HACKER SOVEREIGN RP18 three-band portable radio (1964-1967)

One of the largest - and at around GBP 40 most expensive - transistor portables available in the UK in the mid-1960s. This one had three separate circuit boards, eighteen transistors, three wavebands, a decent sized speaker and very good sound quality. 'Which?' magazine tested one of these sets and found it 'exceptional' - and they were't that easy to please. It's an attractive set, and much more modern-looking than the Defiant (see my post on that) which preceded it only by a few years. Wooden case, of course, and two nine-volt batteries.

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hunkalove · 70-79, M

My first radio was a Westinghouse 7-transistor midel that I got for Christmas 1960 when I was 10. After that all I cared about was rock&roll. Late one night in January 1964 I first heard The Beatles on it.

supersnipe · 61-69, M

@hunkalove They were such a huge deal that even our non-pop-music household was aware of them. A brief look at the No.1 records in the UK for the first half of 1963 tells a story...for the first few months, Cliff Richard/Shadows/spin-offs thereof. After that, Mersey....It all erupted in the USA some months later.