Monthly Archives: July 2018

High School Radio Students, 1943

1943JulyRadioRetailingTodayShown here in the July 1943 issue of Radio Retailing Today are students in one of the successful radio courses offered by Sewanhaka Central High School in Floral Park, Long Island, New York.

In addition to the school’s 300 hour “pre-induction” course in radio, the class shown here is probably the “radio mechanics group,” which consisted of 20 boys and 7 girls building radio receivers. The school offered a four year electrical course which included radio, and also offered a class in light assembly, made up entirely of senior girls, in which special emphasis on soldering was stressed.

Owing to wartime labor shortages, local dealers made the most of the opportunity, and many students were employed by local radio shops, to the mutual advantage of both student and employer. While many trained employees were hired off by industry, one local dealer is quoted as saying that it was entirely pracical to secure the services of students after school or during vacations.

The article noted that the public school system was the nation’s largest business, and had the finest equipment and best teaching talent at their disposal. They provided the radio dealer with a solution to the critical labor shortage in the radio repair business.

1958 British Three Transistor MW/LW portable

1958JulyRadioConstructorThe plans for this three transistor British longwave/medium wave portable appeared in Radio Constructor sixty years ago this month, July 1958.

The first transistor served as detector (using one of the transistor’s junctions as a diode) and AF amplifier, with two more stages of AF to drive the speaker. For local stations, no external antenna was necessary, since the RF coil, which was permeability tuned, served as antenna. For fringe areas, a short external antenna could be added.

A printed circuit board was available from one of the magazine’s advertisers, which was said to make the construction process more or less foolproof.

1958JulyRadioConstructor2

 

Adeline “Peggy” Richards, WW2 Merchant Radio Officer

1943JulyRadioMirror

Fern Sunde.

Fern Sunde.

We previously told the story of Fern Sunde, the Canadian-born radio operator who served aboard a Norwegian freighter during World War II. While Ms. Sunde was the most famous, we noted that 23 other women served in the role of radio officer in the Norwegian merchant marine.

The July 1943 issue of Radio Mirror contains the story of another woman, Adline “Peggy” Richards, born in Australia in about 1918, who also served as radio officer aboard a Norwegian freighter.  Here is that article in its entirety.

SHE OPERATES SHIP’S RADIO

By Mary Bradley

Radio Officer Adeline Richards (Peggy, to her fellow officers) has been serving on an eleven-thousand-ton Norwegian cargo boat for nearly two years. Back from her roughest-ever trip across the Atlantic, during which she got concussion, she is only waiting for her ship to refit before she will be off again.

Twenty-five years old, a five-foot brunette, Peggy is Australian-born of seafaring folk. She came to Britain for her first visit when she was four, then, arriving again at the age of nineteen, took a post as secretary to a cinema manager.

But the call of the sea was too much for her, and early in the war she began to make plans to get a berth afloat. “My mother was a nurse on board ship, both in the last war and in this one,” Peggy says. But nursing did not appeal to Peggy so she thought up a better idea.

Although she knew that the British Merchant Service would not accept women as radio officers, she decided to take the training. Four months later, armed with her ticket, she tried first British shipping officers and then Norwegian. They were not interested. But she left her name and address, and sure enough in May 1941 a Norwegian line gave her her chance on a trip to Canada.

At first a number of the crew refused to sail with a woman on board; they reckoned that she would be a liability in an emergency. But the Captain told them they must sail or he would replace them. So they sailed.

Now Radio Officer Richards shares watches with a man radio officer, taking down news bulletins and warnings of Axis shipping, straight from the earphones to her typewriter. Messages are often received in code, but ship transmissions are made only in extreme emergency. Between-whiles Peggy  does clerical work for the Captain–paysheets, crew-lists, doctors’ reports and so on. She also does odd mending jobs for the eleven officers.

First thing she does when she sails up the Hudson, is to go ashore and order a thick steak.

Peggy loves New York and its lights. After the war she’d like to settle down in Philadelphia.

Most of her outfit comes from the Women’s Royal Naval Service. On the navy suit, however, she wears Merchant Service buttons, and she has a navy forage cap with the gold and velvet badge of the Merchant Service. Her shoulder flash labels her “AUSTRALIA.” At sea she wears slacks, sea-boots and oilskins, and sleeps in her clothes till she reaches port again.

Peggy knows what it is to brave air attacks, torpedoes, E-boats, minefields and gales. But the call of the sea is stronger than ever. She will soon be back.

I’ve been unable to find any other information about Ms. Richards.  If anyone, perhaps a relative, knows more about this radio pioneer, I would love to hear from you.  I can be contacted at clem.law@usa.net.

Bastille Day, 1918

Wikimedia Commons photo.

American and other allied troops parade through Paris on the occasion of the final Bastille Day of the First World War, July 14, 1918.

Prison Radio, 1928

1928JulyRadioNews

Ninety years ago this month, Ohio State Penintentiary inmante number 52607, Ollie Meloay, penned this article for the July 1928 issue of Radio News detailing the role that radio played for the men serving time. Meloay estimated that there were between 900 and 1000 sets inside the walls, and speculated that there were probably more sets there than in any other equal area in the world.

Loudspeakers were not permitted, so all of the prisoners used headphones. Many cells contained two pairs of headphones to allow both cellmates to listen. The corridors of the cell block contained hundreds of aerials stretched from the cells to the opposite wall 25-30 feet away. Despite the relatively short antennas, the prisoners were able to pull in not only Ohio stations, but those from New York and Chicago. The author noted that many of the African-American men favored southern stations such as KWKH Shreveport.

