Monthly Archives: December 2017

Dec. 31, 1917, Bray-sur-Somme, France

Bray-sur-Somme, December 31 1917 (Art.IWM ART 4915) image: a view across the roofs of buildings in Bray-sur-Somme, with a line of telegraph poles crossing the foreground. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/23244

Imperial War Museum image. Bray-sur-Somme, December 31 1917 (Art.IWM ART 4915)  Copyright: © IWM.

This sketch was made a hundred years ago today, December 31, 1917, by British officer Major Geoffrey K Rose.  It shows the French town of Bray-sur-Somme.

Major Rose (1889-1959) served on the Western Front for three years, and made over 150 sketches during that time.  Bray-sur-Somme was initially occupied by the Germans in August 1914, but was evacuated in October of that year, with the front being north of town. For the next 26 months, including when this sketch was made, the town served as a center for rest and recuperation for the French Army, and later the British.

It is thus likely that Maj. Rose was on leave when he made this sketch. In March 1918 the town was, however, taken again by the Germans, and it remained in their hands until the town suffered heavy damage when the British re-took it in August 1918.

L'église Saint-Nicolas, vue depuis l'office du tourisme.

L’église Saint-Nicolas, Wikipedia photo.

Recognizable in the sketch is the distinctive tower of the Church of Saint-Nicolas, shown here in a modern photo.



Zeh Bouck and 1937 Shortwave Retailing

1937DecRadioRetailingThe avid shortwave listener (SWL) will probably dispute it, but this picture contains a certain glimmer of truth. Junior is tuning in a program on the short waves on the family’s console radio, much to the dismay of the rest of the family. The picture’s caption, in the December 1937 issue of Radio Retailing, notes that “novelty rarely wears well–We (radio retailers) have been headlining thrills…police calls, aircraft, ships at sea, distance merely as “dx” . . . so long that the public erroneously assumes that shortwaves have little lasting entertainment value.”

The accompanying article, “Is Our Short Wave Selling All Wrong?” makes a strong case that it is.  The author, writing under the pen name Zeh Bouck,  starts by saying that he was paid for listening to shortwave broadcasts, one of his jobs for the past fifteen years, and that the novelty, if it ever existed, wore off a decade earlier.  He starts by noting that retailers were selling the shortwaves as a novelty, on which listeners could hear the sounds of Big Ben, along with “aircraft! Amateur Stations! Police!”

He then proceeds to show why the novelty wears off so fast. The hams are “vaguely reminiscent of a phonograph record with a crossed groove, and of similar interest to anyone but an amateur. Police broadcasts are distinctly a novelty and hold no permanent entertainment value except for some Milquetoast who derives therefrom a vicarious satisfaction at some drunk beating up his wife in a third floor rear.”

Fortunately, Bouck goes on to explain that there might be a right way to sell shortwave. He noted programs of actual entertainment value, and recommended that retailers get their hands on program guides.

The author, Zeh Bouck, was born John W. Schmidt in 1901, and held various calls over the years, starting with 2PI, until his death in 1946. He eventually legally changed his name to Zeh Bouck. He was a prolific writer about radio, including a number of articles in Boys’ Life. You can find a good biography of him at this link.



CW to Russian Rosetta Stone

RosettaStone

In upholding our reputation as a website with suspected Russian ties, we present this 1950 Rosetta Stone for those needing to translate between CW and Russian.

On a serious note, hams in the former Soviet Union were always incredibly skilled, and this guide shows why language was never a barrier.  There are many common abbreviations in use on Morse code, often (but not always) derived from English.  This chart shows the abbreviations in Cyrillic letters, in Roman letters, and the meaning in Russian.  For example, GB is an abbreviation for goodbye, and this chart tells the Russian operator that GB means “do svidannya.”

This is from the book Простейший коротковолновый приемник, which we promise you’ll be seeing more of.



1957 Four Tube British Superhet

1967DecRadioConstrThe portable tuned both the medium wave and long wave bands, and ran off a 90 volt B battery, with the filaments powered by a 1.5 volt A battery.  The set contained a built-in loop antenna, and the power switch was built into the case, with the set coming on when the lid was opened.

The set appeared in the December 1957 issue of the British Radio Constructor magazine.

1967DecRadioConstrSchematic



1942 Radio Troubleshooting

1942DecPM75 years ago this month, this father, shown in the December 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics, engages in some troubleshooting of the family’s radio receiver while the kids look on admiringly.

He didn’t let wartime shortages of test equipment hamper his efforts. As the magazine suggests, he’s using a neon lamp with clip leads to trace the circuit.  For checking continuity, the lamp can be used with a 22.5 volt battery.

Despite the high voltages (as evidenced by the power transformer on the chassis), there’s no evidence to indicate that the kids got zapped by poking their fingers into the wiring.  And chances are, they both turned out OK, despite the exposure to secondhand smoke.



Happy Birthday Rose Mary Woods

Today marks the 100th birthday of Rose Mary Woods, President Nixon’s secretary, who was born on December 26, 1917. She is shown here demonstrating for the press how she accidentally created an 18 minute gap on one of the Watergate tapes. Ms. Woods died in 2005 at the age of 87.



Merry Christmas from Teddy Roosevelt!

Merry Christmas from OneTubeRadio.com, and from Teddy Roosevelt, who is seen here calling on his neighbors a hundred years ago today, Christmas 1917.



Santa Goes to War!

19-0339aAs a public service, we once again bring this reminder of the critical importance of keeping your name off the naughty list.

This 1942 poster was produced by the War Production Board.