page_title: Norman Krim
section_title: Transistor radios
hierarchical_section_title: Norman Krim / Transistor radios
caption_attribution_description: English: Raytheon made the World's Second Transistor Radio (1955), a few months after the Regency TR-1. They left the Transistor Radio business in 1956 with the T-2500 (RIGHT) as the last model.
context_page_description: Norman B. Krim was an American electronics engineer and engineering executive. His drive to create a transistor product for the electronic experimenter-hobbyist market contributed to paving the path for a generation of American electronic engineers and technicians during the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union.
  The result was that a whole generation of aspiring engineers — kids, really, working in their garages and basements — got to make all kinds of electronic projects. A lot of them went on to become engineers.—Harry Goldstein, editor for IEEE Spectrum magazine.
context_section_description: Although Regency is credited of building and marketing the first Transistor Radio (Model TR-1 in 1954), Raytheon was only a few months behind with the 8TP1 through 4 "lunchbox" style radio. Norman Krim was involved in the early transistor radio designs. According to Krim, at the Chapel St labs, they made a six transistor superheterodyne radio in 1952-53. Transistor radio designs for mass production went to Belmont Radio Corporation headed by Henry F. Argento a division of Raytheon. More info on Belmont go to this link Belmont-Raytheon.
  Unlike Regency (IDEA Inc), Raytheon used their own transistors. Regency contracted with Texas Instruments, a young upcoming semiconductor manufacturer. According to Consumer Reports Magazine articles dated April and July 1955, the Raytheon was a better radio (used 7 transistors vs 4 in the Regency), but quite a bit larger.  Raytheon marketed only four models (8TP series, T-100 series, T-150 series and T-2500) and got out of the transistor radio market after 1956. More information can be found at this link "Oral History: Norman Krim 1984".
caption: Raytheon Transistor Radios. LEFT 8TP4 World's 2nd Transistor Radio (1955) and RIGHT T-2500 Raytheon's Last Transistor Radio (1956)
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D40X", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2013:02:04 12:14:09", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "29472", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9406", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "24/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:02:04 12:14:09", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:02:04 12:14:09", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "9/2", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "38", "EXIF SubSecTime": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "50", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "29334", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "57", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Soft", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}