Here's an interesting toy from 1954: REMCO's Electronic Radio Station. This has so many features and sports such wonderful mid-century modern design, it's hard not be enticed by it. Using this, a young lad or lassie can believe they're a police or fire dispatcher, or perhaps an air traffic controller or even at a base station directing troop movements on the front. There's plenty of knobs and dials to keep a young'un employed for some time and while some do nothing more than turn and change a display on the control panel, a couple make a telegraphic click or light the searchlight atop the panel. The walkie-talkies can be set up in different rooms and you can relay messages back-&-forth with a friend or just use one handset to play the role of a dispatcher or controller.
The station comes in a counter display box which I deliberately did not set up and photograph in display modedue to the fragility of the box. When you open it up all the components are displayed including the small instruction booklet. It's all plastic with a heavy cardboard backing and of course a long spool of wire from one of the handsets and runs on two 'D' cell batteries While the box proclaims it can send and receive voice messages up to half a mile you certainly don't get that long of a cord. I didn't unravel mine but I'm making a guesstimate that it's only about 20' long - long enough to reach from one room to another (if they're next to each other!). Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
Both masts should have a small ball at top - one of mine is broken off.
One handset for use as a one-person dispatcher or controller
Two handsets: one for use by your friend
Turning the knob will turn the searchlight atop the control panel
When the buzzer is depressed the needle will rotate
Morse code decoder - turning the lever reveals a different letter of the alphabet with the appropriate dot-dash symbols below
Pressing the telegraph key on the lower right of the panel causes the light to go on allowing the operator to send signals via light. There's even a small notepad to the lower left for writing down any messages received.
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