Gracing the cover of Radio News 75 years ago this month, May 1949, is the mobile unit of WKY, Oklahoma City. The unit was custom built, and was complete with both transmitting and receiving antennas for AM and FM.
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1939 Sears BC-SW Radio-Phono
If you were in the market for a new radio-phono 85 years ago, Sears was the place to go. They would give you a liberal allowance for your trade-in. For only $49.95 plus your old radio (or just $5 down), you could go home with this two-band receiver. The broadcast band went up to 1720 kHz, so you would be able to pull in police calls. And the 6-18 MHz shortwave band meant that you could listen to the news direct from Europe.
The ad appeared in the May 28, 1939, issue of the Washington Evening Star.
Wartime Jobs for Women: 1944
These ads appeared eighty years ago this month in the May 1944 issue of Radio Mirror.Preview to encourage women to do their patriotic duty and get a job.
The ad below, sponsored by Pharma- Craft Corporation, makers of Fresh Underarm Deodorant Cream, advised women that the more of them hit the workforce, the faster the war would be over. If they didn’t do their part, it could be a month longer or a year longer than it otherwise would be.
The ad at left, published by the makers of Kleenex, gives some more practical advice for the woman who thinks she knows only housework. It reminds her that if she’s ever cooked or served meals, there were plenty of essential jobs waiting for her in hotels and restaurants. If she liked shopping, then she would probably be a good salesperson, since it was just like shopping–in reverse. Similarly, if she knew how to do washing or ironing, there were laundries in need of employees. Finally, if she was good with books, she could enlist in one of the armed services, freeing up a man to fight.
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Grandma Goes to War, 1944
While her sons, son-in-law, and granddaughter were off to war, Mrs. Louise Oeser does her part by calibrating radio transmitters for GE at Schenectady, NY.
This item appeared in the May 1944 issue of Radio Craft.
Battery Charging by Phone, 1924
A hundred years ago, if your radio battery was dead, you could get it charged by phone, kind of. You could call before 10:00 AM, the service station would come and pick it up, and you would have it back in time to pull in the DX that evening.
The ad appeared in the Washington Evening Star, May 25, 1924, and the service was offered by Smith’s, 2119 18th St. NW, Washington, DC.
Gonset Communicator: 1954
No family picnic is complete without getting on the air and making some 2 meter QSOs, as shown 70 years ago this month on the cover of Radio News, May 1944. While mom gets lunch ready and junior looks on, dad is making some contacts with his Gonset Communicator, which can operate on either 117 volts AC or 6 volts DC.
The magazine contained an article describing the then-new offering. It noted that it was considerably more sophisticated than prewar rigs. While the target market for the rig was hams, the magazine noted that it was also suitable for CAP use, or even as the UNICOM frequency of a small airport.
1924 Phonograph for Language Learning
A hundred years ago this month, the May 1924 issue of Science and Invention shows the latest development in language education, namely, the photograph.
The main breakthrough here is that instead of listening through a horn, the phonograph reproducer contains a microphone, which is hooked to an amplifier feeding headphones for the individual students. The teacher is also supplied with a microphone, through which she can address the students without any need for them to remove the headphones.
The phonograph is also equipped to cut disks.
Operating a Landline Telegraph
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This weekend, I had the pleasure of demonstrating a landline telegraph to a group of scouts at the BSA Northern Star Council Spring Camporee at Stearns Scout Camp near South Haven, MN. Over 500 scouts attended, and the theme of the event was American Heroes. The event included a group of Civil War reenactors from the New Ulm Battery, complete with their cannon. Since the telegraph shaped the Civil War, we were placed near them. The two awnings here, about 100 feet apart, were separate telegraph stations, with the line connecting them run through the tall grass.
We showed the scouts the telegraph in action, and let them hear what it would have sounded like during the Civil War. I don’t know the exact age of the instruments we used, but they were probably at least a hundred years old. They were purchased on eBay by another scout leader who got them working.
Since I am not able to copy the clicks and clacks of a landline telegraph sounder, we also hooked in a beeper. With that in place, I asked the scouts to send their name, and to their amazement, I copied it correctly.
The purpose of a telegraph is two-way communications, so I gave them a pencil and paper and told them I was going to send them a message. According to conventional wisdom, you need to memorize the code before you can start receiving it. But these scouts, and other guinea pigs I’ve experimented on in the past, prove that this is not true. I printed up copies of the simple chart from LearnMorseCode.com shown here. It might be gimmicky, but it works. You place your finger or pencil at the spot marked “start.” Moving down the chart, if you hear a dash, you go to the left. If you hear a dot, you go to the right. When you are done, you are pointing at the letter in question. I encouraged the scouts to write down the dots and dashes, and then use the chart when they were done. But many of them were able to do it in real time. I found that people (young people, at least) can learn the code very quickly using this method, without having to memorize it first. After hearing a letter just a few times, they get it without bothering to look at the chart.
The round object shown in the top photo is a reproduction U.S. Army cipher wheel. Not unlike a typical secret decoder ring, this replica is available on Amazon and is nicely crafted. (If you want to download and print a similar one, you can do so here.) You can read more about how it was used at this link. It was apparently used mostly for messages sent by flag, but it could be used for telegraph messages as well. Most of the letters are represented with numbers containing 1’s and 8’s. But the 8’s are really 2’s. Eights are used only because they are easier to read on the circular rule. When used on the telegraph, the “dot code” was often used, as it permitted minimally skilled operators to use the telegraph. So if A=1221 in that day’s code, then the letter could be sent by sending one dot, two dots, two dots, and one dot.
1954 Civil Defense Radio Truck
Shown above is the 1939 Studebaker employed in 1954 by the City of Malden, Mass., as its mobile emergency communications center. Shown at left are Sgt. Orin Hood, W1LD, of the Malden Police Department, along with Eli Nannis, W1HKG, the city’s radio officer and emergency coordinator.
The photos and description appeared 70 years ago this month in the May 1954 issue of Radio Electronics, which explained how such a station could be set up on a reasonable budget. The Studebaker patrol wagon was about to be surplussed by the police department. It had been rarely used, and was in good condition.
The City was also going to get rid of a 1800-watt gasoline generator, and it was obtained and placed on a two-wheel trailer.
For radio equipment, it was equipped with a Harvey Wells model TBS-50C transmitter and National NC-183 receiver. As a backup station, the truck was equipped with a 10-watt 10 meter transmitter, and a car radio and converter. That station could run off the truck batteries. The truck also contained a radio for police frequencies, as well as telephones and wire for hooking them up as needed.
The station had already been put into service when tornadoes struck nearby Worcester.
1944 One Tube Receiver
Eighty years ago this month, the May 1944 issue of Radio Craft carried this circuit for a one-tube receiver. It had been sent in to the magazine by one Bob Smith of Montclair, NJ, who pointed out that standard plug-in coils could cover the shortwave and broadcast bands. He added one word of caution, “do not ground set.” This, of course, is because it was running straight off the AC line, and if you grounded it, there would be a 50/50 chance that you would short out the power. We, of course, will add another word of caution, namely, not to touch anything. The headphones are hot, strapped right to your head. So if you touch a grounded object nearby, there’s a 50/50 chance that the resulting current would run right through you.
A 70-watt lightbulb is used to drop the filament voltage to 12.5 volts to light the filament of the 12A7 tetrode/diode tube.