Sixty years ago, Scouts looking to put together their own radio receiver could head down to the local BSA authorized dealer and pick up one of these official BSA radio kits, as shown in the January 1960 issue of Boys’ Life magazine.

There were two sets for the standard broadcast band. A two-tube set for $11.95 had a built-in loudspeaker. For headphone use, the one-tube set sold for $7.25. Both reuquired batteries. The filaments on both sets ran off a 1.5 volt battery for 20 cents. The two-tube set’s 90 volt B battery sold for $3.95, and the one-tube set’s 22.5 volt battery sold for $1.50.

For Scouts who already had radio building experience, it was time to move up to the short waves. That set, which looks like a regenerative receiver with one or two tubes, sold for $15.95. It ran off standard household current, so no batteries were necessary. Headphones were an additional $2.95, and “3 extra coils,” presumably to tune the short waves, were $2 for a set.

There was also an official BSA crystal set sold complete for $2.95. We actually had one of these around the house when I was a kid, and the chassis for this set was the bottom of the cardboard box it came in.

Finally, for Scouts working on their code, the Official S-O-S Signal Set sold for $1.95 for a single unit, or $3.95 for two units. The mathematically astute will realize that you paid a nickel extra if you bought two, but that presumably included the wire to hook the two units together.

This issue of the magazine also contained a reminder of the upcoming February Boys’ Life radio contest, and in anticipation, contained some SWL’ing pointers by none other than Tom Kneitel.  Kneitel’s article contained some tips for pulling in DX, and a listing of some of the loudest and most likely to be heard stations from 3.2 to 25 MHz.