From 75 years ago this month, in the January 1947 issue of Radio News, here are the latest radio offerings from Minerva Corporation of America, located at 238 William Street, New York, close to the Manhattan approach to the Brooklyn Bridge. The site appears to be very close to the current location of Spruce Street School and the New York by Gehry apartments.
Seventy years ago, the Novice license was new, and Boys’ Life took full advantage by showing scouts how they could get on the air. The January 1952 issue showed how to put together the one-tube 80 meter CW transmitter shown here. A previous issue had shown a suitable receiver, and the next month’s issue would show the power supply and antenna.
Fifty years ago this month, this gentleman was pulling in a shortwave program on his Hallicrafters S-120A receiver, and the excitement of his hobby was shared in a feature article in the January 1972 issue of Popular Mechanics.
The magazine noted that the hobby was enjoying a resurgence, since relatively inexpensive receivers had replaced the costly and rather crude-looking earlier models. There were numerous compact, smartly styled sets between $50 and $200, including the one shown above, which retailed for $79.95, and could run on either batteries or household current.
The article outlined the differences between receivers for international shortwave, and those for VHF-UHF signals such as police radio. It warned that the most sensitive communications receivers might cover only the ham bands, and “unless you’re interested in getting into amateur radio yourself, listening exclusively to ham talk can be a bit dull.”
A hundred years ago this month, the January 1922 issue of Popular Mechanics carried the curious tale of sixteen-year-old Willetta Huggins. She had been both deaf and blind for three years, but she was able to “hear” by placing her finger on the diaphragm of a telephone receiver. “With this discovery she soon learned that she could conduct a telephone conversation almost as well as any normal child of her age.”
The magazine recounted a demonstration in which she successfully received a message by wireless telephone, witnessed by a number of dignitaries including Wisconsin Governor John J. Blaine. For whatever it was worth, the magazine noted that the message had been sent on 800 meters (375 kHz), and received with an audion detector and 50 foot antenna.
She also reportedly had the ability to discern colors by smell. In one experiment recounted by the magazine, she was able to identify the colors of six samples of yarn, simply by smell. She was also able to identify the color of the Governor’s suit by smelling it.
But this isn’t the end of the story. According to the New York Times, she was pronounced cured in 1924, and regained her vision and hearing. She ascribed her cure to her Christian Science beliefs, and attested that she had been “completely and permanently healed.” Reportedly, as of 1970, she had changed her name and was working as a Christian Science healer in a midwestern city.
Eighty years ago today, according to the January 24, 1942, issue of Radio Guide, fire bombs were “ugly, dangerous weapons the enemy will eventually try to use right here in the U.S.A.” According to the magazine, hundreds of such bombs, each weighing only a couple of pounds, could carpet an area, causing particular damage if they hit the roof or attic of a building. Bing Crosby, therefore, took a few minutes out of the Kraft Music Hall program to allow Maj. John S. Winch to discuss how to deal with the threat.
The wrong thing to do was to hit them with water as soon as they landed, since the water would ignite the magnesium. It was necessary to wait about sixty seconds, and then if attacking it with a hose, to use a mist of water. The idea was to let the bomb burn out, and keep nearby material from catching fire. Buckets of sand stored at strategic locations were also indicated, according to the magazine.
This threat, of course, never materialized in the continental U.S. For the closest thing to happen, be sure to read our four-part series on the Fu Go Fire Balloons.
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Seventy years ago this month, the January 1952 issue of Radio-Electronics showed “the boldest stroke in education by television ever made.” The 31-foot TV truck of the Army Signal Corps would be used to televise intricate military exercises and maneuvers, allowing them to be viewed back at base on television screens by much larger numbers than would otherwise be able to witness them. In fact, the camera would make visible all of the little things you wouldn’t see if you were there, making the experience superior to attending in person.
The signals were relayed back to base with a 7 GHz microwave link.
Eighty years ago, the January 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics showed how to put together this versatile circuit. It’s shown here serving as a phono oscillator, and can play records over the home radio. But it also served as a receiver for both the broadcast band and short waves. The set had a single coil, but it was tapped. For standard broadcast reception, the entire coil was used, but for short wave, most of the coil was shorted out. The set could drive a loudspeaker, although for shortwave use, high impedance headphones were recommended. A pilot light served as a fuse, to protect the tubes in case of short circuit.
