Dr. Lee DeForest is, of course, best known as the inventor of the audion, or triode tube. But he had many other inventions to his credit. For example, a few months ago, we featured the 1950’s Arizona fallout shelter/ham shack of William A. Rhodes, W7PYH (later W7KLA). It turns out that DeForest was co-inventor along with Rhodes of an electronic light amplifier with applications in astronomy and television.

And 85 years ago, we see what some might consider to be DeForest’s greatest invention, the “ANTI-AD,” a remote control device for squelching annoying radio advertisements. DeForest describes the device in the September 1930 issue of Radio News, wherein he laments “the tendency of the present radio broadcast programs to degenerate more and more into crass commercialism and to devote a steadily indreasing proportion of the time to exploiting the merits of every conceivable commondity from tooth-paste and cigarettes to household furniture and diamond rings.”

While remote control sets were coming onto the market, DeForest notes that they came with the nuisance of having a cable between the radio and the easy chair, over which “the missus and the children invariably trip.”

Instead, DeForest came up with the entirely wireless solution to the problem. The radio’s antenna lead is connected to the device shown here, which contains a selenium cell, one tube, and a relay. When the offending commercial interrupts the program, the listener simply shines a small flashlight, “which can be had in very ornamental form” at the device. When the light hits the photocell, the antenna is disconnected and the radio silenced. The relay had a time delay which could be set to correspond to a typical commercial length.

“When the announcer begins to tell the health benefits of his cigarette,” the listener simply gives the unit a quick flash, knowing that at the approximate end of the commercial, the device will reset and the program resume.

DeForest concludes that the “Anti-Ad adds to real radio enjoyment and greatly extends the number of hours throughout the month when the radio set is in operation. It should therefore be received with open arms by the entire radio industry.”  But perhaps it wasn’t, since ten years later, he wrote in an open letter to the National Association of Broadcasters:  “What have you done with my child, the radio broadcast? You have debased this child, dressed him in rags of ragtime, tatters of jive and boogie-woogie.”

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Eighty years ago, the September 1935 issue of Radio News described this “CQ Key,” an early memory keyer, by Ed. Glaser, W2BRB. It’s driven by a windshield wiper motor acquired from a junkyard for a dollar, and can be used to repeatedly call CQ. In the illustration here, a disc sending TEST is installed, with the disc at the upper right used for calling CQ. If you read counterclockwise starting near the top, you can see that it sends, “CQ CQ DE W2BRB” repeatedly.

The author notes that he initially hooked the disk directly to the motor and tried to control the speed with a rheostat. The 6-volt motor performed well down to 4 volts, but below that voltage the motor ran unevenly or sometimes stopped. Therefore, he described an arrangement with a 4:1 gear ratio that proved satisfactory.

The author reports that the setup performed well, and that he had run the key for hours on end on 5 meters and 75 centimeters, presumably running early beacons on VHF and UHF.

The disc is made of 3/16 inch bakelite, 2-1/2 inches in diameter. The contacts were taken from an old relay and mounted so that they would be closed by the rotating disc. The author notes that this arrangement is sufficient for keying a couple hundred volts, but for higher voltages, a relay would be necessary. The keyer was “programmed” with a hacksaw and file, and the author reported that the process took a couple of hours, with the work on subsequent discs going much faster.

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Ninety years ago today, the September 26, 1925, issue of Radio Digest announced the winner of the coveted title of Miss Radio 1925, namely, Miss Rena Jane Frew of 334 Fifth Street, Beaver, Pennsylvania.

She won a silver cup and a trip to New York City where the award was presented at the Radio World’s Fair by Governor Al Smith. The contest was billed as one to “discover the ‘Diana of Radio’–the most successful and enthusiastic hunter of distant stations.”

