Category Archives: Cold War

Young Soviet Nuclear Scientist, 1961

1961OctYTI’m not sure exactly what’s going on in this illustration, but the young comrade seems to be having a good time, even though both the tree and the bird are rather distressed.

At the top, it seems to read that the diode tube, plus “plasma”, plus “reactor” equals whatever is in the bucket that is powering the tool. So very possibly, this young man went on to a career in science, such as designing the Chernobyl nuclear plant.

Whatever it is, it appeared in the October 1961 issue of Юный техник (Young Technician).



1961 Soviet Radio Hobbyists

1961OctPEThe cover of the October 1961 issue of Popular Electronics had a teaser saying, “you wouldn’t want to be an electronics hobbyist in the U.S.S.R.” The accompanying article, however, didn’t really deliver on that premise. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anything in the old Soviet Union, but as the article shows, a hobby in electronics would actually be a bright spot in an otherwise bleak existence.

The Soviets recognized that a hobby in electronics prepared young people for a career in science, and they did a lot to encourage it, by providing awards for copying Morse code and direction finding and even on-the-air contests. Club stations were plentiful, so a young person wishing to get on the air had many opportunities. The Young Pioneers youth organization employed instructors in Morse code and radio theory.

Along with rifle, parachute jumping, and motorcycle clubs, radio clubs were affiliated with the Red Army through ДОСААФ (DOSAAF), the Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy.

Radio and electronics magazines, many of which we feature here, were popular in the Soviet Union. To view a treasure trove of these and other magazines, be sure to visit Журналы СССР.

The magazine even provided the Moscow phone number of the Central Radio Club, K-5-92-71, and noted that if a reader ever found themselves in Moscow, they should give them a call.

The beginner wishing to get a start in radio needed to first complete the basic DOSAAF electronics course, at which point he or she would take the SWL test to get the SWL license necessary to listen on the ham bands. This included a 10 WPM code test, as well as a written test on subjects such as operating procedures, Q codes, international prefixes, and even first aid.

After some experience, and as long as the prospective ham was at least 14 years old, he would then be allowed to take the test to become a ham. This required a 12 WPM code test and a fairly rigorous written test. Higher class licenses were available with code speeds of 18 WPM and a rather difficult test. There was also a no-code license which allowed 5 watts on 144 and 420 MHz, available to those 12 and older.

For another look at amateur radio in the Soviet Union in 1934 and 1965, see our earlier post.



Bikini Atoll Atomic Testing: 1946

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the second nuclear blast at Bikini Atoll, July 25, 1946.

THe test, dubbed Test Baker of Operation Crossroads, detonated a 23 kiloton bomb known as Helen of Bikini 90 feet under the surface of the water. It was suspended under a landing craft, no remains of which were ever found. Ten ships were sunk, and any ships that remained within a thousand yards were seriously damaged from below.



1951: Building the Family Foxhole

1951MarPS1951MarPS4Seventy years ago this month, the cover of the March 1951 issue of Popular Science featured this artwork by artist Denver Gillen (who made the first drawings of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and later, numerous covers for Outdoor Life) showing “what an A-Bomb blast may do to your home,” but with an inset of a family safely hunkered down in their family foxhole.

The cover entreats the buyer to save the issue, since it contains a special section on emergency preparedness written by Michael Amrine, formerly of the Atomic Energy Commission.

The magazine’s editors noted that much of the literature regarding civil defense was “tragic nonsense–aspirin for cancer. Even the official booklets say mainly, ‘Keep calm, keep covered, and follow directions.” But it goes on to say that official directions might not be forthcoming, since there did not exist civil defense organizations comparable with the problem. Instead, the magazine advocated “planning and plain hard work” by individual homeowners, and the magazine contained advice on how to do that. “The hard truth is that the most you can expect from civil defense will be control and rescue work after a bombing. The most effective preparation for atomic attack will be family by family, house by house.”

