Monthly Archives: April 2023

1963 Revell Shortwave Receiver

Sixty years ago this month, the April 1963 issue of Popular Mechanics showed this two-transistor shortwave radio kit. It’s made by Revell, and if the name and logo look familiar, it’s because they’re the same company that made, and still makes, plastic model kits. You probably didn’t need any airplane glue to put this kit together, but you probably did need a soldering iron.

You can see a nice example of the set on WA1KPD’s QRZ page, where he gives some details of what was his first shortwave receiver.

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Radio in Plentywood, MT, 1923

A hundred years ago, radio was making itself known throughout the country, even in Plentywood, Montana, in the extreme northeastern corner of the state. L.S. Smith, the proprietor of the Plentywood Machine Shop, had constructed a radio which pulled in New York, California, Texas, and even Havana.

He took out this ad in the town’s newspaper, the Producers News, April 13, 1923, announcing that he had sets for sale at a reasonable price. You could write or visit, and he would arrange a demonstration in his home some evening.

1948 Philco 1401 Radio-Phono

This couple are getting ready to enjoy listening to a record on the Philco model 1401 radio-phonograph, which, according to the ad, played records by magic. You didn’t need to lift the lid, nor even look at the tone arm. You just inserted the record into the front, and it played automatically.

This ad appeared in Life magazine 75 years ago today, April 12, 1948. You can see a nicely restored specimen at this video:

1948: Homemade Mess Kit & Scout Signaling

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Today, if you buy a mess kit like the one shown at left, you can inexpensively take care of your cooking and serving needs for a camping trip of a few days. But if you want to economize even further, you can take advantage of the plans found 75 years ago this month in Boys’ Life magazine, April 1948.

A Scout is Thrifty, and the magazine showed those thrifty scouts how to make a similar mess kit out of old tin cans. With a few simple hand tools, the cans can be cut to size. The article showed a technique for smoothing the cut edge with a hammer. Handles are made with stiff wire. The author used a fly swatter handle, but a metal coat hanger would work just as well.

The article notes that almost any kind of can may be used, although it warned to never use a paint can. It warned that since cans back then were neither aluminum nor stainless steel, it was important to dry the items thoroughly after washing. However, modern cans are probably more forgiving.

Advanced scouts could construct from a one-gallon can the combination stove/toaster/frying pan shown at left. It’s pretty self-explanatory–the fire goes inside the inverted can. The door for putting in the wood fuel serves double duty, as it folds upward to provide a spot to snap a slice of bread in place for toasting.

While the idea seems novel, we suspect the inexpensive camping toaster shown at right is an overall better performer if you’re interested in making toast on a campfire or portable stove.

This issue of the magazine is also useful to scout historians, because it includes a removeable booklet section showing the Tenderfoot-Second Class-First Class requirements which had just been adopted. Many of our readers, of course, will be interested to know what the signaling requirement was back then. I recall that about the time I joined in the 1970s, the First Class requirement was that the Scout be able to use Morse Code or semaphore. I’ve been told, although I haven’t confirmed it, that at one point, Scouts had to know both Morse Code and semaphore. But in 1948, the requirement was for Morse code only, although it could be done with flags, light, or sound:

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Using the CB in Emergencies: 1973

Our younger readers might find this hard to believe, but there was a time when you didn’t have a phone with you while driving. If you were in your car, you were cut off from the rest of the world. Nobody could call you, and you couldn’t call anyone else. As alien as the concept might seem, you might need to wait to talk to someone!

Believe it or not, being incommunicado in this way has its advantages. It gives you the opportunity to relax, without being bothered by someone else’s trifling concerns. Of course, on rare occasions, there are legitimate emergencies. If you car broke down, you would either have to hike to the closest payphone, or wait until a good Samaritan stops to help. Believe it or not, good Samaritans were more common then, because they realized you didn’t have a phone. Today, when people see a stranded motorist, they assume (usually, but not always, correctly) that the person has a phone. But back in the day, when you saw someone by the side of the road in trouble, you knew that unless someone stopped, they wouldn’t get any help. Armed with that information, it wasn’t uncommon to be the someone, and stop to help.

