light interest in this subject and it may serve as a good introduction. Also, if you like calculators there are plenty of neat ones in this book.
   
   Ultimately, there are many cool items in this book. But for every seemingly out of place item in here there are two old standards or obscure treasures missing, which leaves me feeling I should have gotten more out it.
   
   2 1/2 stars



2. The book's descriptions of devices are far too short, and the prices it lists were out of date the moment the book went to print. Useless to true collectors, this book will see only limited use as a conversation starter. It'd be a nice thing to leave for guests in the bathroom.



3. A wonderful look at the electronic marvels we have around the house, along with past playthings long ago left in the dust by ever advancing technologies. My only complaint is that this book barely scratches the surface of what could have / should have been included. Speaking for myself, I would have gladly paid a lot more money to get a book that gave me more to see. As it is, an hour after opening the book, you are done, wishing for more.

1 comments about Radios Redux.

1. Like the author's earlier book, "Radios: The Golden Age", this book has large, flawless photos of flawless radios, some are rare, some are just uncommonly beautiful. If you are restoring a radio that's pictured in this book, it's a must have to use as a guide.

No comments about Behind the Front Panel: The Design & Development of 1920's Radios.

2 comments about Radio Receiver Design (Electrical Engineering & Electronics) (Electrical and Computer Engineering).

1. Dixon's style is clear and concise, aimed at beginners in the field of telecommunications. He effectively motivates the reader by describing the major aspects of RF design instead of focusing on implementation specific details. Note that this book does not present a theoretical analysis of topics such as propagation, synchronization, filters or control loops and instead gives a qualitative overview of specific technologies.
   
   The main topics are superheterodyne receiver, amplifiers (RF and IF), local oscillators, filters, antennas and digital methods (including coding and error detection). If you're a beginner in the field of RF design this book will probably serve as a good primer.



2. The subject matter of the book is extremely attractive. Unfortunately the treatment of most topics are superficial and not sufficient for the serious RF designer.

   Receiver spurs are introduced and then the discussion is stopped with a reference to computer programs. There is no discussion of the spur frequency / amplitude map, its underlying theory, and its use.

   The classic Motorola application note on RF amplifier design dwarfs the treatment in the book.

   The treatment of the origin of amplifier noise and designing for low noise performance is non-existent. Again the Motorola application note and the reference sited therein is a much better start.

   One of the RF web sites has some freeware which calculates a receiver performance using entered characteristics of each subcomponent: input and output return loss, gain, noise figure, noise bandwidth, IP3, and various other parameters. If you want to understand this, the book is of little help.

   I was attracted by the book title and table of contents, but was seriously dissappointed in the treatment of important topics. If you desire a serious understanding of RF design, this book is not for you.

No comments about The Radio: An Appreciation (Design Icons).

No comments about Evolution of the Radio, Vol. 1.