1951MarPS2The article first noted what not to do, and pointed out that steps such as blacking out the house, taping windows, or even buying a Geiger counter were of very minimal utility. It noted that, as in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, radiation was not going to be the big killer. Instead, it would be the familiar forces of heat and blast, and the article gave pointers on preparing a refuge room to protect against them. The author asked readers to “imagine that your house is in a cyclone or hurricane belt, and next door to a gas tank” and plan accordingly. The most important principles in planning a refuge room were making sure there were at least two exits, keeping out from under heavy furniture or appliances, and preferably being in a corner of the cellar with the least windows or exposure. The importance of using a corner is illustrated by the drawing at left.

After a spot was located, ideas such as shuttering windows and making use of a heavy table or workbench were outlined.

The article included a number of frequently asked questions, including “what should I tell the children?” The answer was simple: the truth. They should be instructed where to go in a raid and how to hit the deck. You shouldn’t scare them, but don’t make it a game, either.

1951MarPS3For homes without a basement, the author suggested placing earth or logs against an outside wall, with a sturdy table inside.

The list of recommended supplies included the usual suspects such as canned food and battery operated lights. Under the category of “valuables,” the recommendation included an extra pair of glasses and a lockbox for valuable papers. Rounding out that category was money (in small bills), on the assumption that, as in the last war, the economy would be in full operation.

The list included a wind-up clock and maps of the city and county. The battery operated radio made its usual appearance on the list. The article noted that utilities would probably be out, although some, especially the gas lines, might continue to function for a time. Since battery operated radios were still quite rare (but not unheard of) in 1951, the article noted that a car radio would also work.

The article did note that it was dealing with just the Hiroshima-style A-bomb, and not the H-bomb. It notes that the H-bomb was then still just a theoretical possibility, but that if perfected, it would wreak the same level of damage over a still larger area.

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National Emergency Alarm Repeater: 1961

1961MarRadioElecOne of the great challenges of civil defense planners was alerting the public to an imminent nuclear attack. Sirens could be effective outdoors, but it was unlikely that people indoors would be able to hear them. One possible solution is discussed in the March 1961 issue of Radio-Electronics: NEAR, the National Emergency Alarm Repeater.

Three methods had been considered: telephone lines, power lines, and radio. The technical challenges for using the telephone network for simultaneously alerting the entire population were too difficult to overcome, and not everyone had a phone. Radio was a possibility, but radios were turned off many hours of the day, and especially at night. NEAR took advantage of the power grid. With only a few hundred repeater stations, a 240 Hz signal of about a volt could be superimposed on the line, and the receiver shown here was a clever electromechanical method of picking up that signal and sounding the alarm.

The home NEAR until shown here would be plugged in and forgotten by the homeowner until such time as there was an attack. It included a resonant circuit consisting of a 0.55 uF capacitor and 1 henry coil, with a tuned frequency of 240 Hz. To avoid false alarms, there was a time delay in the form of a 1 RPM motor. If the incoming signal were less than 10 seconds long, then the motor would simply reset and continue listening for a signal. But after 10 seconds, the motor would trip a clapper which used the outside of the device’s case as a sounder. The unit would emit a loud annoying noise which would alert the homeowner to the missiles that were incoming.

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1971 EBS False Alarm

MushroomCloudFifty years ago today, the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) sent out a warning that the nation was under attack. Thankfully, it turns out it wasn’t. A test was scheduled for that Saturday morning, but an operator at the Cheyenne Mountain complex put in the wrong tape. Instead of the tape announcing that it was only a test, he ran the tape for a real attack. It contained the code word “hatefulness” to authenticate the message.

At radio stations around the country, DJ’s ripped open the envelope next to the teletype machine containing the authenticating code. And sure enough, that was the correct code word for that day. Stations were supposed to cease normal operations and begin broadcasting information about the attack. But that information was never forthcoming.

Since a test had been scheduled, many stations suspected that there was an error, but it wasn’t confirmed officially for 40 minutes. The most famous recording from that day comes from WOWO in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, which you can hear in this video, where announcer Bob Sievers interrupted the Partridge Family with the news:

You can also listen to the event from WCCO Minneapolis at RadioTapes.com.



1970 Soviet Crystal Sets

1970SepSovietXtalSetIn September 1970, I was probably busy putting together crystal sets. And some things are universal, and it appears that my counterparts behind the Iron Curtain were busy doing just the same thing. These illustrations are from the September 1970 issue of the Soviet publication Юный техник (Young Technician).

