Seventy five years ago this month, the May 1944 issue of QST carried a construction article for this 112 MHz transceiver for the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS). The article was unique in that it showed how to “mass produce” the set in a high school shop class.

The Altoona, PA, WERS organization operating under call sign WKYU, had little appropriate equipment. Compounding the problem was the fact that few skilled amateurs remained at home to do the building. The problem was solved by setting up construction of standardized transceivers by radio and electronics students in the vocational department of Altoona High School. The school benefitted by having interesting and worthwhile lab work, and WERS benefitted by having a source of the needed equipment. In addition, the students who were involved in WERS also had particular pride in using equipment they themselves had built.

The circuit is a familiar one for VHF transceivers of the era. A 6J5 served as oscillator and self-quenched superregenerative detector, although other tubes could be substituted. A 6G6 pentode served as modulator and audio amplifier. Since wartime shortages meant that some tubes were not available, the article suggested substitutions for each.