Fifty years ago, the advanced British electronics hobbyist might have put together this portable 8-transistor receiver shown on the cover of the April 1974 issue of Practical Wireless.

The set was very versatile, tuning five bands:  160-350 and 580-1500 kHz for longwave and mediumwave broadcasts, 1.75-4 MHz for marine communications, as well as the 160 and 80 meter ham bands, and 5.9-11 and 13-27 MHz for shortwave broadcasts.

The finished superheterodyne set measured 5 x 7 x 1 inches, and was said to have wide general utility.  The set was constructed on three circuit boards.

A hundred years ago, a young man in Montana (it apparently never occurred to them that girls might be interested) who had completed the eighth grade, who would be interested in radio, could enroll in this course at the Billings Polytechnic Institute.

The course could stand alone, or be combined with a high school or college course.  The student would construct their own radio, and the course was to be unlike anything offered in the West.

The Billings Polytechnic Institute merged with another school and is now Rocky Mountain College.  This ad appeared a hundred years ago today in the Wolf Point (MT) Herald, April 24, 1924.

It’s a sure sign of spring when the birds start looking for parts from antennas that came down over the winter. This image is from the cover of Radio Retailing 85 years ago this month, April 1939.

Shown here, eighty years ago, is the well-appointed service bench of radio serviceman A. Tomalino of Glendive Montana. He was featured on the cover of the April 1944 issue of National Radio News, which noted that he unquestionably had one of the finest radio businesses in the west.

A 1956 issue of the same magazine shows the shop’s address as 303-1/2 N. Merrill, Glendive. According to his wife’s 2007 obituary, Tomalino died in 1993, almost a half century after this photo was taken.

A hundred years ago, these students at Junior High School 61, Bronx, NY, were on the cutting edge of technology as they tuned into a program. The five-tube set was bought, installed, and operated by the students. The photo appeared in the April 1924 issue of Radio News.

Eighty-five years ago, both daughter and Fido were helping Dad install a lightning arrestor for the family radio antenna. Dad noticed that the spark plug from a Model T Ford could screw directly into a 3/4 inch water pipe fitting. So he added a tee to an outdoor tap, screwed the spark plug into the other end, and attached the antenna.

The magazine noted that the same thing could be done with a section of pipe driven into the ground.

This item appeared in the April 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Eighty-five years ago this month, the March 1939 issue of Radio Retailing asked the question of whether radios of that era were good enough. The accompanying article has an interesting discussion of the state of the art of sets of that era. But the short answer to the question was yes, yes they were.

Seventy-five years ago this month, the March 1949 issue of Radio News included pointers for those interested in getting started in Amateur Radio. In just a few years, it became easier to get started, with the introduction of the Novice license, which required code at only 5 words per minute. But in 1949, to get on the air, you needed to pass the test at 13 WPM. But the magazine gave pointers on how to do it, and reminded readers that hundreds of thousands of hams had managed to do it.