Monthly Archives: December 2024

1954 “Little Shocker”

1954DecRadioConstr1954DecRadioConstr2Seventy years ago this month, the December 1954 issue of the British Radio Constructor noted that with “the festive season is drawing near, the reader may be interested in a simple little gadget which is guaranteed to liven up the party in more ways than one.” We’re sure that many of our readers might be similarly inclined.

This device is self-explanatory. It’s similar to a homemade Ford spark coil. An autotransformer steps up the voltage of a battery, and the coil also serves to operate a crude relay to convert the voltage to DC. The two handles are formed from the foil from a candy bar glued over wood. When it’s switched on, it make an inviting buzzing sound, and you ask your friends to grab the handles.

This might make an interesting science fair project, although we suggest that you determine first whether the science teacher has a sense of humor. If not, another project might be better suited.

Also, even though the resulting current is very low, since some of that current will pass directly through the heart of your subject, we wonder if it might be dangerous in some cases. Therefore, if you’re going to make this project, we wonder if it might be better to make sure that both electrodes go to the same side of the body.

We should note that as a youngster, we independently invented a similar device, making use of an old filament transformer and a buzzer. No harm was caused to anyone.



Gas Powered Radios, 1939

1939DecNRN2We’ve previously covered kerosene-powered radios, but the December 1939 issue of National Radio News covers a similar concept. Apparently, there were radios that were powered a home’s natural gas supply. This item is lacking in details, but it appears there were at least two such sets. One was somewhere in Britain, and the other one was displayed at the New York World’s Fair.

Like the kerosene sets, electricity came from a thermocouple.  The British version ran the filaments directly off the thermocouple, and the voltage was stepped up to provide the B+.



1939 GE Model HB-408 Portable Radio-Phono

1939DecNRNEighty-five years ago, this young woman is enjoying some musical entertainment at the beach, thanks to her General Electric model HB-408 portable radio-phono.  The set featured a mechanical record player, which could play two ten-inch records on a single crank.  The electronics consisted of four tubes (1A7G, 1N5G, 1H5G, and 1Q5G), powered by one 1.5 volt A battery and two 45 volt B batteries.  It featured a four-inch speaker.  She had no trouble getting it to the beach, as it was a featherweight 19.5 pounds.

The picture appeared in the December 1939 issue of National Radio News.



1954 Portable Hi-Fi

1954DecRadioNewsSeventy years ago, this homemaker was able to prepare her family’s holiday meal while she was entertained by high-fidelity music, thanks to this portable sound system mounted on a household teacart. The photo was provided by Regency, and the equipment consisted of the Regency HF -150 high- fidelity amplifier, the Webcor “Diskchanger,” and the Jensen “Duette” reproducer.

The photo appeared on the cover of Radio News, December 1954, and the magazine noted that eagle-eyed readers might notice the lack of interconnecting cables.  This was explained by the possibility that she didn’t want to finish hooking it up until dinner was on the table.



Claiborne Foster, 1924

Screenshot 2024-11-21 11.50.22 AMOne hundred years ago this month, the December 1924 issue of Radio Age showed Claiborne Foster, and in the inset below Allan Dinehart. They were both appearing in the play Applesauce, which was then playing in Chicago, where it was broadcast live from the stage by KYW.

Actress Claiborne Foster was prolific on Broadway, and Dinehart was most famous as a director.  His son by the same name also went on to fame in Hollywood as a television writer and producer.  His credits included the Fllintstones and Gilligan’s Island.



1944 One Tube Superhet

1944DecRadioCraftEighty years ago this month, the December 1944 issue of Radio Craft showed this schematic for a one-tube regenerative receiver. The dual tube, a 1D8, was used for local oscillator, mixer, and detector. It had been sent in to the magazine by one Max W. Schmukler of Pueblo, CO, who reported that it outperformed a regenerative set.



Lenore Kingston Jensen, W9CHD, W2NAZ, W6NAZ

1939DecRadioNewsWhen I first saw this cover of Radio News, December 1939, I thought perhaps she was building the wireless mike, the field strength meter, or maybe the full-range amplifier. But one way or another, she looks like she knows how to handle a soldering iron.

But it turns out she’s a ham, and undoubtedly working on one of her rigs. Her identity was obscured by the mailing label, but fortunately, her call sign was barely visible. She was Lenore Kingston, W9CHD, later Lenore Jensen, with calls W2NAZ and W6NAZ. She was an actress with NBC in Chicago, and pestered the engineers so that they taught her enough code and theory to get her license. After she moved to New York, she kept in touch with one of those engineers, who proposed over CW and became her first husband. Upon his passing, she remarried another radio engineer. She continued her career in broadcast radio in California

She was born Lenore Bourgeotte, but a publicist changed her name to Lenore Kingston when she started her radio career. When World War II broke out, she taught Morse Code to Navy radiomen. She co-founded the YLRL, and handled thousands of phone patches and traffic for servicemen during the Vietnam war. She passed away in 1993. You can read a full obituary in the July 1993 issue of World Radio.



1964 Transistor Portable

1964DecPESixty years ago, this lucky girl was probably one of the first on her block to have her very own transistor radio, thanks to the construction project in the December 1964 issue of Popular Electronics.

It was a superheterodyne, and pulled in stations as well or better than most portables on the market. She could even plug it into a phonograph to get loudspeaker volume.

She was able to build it herself, but she had a little secret–most of the work was already done for her. It included a pre-assembled, pre-tuned, sealed IF stage. Other than that, it required only one transistor as the local oscillator, plus a few discrete components.

1964DecPE2