Philips used to put some information about its radios in the type
number.
This small note describes the coding system used during a period of about twenty years, from 1946 to 1966.
To understand the meaning of the type number, it must be decoded in the following six parts:
| Part | here | Encodes |
|---|---|---|
| First letter | B | Type: Table top |
| First Digit | 4 | Luxory class |
| Second letter | F | Origin: France |
| Digit group | 61 | Usually year, 1956 |
| Third letter | A | Power: AC |
| Suffix | 01 |
| A | Tuner |
| B | Tabletop |
| F | Console |
| H | Radio with pickup |
| L | Portable |
| N | Car radio |
| P | Portable/car radio |
| T | Television |
This part is a digit;
1 is plain, cheap, and simple, 9 is top-line and expensive.
The small radio shown right
was one of the cheapest Philips radios ever made,
it has a 0 as the first digit.
The cheap bakelite acdc radios often had a price class 1 or 2
(see the BX200U).
Glimpsing through catalogues we felt
that a 5 already means quite a good radio
and 3 a standard salon-type radio, like the BX321A.
Higher numbers, ie, 6 and up, often indicate
radios with built-in phono or tape unit.
Class-9 set were rare; as far as I know,
only two sets were made during the fifties,
the Philips BX998A
and a console variation
(not counting the BX925A communications receiver).
The photo left shows the F9X38A console of 1965,
with built-in record player, tape unit, and signal scope.
The extremely popular line of Plano models,
running from 1958
to 1965,
that could be found in almost every Dutch living room in the sixties,
was coded in class 5.
BX135U 80,- BX156U 98,- BX250U 148,- BX233U 155,- BX253U 198,- BX350A 198,- BX453A 278,- BX454A 328,- BX553A 378,- BX653A 438,- BX750A 528,- BX998A 820,- LX444AB 165,- LX452AB 282,- LX548AB 340,- BX332Arood 165,- crκme 170,- HX348A 198,- HX424A 255,- HX553A 625,- FX551A 598,- FX552AD 698,- FX651AD 898,- FX652AD 998,- FX723AD 1298,- FX744AD 1690,- FX824A 1498,- FX995AD 2300,- FX997AD 2700,-
| Letter | Country | Letter | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X | Netherlands/Belgium | G | Great Brittain | |
| A | Austria | I | Italy | |
| IN | Indonesia | IF | Ireland | |
| D | Germany | N | Norway | |
| DK | Denmark | S | Sweden | |
| E | Spain | SF | Finland | |
| F | France | W | U.S.A. | |
| R | Brazil | ZA | South Africa |
Because Philips,
being the world's largest radio manufacturer at the time,
had production plants in more countries
than there are letters in the alphabet,
for some countries the origin was coded with two letters, see Finland.
In America, Philips radios were sold under the brand name Norelco,
but coded in the same type number system usually;
you can find examples of both in Marty and Sue Bunis'
Collector's Guide to Transistor Radios.
A Norelco radio could be produced
either in The Netherlands or in America,
as indicated by the second letter.
Digit group, sequence number.
The sequence number consists of 2 digits (from 00 to 99).
In principle these numbers have nothing to do with the year of manufacturing.
Meanwhile, often, it was arranged
that the first digit of this number
gives the last digit of the year of design.
So, the BX690A
would be designed for the 1949 model year;
in practice the radio could have been actually brought out in 1950,
and in any case a type could remain in production during several years.
The other digit was of course necessary to distinguish between two different
radios of otherwise the same characteristics.
A five as the third digit usually indicates an export model.
Third letter, power supply.
| Letter | Powered |
|---|---|
| A | Mains, AC only |
| B | Batteries |
| T | Transistorized, low voltage batt. |
| U | Mains, AC or DC |
| V | Accumulator, with vibrator unit |
| X | Mains, AC or, with vibrator, DC |
| Z | Mix of accu/socket |
Combinations of these letters were common.
Left is the Philips L4X71AB portable,
which could be supplied from either batteries of AC mains;
other portables (LX401UB) had additionally a possibility for DC mains.
The letters X and Z are quite rare, as is V.
Sometimes radio documentation comes with an additional sheet to document a technical modification, which comes with a different execution suffix.
Final digits: execution suffix.
The suffix, a slash and two digits, is optional and can mean
almost anything, including
indication of development centers, technical fixing, and
manufacturing for specific market (code .X..../29 seems to
indicate `made in Holland for export to France'). We have
seen /25 to denote suitability for 25 Hertz main power.
The Post-War Coding System
The coding as indicated was used for about 20 years, some parts of it even longer.
A suffix indicating the power supply was already used from 1931 (with the additional letter C indicating DC mains only!).
Since about 1940 the first digit indicated price class, and shortly after World War II the full coding system came in use.
From 1946 to 1956 all three digits followed the first two letters, from 1956 to about 1966 the first digit preceded the second letter.
This change was of course needed to avoid ambiguity, for example between the B5X94A (1959) and the BX594A (1949).
The change was not effected in all countries in the same year:
in Germany the old order was used until 1958, probably because there had not been production between 1946 and 1949.
In France the new order was already introduced in 1956.
The system was abandoned around 1966, when other information was coded in the type numbers. In some exotic places like Canada and Australia the system wasn't used at all.