Here it is, ripped right from the pages of the 1969 Sears Christmas Wish Book, the radio that started it all for me, the Sears "TransTalk" Base station. Sporting a light blue plastic case and a faux brushed aluminum front panel, this radio featured a Volume, Regeneration, and frequency Tuning controls. It also featured a Transmit/Receive switch and jacks for a microphone, headphone and morse code key, which were curiously offered as optional accessories. But with no internal speaker, the radio would be unusable without at least the mic or headphones (The mic was actually a speaker/mic combination). Topping off the radio's stellar features was a 44" telescopic antenna.
Although not advertised here, the radio would tune far more than the 23 CB channels, as it could also pick up the upper shortwave and ham bands as well. I don't know exactly what the total frequency range was though. But because of the broad tuning of the Super-Regenerative receiver, all of the CB channels were pretty much in one place on the dial (somewhere around 10 O'clock). Luckily the crowded conditions experienced during the "CB Fad" days were still quite a few years in the future, so I could hear most people without much interference. My radio was given to me with the optional mic and the headphones. My mother must have sensed my soon-to-be aversion to Morse Code, as she opted not to purchase that option, although if you plugged the mic into the code key jack and hit the transmit switch, you could send a continuous tone.
I made my first neighborhood contacts with this radio, and it only made me want more. I was ecstatic that I could be heard up to a whole 1/2 mile away. As those first early years went by, I added a channel switch, to give me a couple more transmit channels other than 14, and a battery meter both of which were scavenged from the TRC-99C which died a quick and painful death in my possession in 1973. My original 6 alkaline "C" cell batteries lasted for close to 3 years, as I faithfully kept them charged (even though they tell you not to recharge alkalines). Once I got a stronger 1 watt Walkie-Talkie, 4 long Christmases after I got this radio, my first base got stuffed into the nether regions of my closet. Sadly, I made the decision to toss it in the trash in the early 80's after I could no longer justify keeping it. Now I wished that I had........