The warden had no objection, noting that prisoners listening to the radio were unlikely to hatch escape plots or cause trouble. In fact, the harshest punishment the warden could threaten would be to take away a man’s radio.

Most of the sets were “home” made, constructed by the men themselves. The author (who identified himself as a bank robber doing a long sentence) was the owner of a one-tube set. The prison library contained many books on radio, and they were among the most popular.



Harry Hong Sling, Chicago, 1913

1913JulyPopElectricity1913JulyPopElectricity2Shown here in the July 1913 issue of Popular Electricity is Chicago amateur radio operator Harry Hong Sling, a fifteen year old Chinese-American. According to the magazine, he was probably the only wireless amateur to have a station in the Chicago “Loop”. The station shown here was on the fourth floor of the building where he lived, which was probably 324 South Clark Street. The magazine notes that the station’s helix, rotary spark gap, condenser, and telegraph key were constructed by Harry. The mast, shown here, was on the roof of the six story building and boasted a height of 80 feet. The magazine notes that the dome in the background is the Chicago post office.

Based upon this article, it appears that the station was located at 324 South Clark Street, where Harry’s father, Hong Sling, operated a successful grocery business, Sam Lung and Company. The elder Sling purportedly introduced Chop Suey to the Midwest. He was born in China in 1855 and came to the United States in 1875. He first worked for two years as a manual laborer in Wyoming and then moved to Utah where he was a labor contractor and railroad agent. His savings allowed him to invest in businesses in Hong Kong, the United States, Cuba, and Panama.  He moved to Chicago in 1892, and Harry was born on October 28,1898.

According to both the Popular Electricity article and the biography of his father, Harry attended the Jones Public School in Chicago through the eighth grade. Interestingly, after this picture was taken, Harry attended the Lane Technical High School on Chicago’s affluent North Side. The Lane School featured here previously, as the school where Elizabeth A. Bergner, 9DET,  taught radio in 1922.

The Popular Electricity article noted that Harry was to travel to China within a few months to “study the Chinese language and customs, for China is as strange to him as an American boy except as his father and mother have told him about the country by stories and pictures.”



RF Spectrum in 1928

1928JulyRadioBCHere’s a snapshot of what the radio frequency spectrum looked like 90 years ago, from the July 1928 issue of Radio Broadcast magazine.

The standard broadcast band was, at this time, recognizable as covering 550-1500 kHz. The long-time 600 meter marine calling frequency is shown as “aircraft and safety of life” assigned to 500-550 kHz. Other longwave allocations included naval, “transoceanic,” government, and marine.

The 160, 40, and 20 meter amateur bands are in the same places they are today, but with only 80 meters having its current boundaries. 160 meters covered 1500-2000 kHz, with 40 meters spanning 7-8 Mhz. The 20 meter band was a full two MHz wide, covering 14-16 MHz. The old 5 meter band is present at 56-64 MHz, which is a harmonic relationship with the other bands.

Three broadcasters are shown on the shortwave dial. KDKA and WLW had shortwave signals at 4760 and 5760 kHz, respectively. 2XAF (assigned before the international prefixes were adopted) was one of the GE transmitters at Schenectady, NY.

 



1948 One Tube Receiver

1948JulyPMThe young man shown here, presumably a student at a school that starts with N, has earned the respect of both his female and canine companions by putting together this simple one-tube receiver from the July 1948 issue of Popular Mechanics.

1948JulyPM1While everyone is impressed with the loudspeaker volume filling the room from strong local stations, he has a little secret.  The set was simplicity itself, since it’s really just a crystal set with a 117N7 audio amplifier driving the speaker.  Tuning is accomplished with a slider on the tuning coil within, and the detector is a 1N34 diode.

He put the handsome little set together in an evening, and he’s now pulling in the signals.

1948JulyPMschematic



Answer to Yesterday’s Question

1943July5BCsmallYesterday, we showed an ad for WCCO radio that was published in Broadcasting magazine in 1943, and we asked readers to spot the typo, and here it is. The New York network copy writers included the wrong frequency. WCCO was at that time (and still is) on 830 kHz. But the ad shows the frequency as 780 kHz, which was (and is) the frequency of the CBS Chicago clear channel station, WBBM.

The Minneapolis station had been on 810 kHz until 1941, when the dial was shuffled by NARBA.  It’s been on 830 since March 20, 1941.



WCCO Minneapolis, 1943

1943July5BCFor those of us who grew up in Minnesota, or ‘CCO Land, as it was called, an important winter morning ritual was tuning to WCCO to listen for school closing announcements. Thousands of schoolchildren would listen intently for their town to be named, perhaps for the announcement of “buses and school two hours late.” Of course, the grand prize was simply to hear the word “cancelled,” meaning that there would be a carefree day of play in the snow.

This was a longstanding tradition, as shown in this ad in the July 5, 1943, issue of Broadcasting.

In addition to the morning closing announcements, the station reminded advertisers that listeners throughout the state would stay tuned in, perhaps so that mothers could be told that children from a stalled bus were safe and warm at some wayside farmhouse.”

Can you spot the typo in this ad? It’s not a minor error. And yes, if you’re wondering, this ad was printed in 1943. If you find the typo, comment on our Facebook page.