> about early (pre-transistor) radio technology I dunno if that's a good tradeoff. It's fairly difficult to make good tubes and the performance of pre-tube ra

> about early (pre-transistor) radio technology I dunno if that's a good tradeoff. It's fairly difficult to make good tubes and the performance of pre-tube radio technology is extremely poor. Yet your home alone probably contains hundreds of transistors which could be scavenged to make radio receivers and transmitters. Constructed correctly these devices have no significant wear out mechanism.