Monthly Archives: October 2014

One Tube, a Hot Chassis, and a “Curtain Burner”

Oct39PM

I guess if you really had your heart set on building a one-tube radio 75 years ago, this one might provide some amusement. It’s from Popular Mecahnics, October 1939.  It is, indeed, a radio, and it has one tube.

As you can see from the circuit, it’s basically a crystal set with an audio amplifier. The audio amplifier uses a 25A7GT, which is a pentode and rectifier in the same glass. To run the 25 volt filament from 110 volts, it relies on a line-cord resistor. The cord to the set does double duty: In addition to supplying 110 volts for the B+, it has a second conductor made of resistance wire to power the filament, and just maybe set fire to the curtains if it gets too close. In fact, this type of line cord was popularly known as the curtain burner.  And as you can see, the chassis is “hot.” If the switch is turned on, there’s a 50/50 chance that you would get zapped by 110 volts if you touched the chassis while also touching anything that was grounded.  (According to the pictorial diagram, the antenna ground is not hooked to the chassis, so it wouldn’t provide any safety).

Like any crystal set, the radio requires an external antenna and ground. It has no main tuning condenser. Instead, “the set is designed primarily to receive the ‘best’ broadcast station in any given area,” and you just tuned it once with a small trimmer condenser.

There’s no volume control, but if that station comes in too loud, you can just detune it a little bit.

If you want to build a replica of a vintage one-tube radio, there are probably a lot better choices. But for a beginner 75 years ago who wanted to work his way up from a crystal set, this one was certainly an option. I just hope that his parents warned him to keep the thing away from the curtains and not plug it in near the bathtub.



Private Lauren Gilbert “Duby” Reid, 1896-1918.

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During the centennial of World War 1, this page periodically remembers American servicemen who gave their lives in that war.

Private Lauren Gilbert “Duby” Reid of Virginia City, Nevada, died on this day in 1918. He was born in Storey County, Nevada, on March 28, 1896, one of three children and the only son of William Garrence and Ellen Reid. He was wounded by shrapnel in the Bois d’Apremont, northeast of Binarville, Argonne Forest, France, and died of his wounds the next day, October 8, 1918, just over a month before the Armistice. He was one of the Lost Battalion of about 554 men cut off and completely surrounded by German forces during the  Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in which over 26,000 other American soldiers also lost their lives. The battle was the largest in U.S. history, and involved 1.2 million American soldiers. Some 70,000 French soldiers were also killed, as were between 90,000 and 120,000 Germans.

Private Reid served in the U.S. Army, 308th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, Company G. His grave is at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Romagne, France. His record can be viewed at the website of the American Battle Monuments Commission.

American Legion Duby Reid Post 30, Sparks Nevada, is named in his memory and continues to honor him.

The photo above is from Soldiers of the Great War, Volume 2, page 219.

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Popular Electronics First Issue, October 1954

First issue of Popular Electronics

First issue of Popular Electronics

Sixty years ago this month, the very first issue of Popular Electronics magazine, October 1954, rolled off the presses of the Ziff-Davis Publishcing Company.  The complete issue is available online along with millions of other pages of old radio and electronics publications at
americanradiohistory.com.

Transistors were already on the horizon, since the issue contains an ad from Raytheon for the CK-722 transistor, along with the offer, “Raytheon will supply you with complete information free. Just write to Department P.”

There’s a guest editorial from ARRL president Goodwin Dosland, W0TSN, extolling the virtues of Amateur Radio, the international hobby. Robert Hertzberg, W2DJJ, gives some pointers on getting the ticket in Part 1 of “So You Want to be a Ham.”

Carl and Jerry Stories at Amazon


Construction projects include a four-tube bicycle radio (powered by a 90 volt B battery and 1.5 volt filament battery), a fire alarm (with low melting point alloy sensors), a light meter, and a code practice oscillator.

For those who want to dabble in servicing radios, there are two articles on how to align or repair an AM radio, although one cautions that beginners should steer clear of FM and TV receivers with their more complex circuitry.

The first “Carl & Jerry” story by John Frye also appears in the issue.


World War 2 Short Wave Listening

1939SWDial

Seventy-five years ago, Europe was once again at war, but America was for the time being neutral. But the shortwave bands were alive with the sounds of war, and Radio Guide, the predecessor to TV Guide magazine, was covering shortwave radio. The issue of the week ending October 6, 1939, gave some pointers for tuning in, as well as reviews of what could be heard from the European capitals. One article notes that “many listeners have given up tuning short waves in disgust after one or two feeble attempts, mainly because they did not know exactly where and when to tune for foreign programs intended for their consumption.” The article assures that by following the given instructions carefully, many stations could be heard.

Another article reviews the programs, and notes that the BBC attempted to appeal directly to the German people, and continued in its musical program to include German composers. It notes that French broadcasts were typically quite terse.

And as for the Germans, the article notes that while the output is typically crude, “the German stations have come up with the up-to-now cleversest device of combining propaganda with entertainment.” The station would play German waltzes and “only after the listener has settled down to a stretch of pure entertainment that the announcer quietly intersperses” propaganda.

For more information on the shortwave bands during the War, please visit my earlier post.


British Armored Vehicle, 1914

BritishArmoredVehicle

A hundred years ago today, October 5, 1914, the Klamath Falls (Ore.) Evening Herald carried this illustration of an early British armored vehicle. According to the caption, the vehicle saw service in France and Belgium against regiments of German Uhlans, cavalry that operated as raiders ahead of the main line. According to the report, the armored vehicle carried twenty men armed with rifles, and was used “to considerable effect.”