Shown here is Hallicrafters’ foray into the world of land mobile radio, as set of FM transceivers for the low and high VHF bands. Models HT-21 and HT-22 were hand carried, and covered either 25-50 MHz or 150-174. Models HT-23 and HT-24 were base station transceivers for the same bands.
The ad here appeared in QST 70 years ago this month, January 1952. The prices weren’t given, but I suspect they were out of the price range for most hams, and hams didn’t even get on VHF FM in any numbers until similar equipment started to hit the surplus market a decade later. I suspect the ad was intended for hams who happened to be involved in purchasing for public safety or business radio systems, since they would probably find the Hallicrafters name impressive. A well financed Civil Defense department might consider these for their RACES operations, although most such activity took place on AM.
According to the specs, the sets didn’t even cover the 6 and 2 meter ham bands, although I’m sure most hams would have little difficulty bending them just enough. The low band models did cover 10 meters, so if the well heeled appliance operator could put one on ten meters with little difficulty, although it’s unlikely he would find anyone to talk to.
Bottom Line: Relatively expensive, but good way to add some variety to your survival kit.
We’ve previously reported about the importance of a car winter survival kit, to make sure you have enough food in the car to keep yourself reasonably comfortable if stranded. Recently, for example, a winter storm stranded motorists on Interstate 95 in Virginia for over 24 hours. As we showed previously, the kit in our car contains mostly dry food, and we have water and a means of cooking in the car.
Another item recently caught my eye, and that was the pouch of Great Value Pulled Pork in BBQ Sauce from Walmart. Its already cooked, so it only needs to be warmed up. Of course, in an emergency, it could be eaten cold. It’s best on a bun, but any kind of bread or crackers would work fine. You could also eat it right out of the pouch, or together with one of the other dishes in the survival kit, such as the rice or mashed potatoes.
To test it at home, I was originally going to heat it up in the microwave, but I realized that I should just warm it up as I would in the car. Since I have in the survival kit an emergency stove and a pan, I decided to duplicate this at home. To keep from getting the pan dirty, I heated up water and simply placed the pouch in the water. Of course, in an emergency, if water is short, you can still use the water for drinking or cooking. More likely than not, if I had to heat it up in the car while stranded, I would be using melted snow.
The finished product was better than I expected. It made a reasonably filling lunch, and in an emergency, a hot sandwich (or even just hot meat out of the pouch) would seem luxurious.
This product wouldn’t be viable for a large portion of your emergency food storage. The 2.8 ounce pouch cost $1.28. It provides 11 grams of protein, and only 130 calories. By contrast, a jar of peanut butter, for only a little bit more money, provides 2520 calories and 98 grams of protein. According to Harvard University, the recommended daily protein intake is 0.36 grams per pound. So a person weighing 150 pounds should get about 54 grams per day. This means that for long-term storage, the peanut butter is a much better value. But for a day or two, the pulled pork would add a few calories to your diet, provide a welcome hot meal, albeit a small one, and provide you with some protein. And it’s quite possible that the contents of the car witner survival kit will be frozen when you need them. Thawing a pouch of meat is probably a lot easier than figuring out how to thaw a jar of peanut butter.
The package I bought had a “best by” date of November 2024, almost three years in the future. So I’ll definitely be tossing some in the car survival kit. I hope I don’t have to use them until a future family survival picnic.
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If I didn’t know better, I would think that this gentleman was putting a coiled up garden hose inside a speaker enclosure. Well, actually, he is putting a garden hose inside a speaker enclosure, as instructed by the January 1972 issue of Elementary Electronics. He wanted to enjoy quadraphonic sound, and thanks to the magazine, he was able to create quadrasonic sound using his existing stereo. The project shown in the magazine took its input from the speaker terminals of the existing stereo. It then created two new channels, adding a 15 millisecond delay to produce a realistic reverberation. This was accomplished by feeding the signal into the hose from an earphone, and picking it up at the other end with a crystal mike. The output (mixed with a non-delayed version) was then amplified and sent to the rear speakers.
According to the magazine, the result was the greatest home entertainment item since the invention of the crystal set, and would place the listener in a galaxy of surrounding sound and a listening wonderland.
If the general idea sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because you’ve seen a similar idea here before. When WBBM and KFAB wanted to synchronize their signals, WBBM had to build a delay into its transmission, and they accomplished this with a section of lead pipe.