Miss Frew was twenty years old.  The magazine reported that she had been an amateur since the age of 14, and reported the call sign of her station as 8ME.  According to the 1922 call book, that call was licensed to Beaver High School.  That same call book does not show any call under her name, meaning that she apparently did not have her own station.  According to the Harrisburg Evening News, Sept. 12, 1925, she did have her operator’s license, and states that she was the first licensed operator in Pennsylvania, and probably the first east of the Mississippi. During her freshman year, she taught a class in wireless.  In fact, she was well known to the hams in the Pittsburgh district, who referred to her as the “Little Ladybug.” After broadcasting became popular, she tuned in every principal station in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, as well as foreign stations.

Among her other duties, according to the Chicago Tribune, Miss Frew attended the Chicago radio show as one of the chief guests.

In 1927, she was teaching, and as one of her former eigth grade students recounts, she headed that school’s radio club.

According to her sister’s obituary, she became a special education teacher in Rialto, California, and died on June 30, 1996.  A photo of the cup being presented by the governor is available at this link.

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85 years ago, the September and October 1930 issues of Popular Mechanics showed how to build this four tube shortwave receiver which tuned 15 to 195 meters “without plug-in coils. Instead, it had a four-position band switch, which made it “no longer necessary to shut off the set and take it apart in order to change from one wave band to the other.” The regenerative receiver employed two 224 tubes in the RF section, followed by a two stage audio amplifier using a 201-A and a 112-A. It was set up for headphone use, although provisions were made for adding an external loudspeaker. In addition to the band switch on the left, the front panel had tuning and regeneration controls. The chassis was made of brass, with a bakelite front panel.

The author’s lovely assistant makes some finishing touches to the cabinet.

The author reported that the set was tested in Chicago, and pulled in over the course of a few hours numerous amateur stations, including the seventh, fourth, fifth, sixth, second, and ninth call districts. Due to “unfavorable atmospheric conditions” during the test, no foreign stations were received, but it did pick up broadcasts from WGY.

The author was Frank L. Brittin, W9DCX, who was with the magazine from 1920 until his death in 1955. From Springfield, Illinois, he ws first licensed in 1915 and was an early member of the ARRL. His death is noted in the magazine’s July 1955 issue.

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Miller’s 1940 project going together.

No, he didn’t write Death of a Salesman. That was a different Arthur Miller, as was the cinematographer. Instead, the byline of Arthur C. Miller appeared in numerous radio articles in Popular Science in the 1930’s and 1940’s. While most of his how-to articles appeared in Popular Science, he did write for other magazines, such as the “world’s smallest 3 tube receiver” shown here in the December, 1936 issue of Radio Craft.

Miller’s specialty was construction articles, usually aimed at the relative beginner to the radio art. A good example of his writing appeared 75 years ago this month, in the September 1940 issue of Popular Science.

This was the start of a series entitled “Get Started in Radio for $8.95.” Miller provides a parts list for a beginner to put together his own electronics laboratory kit. In the series of articles, the reader would put together a simple circuit, and in later installments, modify or add to it. In the process, the reader would put together six different circuits to provide a course in both construction and theory. The first circuit was a two-tube earphone receiver. Over the months, it would grow to a four-tube receiver with speaker. The circuits would also include an audio amplifier for use with a phonograph. All of the circuits were designed to use the same parts, allowing the reader to build them, take them apart, and build something else, making the most of the initial assortment of parts.

The series was essentially the same concept as the “Progressive Edu-Kit,” which appeared in radio publications for decades. A good description of that kit can be found at KB8TAD’s page.

Despite the fact that Miller was a fairly prolific author of radio articles, I’ve been unable to find much information about him. In the preface of the magazine’s book Radio for the Millions, Miller is identified as being from New York. The 1938 call book lists no Arthur Miller in the second call area, and I’ve never seen a call sign in his byline. Therefore, it’s safe to say that he wasn’t a licensed ham. In the 1960’s, an Arthur C. Miller served as production editor of Electronics magazine, although I don’t know if that’s one and the same. If anyone has further information about this author, I would appreciate if you could share it, either in the comments or by e-mail.

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