1936 Stealth Radio

1936AugPS

If you wanted a radio in your living room 80 years ago and wanted to be stealthy, you could construct this five-tube TRF set concealed behind a tapestry, as shown in the August 1936 issue of Popular Science.

The set, in addition to the rectifier, contained one stage of RF amplification, a detector, and two stages of audio amplification.  The antenna was concealed in the silk cord that supported the picture, a power outlet could be installed behind the picture, and the tuning and volume knobs were at the bottom of the frame.

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