The cover of the October 1961 issue of Popular Electronics had a teaser saying, “you wouldn’t want to be an electronics hobbyist in the U.S.S.R.” The accompanying article, however, didn’t really deliver on that premise. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anything in the old Soviet Union, but as the article shows, a hobby in electronics […]
When this photo was taken for the March 1941 issue of Радиофронт magazine (Radio Front), the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 was still in effect, and it wasn’t until June 1941 that Hitler decided to invade the Soviet Union. But if you look carefully at these young comrades, you can see that they know something is […]
These young comrades were pictured on the cover of Семья и школа (Family and School) magazine, April 1959. Unfortunately, I can’t find any article inside the magazine that goes with the cover. Perhaps one of our Russian readers can fill us in! But these gentlemen, now about 70 years old, seem to be having a […]
In the late 1950s, the Soviets were the first to put Sputnik in orbit, and they were the first to put a dog in space. And they also led the Free World in another important area, namely, the kerosene powered radio, as shown here in this leaked photo from the August 1958 issue of Radio & […]
At first glance, this appears to be an American Boy Scout working on his signaling. But it’s not. It’s actually his Soviet counterpart, a Young Pioneer getting the message through. The image is from the cover of a 1977 issue of Masterok magazine, a Soviet journal designed to instill in middle school age children the necessary skills […]
An Interesting article detailing Amateur Radio in the Soviet Union 80 years ago appeared in the October, 1934, issue of QST. If you’re an ARRL member logged in to your account, you can download the full article. Even during the height of the Cold War, Amateurs in the Soviet Union communicated freely with Amateurs in […]
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on in this illustration, but the young comrade seems to be having a good time, even though both the tree and the bird are rather distressed. At the top, it seems to read that the diode tube, plus “plasma”, plus “reactor” equals whatever is in the bucket that is […]
In August 1941, the Germans were busy invading the Soviet Union, but they would have realize the futility if they had known that the Soviets were quite undaunted, and were busy putting together crystal sets. As you can see from the August 1941 issue of Радиофронт (Radio Front) magazine, that is exactly what they were […]
Fifty years ago this month, this young comrade was able to help feed his family by locating a school of fish. He managed this by seeking out the perfect water temperature, thanks to an electronic thermometer he constructed himself. The plans for the project were contained in the April 1971 issue of Юный техник (Young Technician) […]
Ninety years ago, the November-December 1930 issue of Радиолюбитель (Radio Amateur) magazine featured this 6-tube receiver named ЭЧС (EChS). While there is a rather long article explaining it, I’m not able to decipher any of it, other than to say that it appears to be a handsome well-built set. A better scan of the article can […]