Of course, most good Samaritans are good, but there are also bad people who might take advantage of someone, especially a woman, helplessly stranded by the road. Therefore, having some mechanism to communicate, especially if you were a woman, wasn’t a bad idea. The billboard above highlights this fact, and it was seen on American highways fifty years ago, as shown here in the April 1973 issue of Popular Electronics.

The magazine highlighted the efforts of REACT and other CB clubs and organizations to provide someone to respond to such emergencies. Since 1970, channel 9 had been designated as a channel for emergencies and motorist assistance. In most areas of the country, REACT and other groups did an admirable job of monitoring channel 9, and the magazine provided a summary of those efforts, and pointers on using your CB in case of emergency. It noted that in addition to routine monitoring of channel 9, many groups assisted with civil defense and emergency communications. It encouraged CB’ers to monitor channel 9 whenever possible as a backup, but it did encourage waiting for organized groups to help before jumping in, since this encouraged people to join the organized groups. One popular activity by such groups was providing coffee to motorists on holiday weekends, as shown here.

The billboard shown above was provided by the Electronic Industries Association as a public service. The magazine provided details on how local CB clubs could contact outdoor advertisers to obtain the materials for the sign.

Easter 1938

On Easter Sunday 85 years ago, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale preached the sermon at the annual sunrise Easter service at Central Park, New York. He is shown here in the April 23, 1938, issue of Radio Guide. The service could be heard at 7:00 AM Eastern Time on CBS radio.

1923 Radio Listings

A hundred years ago today, here’s what you would have heard on the radio in New York and New Jersey. Stations were on the air as early as 11:00 AM, when you could listen to Frau Noemi C. Vetter of Vienna opine about the theater and opera in that city. Much of the days programming consisted of live music, but at 8:00 PM you could tune in to a talk by Nicholas Thiel Ficker on how to reduce labor turnover in industry.

At 6:15 PM, more distant signals would start rolling in, and you would be able to pull in stations such as KDKA in Pittsburgh, whose Little Symphony Orchestra would be putting on a dinner concert.

This listing was from the Perth Amboy Evening News, April 9, 1923.

One Year Until the Eclipse!

Quick Links:

Hotel Rooms
Eclipse Glasses

One year from today, there will be another total eclipse in North America! As we did in 2017, we will provide full coverage of the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse.

You might have remembered news stories about two big shortages in 2017: Hotel rooms and eclipse glasses.

Hotel Rooms

Many of the stories about hotels were exaggerated, with reports of alleged “gouging.” While a few run-down motels advertised astronomical prices, the reality was not quite that dramatic. In general, you were able to get a hotel room at the normal price, but if you didn’t make your reservations at least a few months in advance, most rooms were unavailable. We booked our room in Hastings, Nebraska, about 11 months in advance. So if you are planning to travel to the path of totality, whether it’s in Mexico, the United States, or Canada, it behooves you to make your plans now.

We haven’t made our final plans, but the official OneTubeRadio.com eclipse headquarters for the 2024 eclipse will probably be in Dallas.

For the 2017 eclipse, hotel rooms and other accommodations started becoming scarce a few months prior to the eclipse. A few rooms remained available up until two weeks prior to the eclipse.

In general, most hotels allow you to make reservations one year in advance, so if you want, you can make your reservations now.

Eclipse Glasses

The other item that will be in short supply will be eclipse glasses. You have plenty of time to order them online, so that you can safely view the eclipse. If 2017 (and other eclipses) is a guide, these will become totally unavailable in the weeks before the eclipse. People will be paying grossly inflated prices, and there will be rumors of counterfeit glasses. This time, we decided to get in on the fun, and we will be selling eclipse glasses. We have started a website, MyEclipseGlasses.com, where you can order safe American-made eclipse glasses at a reasonable price. Our glasses are made in the USA by American Paper Optics. Their website contains an excellent resource explaining eclipses, and includes a one-hour on-demand video presentation.

