Fifty years ago this month, the January-February 1969 issue of Elementary Electronics reviewed the Science Fair “P-Box” shortwave receiver.  The three-transistor set used one transistor as regenerative detector, with the remaining two serving as audio amplifiers.  With interchangeable coils, the set covered 3-40 MHz.

1971 Radio Shack catalog.

I had one of these, and even though it made sound, I never did pull in any shortwave stations. I did manage to get some overload from local FM stations. I suspect if I had been more patient with the regeneration control, I actually would have received some shortwave.

Here’s the 1925 version of the Swiss Army knife, especially for radio fans. This 16=in-one tool was advertised in the 1925 issue of The Experimenter, and was sold by the Radio Specialty Company of New York.

A similar idea, in credit card size for easy wallet storage, but with a different selection of tools, is shown here and available at Amazon.

In 1924, the Trego Radio Mfg. Co., 1427 Chestnut St., Kansas City, MO, offered this one-tube set, the “Baby Grand” in their catalog.  For $28.75, you got everything you needed, including the tube, batteries, and even antenna and ground wire. The batteries even came installed inside the set, which was said to have a range of 500 to 1000 miles.

The set was also available without tube, batteries, or other accessories, for $15.35.

Sixty years ago this month, the January 1959 issue of Popular Electronics showed how to put together this portable one tube FM receiver. The set used a single 1AG4 tube as a superregenerative detector, and used a penlite cell for the filament and two 22.5 volt batteries to supply the B+.

Even though a superregenerative receiver is best suited for AM signals, it does an excellent job on FM with slope detection. The tendency of the set to radiate was put to advantage in the instructions for calibrating the dial. The article suggested using a second receiver, tuning it to 88, and then tuning the portable until the rushing sound was heard on the other receiver.

The young man shown here (quite possibly the son of article author T.A. Blanchard) is probably getting ready to collect his first Social Security check. But sixty years ago, he was shown in the 1959 issue of Radio-TV Experimenter operating this simple crystal set.

The antenna and ground leads are soldered to “frictioned” paper clips, which could be connected to a convenient antenna such as the dial stop on a telephone. Tuning was accomplished with the adjustable ferrite antenna coil. The set would not tune the entire broadcast band, but the article included values for the fixed capacitor to cover various portions.