Interestingly, my Soviet counterparts were able to buy a suitable inductor, whereas I had to wind mine on a toilet paper tube. I suppose toilet paper shortages might be the logical explanation. In any event, the Soviet kids were able to pull in their strong local stations, just like I could.

The other illustration below isn’t too different from some of my experiments.  From the bottom figure, it appears that the Soviet kids figured out, as I did, that if you used two wires from a transistor, that would work about the same as a diode.

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1970 Soviet 8 Transistor Portable

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Fifty years ago, if a young Soviet comrade were ambitious, and perhaps had a better than average access to parts, he or she would be rewarded with this handsome 8 transistor superheterodyne radio that covered longwave, medium wave, and shortwave broadcast bands.

The plans appeared fifty years ago this month in the August 1970 issue of
Юный техник (Young Technician) magazine.

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Popular Mechanics Finds Its Way to Communist China

1950AugPM41947AugPMcoverOur readers enjoy perusing old issues of Popular Mechanics and other magazines, so we understand the excitement of U.S. Marine M/Sgt. Elmer C. Bender in finding the magazine’s August 1947 issue. The flyer, stationed at Tsingtao, China, took off the morning of October 1948 to get in some hours in a training flight.

Due to a faulty fuel gauge, he and Navy Electrician’s Mate William C. Smith were forced to land on a beach only 15 miles from their base, where they were quickly surrounded by Chinese Communists who surmised that they were spies. They were held for over a year until their eventual release.

The two men reported that they weren’t mistreated, but were taken from village to village. Their main problem was boredom, but the Lieutenant charged with their custody would occasionally bring English reading material. The highlight of their stay was when he showed up with the magazine, which both men devoured. Bender reports, in the magazine’s August 1950 issue, that he was especially interested in the issue’s feature on how to solder. When the men were eventually released, the Communist Lieutenant, noting their enthusiasm for the magazine, asked them to send him some more copies upon their return to the U.S.

1947AugPMxmtrWhile there’s no evidence that either man became a ham, it’s likely that they passed many hours reading about the 5-band AM-CW transmitter shown here. When their families got an FM radio, they probably both instinctively knew the trick of placing a folded dipole antenna under a carpet, as shown in the magazine.



Mail During Quarantine: How to Get Stamps

Quick links:

CDSafetyNotificationCard

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

–Herodotus, as carved in stone at the New York Post Office.

The postcard shown above, first issued in 1959, and current for at least two decades thereafter, was a Safety Notification Card (Post Office Department form 810), for use after a civil defense emergency such as a nuclear war.  After such an event, the Post Office would be tasked with putting friends and relatives back in touch with one another.  On the front of the card, you would write the name and address of those who might be worried about you.  On the back, you would sign your name and give the address where you could be reached.

MushroomCloudI have no doubt that after Americans emerged from their fallout shelters, the Post Office would use Herculean efforts to deliver these cards, and most of them would go through.  The Post Office is one of the things that makes us a country, and thus one of the things over which such a war would have been fought.  It’s unthinkable that they would bother with fighting a nuclear war and then decide not to deliver the mail.  Under the Constitution, the Congress has the power and duty to establish a Post Office, and a nuclear war doesn’t change that.  Neither does a pandemic virus.  With very few exceptions, the mails right now continue to flow without interruption during the lockdown.  And most of the exceptions come from things outside the control of the U.S. Postal Service.  For example, mail service is currently suspended to over a hundred countries, due either to lack of transportation or a shutdown of postal service in the destination country.  But the U.S. Postal Service is doing whatever needs to be done to make sure the mail goes through.  Even though most international mail has been by air for the past few decades, suspension of flights has prompted the U.S. Postal Service to send mail to Europe by container ship.

In my experience, domestic mail is going through with little delay.  I have a forwarding order to have all of my office mail to go to my home, and even forwarded items are arriving, at most, a day or two later than I would have expected them.  The postal workers and letter carriers are working hard, and in many cases risking their lives to make sure the mail goes through.  Would they have risked their lives delivering post cards across a nuclear battlefield?  I have little doubt that they would have.  (Say, that might make a good book.)