Schools and the Eclipse

If you have kids who will be in school, plan on taking them out of school that day. Unfortunately, the 2017 eclipse showed that some American schools had an irrational fear of the eclipse and actively prevented children from witnessing it. If you believe that your child’s school is more enlightened, then on the first day of the 2023-24 school year, or maybe now, you should have your children ask the science teacher if the school is planning a field trip to see it. If the teacher balks, then your children should let him or her know that they will be absent the day of the eclipse. At the very least, you should ask whether your children’s school has purchased eclipse glasses for the event. If they buy in bulk before the eclipse, they can be had for pennies. But if they fail to plan and wait until the last minute, they will be unavailable, or selling for outrageous prices.

A field trip to see the eclipse is an entirely reasonable request for most schools. For example, students in Chicago could be placed on a school bus and taken to see the eclipse only a couple of hours’ drive away in Indiana. The expense will be less than other field trips taken to amusement parks, movies, etc. This is true for schools in many cities. They have the opportunity to let the kids witness an amazing scientific event, but only if they do some basic planning.

But I predict that this won’t happen, since most schools won’t think of the possibility until after it’s too late to make the necessary plans, or they’ll have the same irrational fears that showed up in 2017. It’s the duty of the students to pester the administration so that the necessary plans are made sufficiently in advance. And as I explained in 2017, if the school fails to act, then it’s reasonable for children to skip school on April 8, 2024.

October 14, 2023 Annular Eclipse

Path of October 14, 2023 Annular Eclipse.

There is another eclipse, an annular eclipse, on October 14, 2023. That event, while interesting, is nowhere near as breathtaking as a total eclipse. So if you happen to be close, you should take in the 2023 event. But the 2024 total eclipse is in an entirely different league.

The 2024 total eclipse will be visible in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, a tiny slpeck of Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The path of totality also passes through Mexico and Canada. Major cities in the path of totality include Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Montreal.

Please don’t be confused when you hear about “percentages” of eclipse. Some people are lulled into believing that since they will experience a “90% eclipse” at their home, or even a “99% eclipse,” that there is no need to travel. This is a big mistake. Even with a 99% eclipse, the experience is completely different from a total eclipse. Unless you are paying attention, you might not even notice the 99% eclipse. But you’ll definitely notice the total eclipse just a few miles away, since it will become noticeably dark outside.

1953 Robotic Turtle

Seventy years ago this month, the April 1953 issue of Radio News shows this young woman playing with her robotic turtle. She looks overjoyed, but we suspect her father, the turtle’s creator and article author Jack Kubanoff, got to play with it more than she did.

The turtle is actually quite sophisticated for its time. The head (made of a coffee can) contains both eyes(photocell) and tongue (tactile sensor) that allow it to go in search of “food”. The food is indicated by a flashing light that the robot homes in on. But the creature has an ability to learn, in that it can determine which sequence of flashing lights leads to the food. It also has a memory, and can keep heading toward the food, even when the flashing light is behind an obstacle.

The robot has its own entry at the Cybernetic Zoo. Kids today have more options when it comes to playing with robots. But the sophisticated models like the ones shown below are direct descendants of pioneers like Timothy the Turtle.

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1923 One Tube Regenerative Receiver

One hundred years ago this month, the April 1923 issue of Popular Science carried the plans for this one-tube regenerative radio receiver, which was said to be able to pull in concerts from a hundred miles away. The total cost, including headphones, was under twenty dollars. And if the reader already had a crystal set, especially one with a variocoupler, the cost could be further reduced.

And the $20 figure was for store-bought parts. Someone good with tools could make some of the parts themselves, saving even more money. For example, the variocoupler could be home built, as could the condenser and even the tube socket. The switches shown here are commercially made, but they could also be fabricated at home from brass screws.

Tuning was accomplished with taps on the coil, and regeneration was adjusted by rotating the small coil.