The Pionier was the first Polish post-war vacuum tube radio. It was developed in 1948 at the Zakłady Radiowe Diora in Dzierżoniów by the team led by inż. Wilhelm Rotkiewicz, the designer of the Detefon radio. Immediately after the War, the factory in Dzierżoniów produced radios based on surplus components left by the Germans and the Aga radios under Swedish licence. The latter type of radio was the source of inductive components used in the first batch of the Pioniers, later to be replaced by Polish products. Radios from this family were designed to be easy and cheap in production and, above all, for the price to be attractive to the buyer. It was the low price and reliable design based on parts produced domestically that drove their popularity (a total of 1.5 million units were produced). The Pionier met the needs of a society impoverished after World War II. Its importance was also noticed by the communist government, as it found the widespread sales of radios to be an opportunity for popular influence and improved processes of disseminating information.
The Pionier family of radios comprised around 17 types, which differed in technical parameters and components because the radio was continuously being improved. As many as nine types of housings were used for the design of its different versions. Other radio models were also variants based on the Pionier: the Juhas, Kujawiak, Mazur, Noteć, Polonez and Promyk.
The Pionier U2 is a superheterodyne, 585,000 units of which were sold. Its appearance harkens back to pre-war radios in the art déco style. The box housing was made of dark brown Bakelite, which allowed the production cost to be significantly reduced in comparison with similar housings made of wood and wood derivatives. A round scale with a pointer was located at the front of the radio, in a square area. Below it are two rotary switches: on the left, an on-off and volume switch, and on the right – a band selection and tuning knob. A magnetoelectric Tonsil GD 13/1,5 speaker was installed next to the scale, behind a horizontal grille and cloth cover. The letter “U” next to the radio name indicates that it is designed to be powered from direct and alternating current sources. Lack of electrification of large areas of the country drove the need to develop a battery-powered version named “Pionier B”. The simple, easily repairable design of the radio in the Bakelite housing was used until 1968, in different versions, only differing in the setup of the vacuum tubes.

Authors: Piotr Turowski, Filip Wróblewski