Much of my work involves getting and sending things in the mail.  And with the national emergency, the mail also serves as one of the ways that vital supplies arrive at our house.  Yes, some of our food comes by mail.

One practical issue, however, is buying postage.  In the pre-COVID time, I had to go to the post office frequently, and when the line was short, I picked up a few weeks’ supply of stamps.  Sometimes, I would mail items at the counter, but I would usually just weigh them myself and affix the exact amount of postage required.  (If you don’t have a scale, they’re not expensive.)  Little has changed in that regard, since I can just leave outgoing mail for the carrier.  But getting stamps has become more difficult.

Buying stamps online

At first, I ordered stamps online at the USPS website. Orders are fulfilled at a central location in Kansas City.  At first, it worked well, and stamps and stamped envelopes arrived about a week after I ordered them.  All denominations are available, and they’re sold at face value with only a small shipping charge.  But the most recent order took 2-1/2 weeks.  They’re obviously swamped in Kansas City, I was almost out of stamps, and had to come up with another way of getting them.  Update:  The last few orders have gone smoothly, and the stamps arrive within about 10 days.

Curbside stamp pickup

I did find three sources locally that  have curbside pickup.  Office Depot has stamps, at face value.  You can buy a book of 20 Forever stamps for $11.  Unfortunately, the closest one was out of stock, and other stores looked like they had low stocks.  Update:  Since I originally wrote this, Office Depot is doing an excellent job of keeping stamps in stock.  You can usually order online and pick them up curbside the same day.    Walgreens also sells stamps at face value.   You can order online and pick them up, usually in about an hour, either curbside or at the drive-up window.  It looks like CVS has curbside pickup of stamps in some states, although I don’t know if they are being sold at face value.

Printing postage at home

MailTruckAnother great option is OrangeMailer.co which allows you to buy postage online and print it with your printer.  I was leery about using them, since I imagined my printer jamming and having to pay again.  Fortunately, that is not the case.  You can print as many times as necessary until you get it right.  Of course, if you use more than one of those prints for postage, you’ll be spending some time in Leavenworth.

To buy postage, you enter the name and address of the recipient, and when you’re done, the website directs you to turn on your printer and print a label with the address, your return address, and the postage meter.  For letters, you can print right on the envelope.  It took me a couple of tries with my printer settings to get it exactly right.  The first few times, it cut off my return address.  When I told my printer that it was printing a number 10 envelope, it cut off the return address.  But when I lied and told the printer that it was a 4 by 8 sheet of paper, it worked perfectly.  Similarly, for small envelopes, I have to tell the printer that it’s a 4 by 6 piece of paper.

I have also mailed one small package, and that works well.  You enter the dimensions and weight of the parcel, and it prints a label with the right amount of postage.  Of course, we don’t have any labels in the house, but you don’t need any.  I used a plain sheet of paper and affixed it to the package with Scotch tape.  One advantage for packages is that if a package is over 13 ounces, you can’t use stamps.  But printing the postage online is equivalent to taking it to the counter at the Post Office.

The philatelist in me likes using real stamps.  And it’s faster to just scribble the address and slap on a stamp.  But given the current emergency, OrangeMailer.co is an extremely convenient option.  Unlike their largest competitor, there is no monthly charge.  You just have to deposit a minimum of $10, enough for 18 First Class letters.  You pay the customary postage of 55 cents per letter.  They make their 5 cent profit due to the fact that your metered letter is actually going for only 50 cents.  That seems reasonable to me.

Other online sources

If you do need actual stamps, two other options appear to be faster than ordering directly from the USPS.  You’ll pay more than face value, but not a great deal more.  If you combine the purchase with another order, you can get free shipping.  You can buy postage stamps on Amazon for only a little over face value.  If you do a search for “postage stamps,” click the button for “free shipping by Amazon,” and you’ll see the ones that can be added to another order.  As long as the total order is at least $25, there will be no shipping charge.

Walmart also sells stamps online, only slightly above face value, with free two-day shipping with a $35 order.

 


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