Chester A. Tongen

ChesterTongen

During the centennial of World War 1, this page periodically remembers American servicemen who gave their lives in that war.

Chester A. “Chesty” Tongen of Zumbrota, Minnesota, was a 1916 graduate of the University of Minnesota, with a degree in pharmacy.  At the University, he was a member of the Scandinavian Literary Society and the Hope Lutheran Society.

He started at the University’s College of Pharmacy in 1912, and his campus address that year is listed in a University Directory as 1609 SE 4th Street, Minneapolis, which currently houses a University parking ramp. He was the son of Andrew H. and Anna M. Tongen and had previously studied at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.  He was a member of Holden Lutheran Church of Kenyon, Minnesota.

Despite his education, the Great War saw him as a Private. He is listed as having died of disease. I was unable to find any grave for Private Tongen at any of the American cemeteries in Europe, which I suspect means that he died of disease after induction but while still stateside.

His college yearbook bears the quote, “I shall soon have a Norske Apotek all my own.” It was not to be.

The photo here is from Soldiers of the Great War, Volume 2, Page 113.


Update on Lunar Mission

As we announced in an earlier post, we have prepared a message (the URL of our parent site, w0is.com) that will be sent from Lunar orbit as part of the LuxSpace Manfred Memorial Moon Mission (4M).

LuxSpace has announced that all messages, including ours, have now been uploaded to the spacecraft and that each uploaded message will be sent from Lunar orbit at least twice. LuxSpace will be conducting a contest during the mission for earthbound participants to receive as many messages as possible.  It is hoped that many of the participants will post their received copy after the contest.

The message will be transmitted from the Moon on 145.98 MHz using JT65B mode. The Lunar orbit is scheduled for October 28. Full technical details are available at LuxSpace’s mission page.

A Positive Spin on Banking Chaos

ABAcheques

In an advertisement which appeared a hundred years ago today in the New York Sun, October 3, 1914, the American Bankers Association does its best to put a positive spin on things. Instead of announcing the obvious proposition that its travelers’ cheques probably aren’t very useful in Europe, it instead begins by proudly announcing that their sale continues as usual “for use throughout the United States” and that they continue to afford travelers “in ‘the States’ their customary service of protection and convenience in respect to money matters.”

Only then does it go on to announce, in smaller print, that sale of the cheques for foreign use had been temporarily discontinued, given that tourists could not be assured that they would be uniformly honored under conditions which change from day to day. However, it assured that their sale for use abroad would be resumed as soon as conditions warrant.

The ad then seems to downlplay the plight of Americans in the first days of the war, when Americans in London found themselves destitute, despite having travelers’ cheques and letters of credit from American banks. Their plight was relieved only when Herbert Hoover set up shop and started dispensing his own cash “against personal checks signed by unknown but American-looking people on unknown banks in Walla Walla and Fresno and Grand Rapids and Dubuque and Emporia and New Bedford.”

The chaotic situation ameliorated by Hoover with his personal cash was described in much more pleasant terms by the bankers’ association:

Through the co-operation of the Officers of the United States Government, Committees of Bankers in New York, London and Paris were enabled in a very short time to perfect arrangements for protecting all forms of travelers’ credits issued by American institutions and firms, and holders of travelers’ cheques and letters of credit have been by this means relieved from the serious consequences of the sudden paralysis of customary banking facilities abroad.

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WCCO at 90 Years Old

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WCCO transmitter site near Anoka in 1930. From 1930 station brochure at radiotapes.com

Ninety years ago today (either October 1 or 2, 1924, depending on the source, the call letters WCCO were first heard over the airways. According to Wikipedia, the station came on the air on October 2.  But according to this 1949 station brochure, the actual sign-on date was October 1.

WLAGbecomesWCCOThe new call sign was reported in the radio section of the Milwaukee Journal on October 12.  It reported that WLAG radio had recently been refinanced by the Twin Cities Chamber of Commerce and the Washburn-Crosby Milling Company, and now bore the new call letters WCCO.  The article notes that the station carried the usual afternoon and evening features and concerts, but also noted the schedule of the station’s extensive market reports.

The station originally came on the air in 1922 as WLAG, but closed down in early 1924.  Civic pride demanded that the Twin Cities have a radio station, and a group of investors, primarily the Washburn-Crosby Company (predecessor to General Mills) financed the station, which took the call letters WCCO in honor of its benefactor.

The station originally operated on 720 kilocycles, but in 1928 was granted clear-channel status and moved to 810 kilocycles.  It’s familiar frequency of 8-3-0 is a result of the 1941 North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement, which moved the vast majority of U.S. broadcast stations up the dial slightly to accommodate Mexican clear-channel stations.

References

WCCO history at WCCO website

Historical materials at radiotapes.com

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More WW1 Mobile Wireless

WW1RadioCar

French or Belgian army wireless car, 1914.

A hundred years ago today, the October 1, 1914, issue of the Burlington (Vt.) Weekly Free Press carried a feature explaining how the automobile and aeroplane were revolutionizing warfare in the European war. And the article explains how the wireless telegraph was being used in connection with both. It notes that the most advanced practice was found in the use of automobile wireless outfits, which are in wide use by both the Begian and French armies. Those powerful stations had a transmitting radius of 225-250 miles, and were of infinitely more value than pack sets and cart sets, since the conflicting armies were clashing along such far-flung battle lines.

The article notes that the electricity was generated by the motor of the car, and these portable stations “with all the paraphenalia of electrical communication without wires may be speedily whisked from place to place, and as soon as the telescopic mast which is part of the outfit can be extended and erected the operators can go to work sending and receiving messages.”