This gentleman is adjusting his directional antenna, using an interesting design shown in the February 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics.

The antenna itself consists of two doublet antennas at right angles. The combined antenna is fed with a four-conductor feedline, and down in the shack is a switch, allowing for nine different combinations. While this design wouldn’t work with today’s ubiquitous coaxial cable, it probably did help boosting your signal in one direction, or nulling out some interference.

It appears to be a commercial product from TACO, the Technical Appliance Corp. of Philadelphia, which was purchased in 1961 by Jerrold, and then by General Instrument Corporation in 1967.