Radio Girl® perfume is the official perfume of OneTubeRadio.com. This ad for the product appeared 75 years ago this month in the December 1945 issue of Radio Mirror magazine.  As you can see, you can pick up a bottle at the local beauty counter for only a dime.  But we recommending splurging and buying a large bottle for a quarter.

As the ad points out, it is a true, captivating perfume that bespeaks romance.  Its delicate fragrance is so completely feminine, so appealing, it will tempt his heart.

Shown here a hundred years ago today, in the December 12, 1920, edition of the New York Tribune, is Italian Soprano Mme. Luisa Tetrazzini.

According to the newspaper, she is warbling from her New York apartment to every battleship in New York Harbor, courtesy of the wonderfully ingenious radio telephone.

Mme. Tetrazzini died in 1940.  The dish tetrazzini  is named after her.

Today marks the 99th anniversary of the ARRL Transatlantic Tests.  On that date, the signal from 1BCG in Greenwich, Connecticut, was heard in Androssan, Scotland, the first successful Transatlantic transmission on shortwave frequencies.

But a hundred years ago this month, the December 1920 issue of Radio News reported the Transatlantic reception of the signals of 2QR, the station of brothers Hugh and Harold H. Robinson of 13 Walnut Street, Keyport, NJ.

The signals were allegedly heard in Scotland by amateurs George Benzie and James Miller, who reported hearing voice, phonograph records, and the 2QR call sign. The letter received from Scotland is shown in the magazine. The magazine did report that “even today there is considerable doubt entertained by many leading amateurs as to whether or not it was done.” When the issue went to press, the American amateurs had written to Scotland seeking more details, such as the exact time of the transmission and the records heard.

It turns out that the signals had not been received. In January 1922, QST carried the results of an investigation carried out by a committee of the Radio Club of America, headed up by Edwin Armstrong (one of the principals of the successful 1921 test), who concluded that the signals were not heard in Scotland. Apparently, the follow up from Scotland reported reception at a time when 2QR had not been on the air.

The RCA report did conclude that the Robinsons had acted in good faith. It was silent as to whether the committee believed that Benzie and Miller had, indeed, heard something.

When antenna adjustments were necessary, this 1940 family was able to effect them quickly, thanks to this “well-sweep” antenna mast, constructed with 18 foot lumber. The support consisted of two 4×4’s four feet part, set in cement. The mast itself is hinged at the midpoint and counterbalanced for ease of raising and lowering.

Here, while Little Sister supervises, Junior tends to the antenna wire while Father makes the required adjustments. When he’s done, he’ll hoist it up to its 31 foot height, pin it in place, and go inside to pull in the distant stations. These plans appeared in the December 1940 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Fifty years ago this month, the December 1970 issue of Science and Electronics showed how to make this one tube VLF receiver with a tuning range of 13-28 kHz. The set used a 6U8A dual triode-pentode, with half serving as regenerative detector and the other half AF amplifier.

The tuned circuit used two fixed capacitors in parallel, with one switched in or out to adjust the tuning range. Tuning was accomplished with a variable inductor, originally intended as a TV horizontal oscillator coil.

The author reported that from his Michigan location, he had excellent reception, day and night, of NAA in Maine, NSS in Maryland, and NPG on the west coast. He reported that he copied CW signals consisting of five-letter code groups, as well as plain language press reports, all intended for nuclear subs around the world.

I don’t believe there is normally any CW on the air on these frequencies, although stations such as NAA are still there, sending FSK transmissions which could be heard, but not decoded. One signal that could be decoded, definitely in Europe, or perhaps in North America, is the annual test transmission from SAQ in Grimeton, Sweden, which sends a CW message on Alexanderson Day, each year in June or July.

The author of this project is a familiar one, Hartland Smith, W8VVD, now licensed as W8QX.  We previously highlighted his projects such as a steam powered CW transmitter, a 65 watt transmitter, and a shortwave preamplifier.  Remarkably, in 1958, he received Transatlantic TV signals with a modified U.S. television set.

This employee of the National Union Tube Company of Landsdale, PA, is performing a laboratory test on a 10AP4 cathode-ray tube that had just rolled off the assembly line. She is measuring the engineering performance of the tube under actual load and operating conditions.

The picture appeared 75 years ago this month on the cover of the December 1945 issue of Radio News.