Sixty years ago this month, the February 1957 issue of Radio Electronics featured this electronic kit for beginners, the Erec-Tronic. The magazine noted that similar outfits had been around for a long time, but they usually amounted to a wooden breadboard with a few rows of Fahnestock clips. But the Erec-Tronic was the ultimate in educational kits, thanks to the Jiffy-Clip, which could be used horizontally as an alligator clip, as shown on this illustration. But it could also be slid over the pins banana-plug style for quick assembly and disassembly.

The set was touted as a natural for the boy who was just taking an interest in things electronic. It quickly de-mystified schematic diagrams, since the parts could simply be placed right on top of the schematic template to form circuits, such as the code practice oscillator shown here.

The Jiffy connector also removed the necessity for the “mess, dirt, or danger” of solder for the young electronic experimenter. The set shown here sold for about $17, and a transistor version was also available for $13. But these sets were not limited to beginners. Big kits for industry or education were also available with over 300 resistors, 100 capacitors, and scores of sockets and potentiometers, with large basis for assembling advanced circuits. These sold for up to $395.

Eighty years ago this month, the February 1937 issue of Popular Mechanics carried the plans for this “hurricane receiver.”

Even though it required only about $5 worth of parts to build, the ultracompact set would serve as a rugged portable set which could pull in news during emergencies such as hurricanes. The set, both B+ and filaments, required only 6 volts, and could be run off dry cells for about 12 hours, or from a 6 volt car battery for about 75 hours.

The circuit was a regenerative detector followed by one stage of audio amplification to drive headphones. A 25 foot antenna was recommended, and the set was able to pull in stations up to 500 miles away.

If this set looks familiar, it’s because we’ve featured it here before.  After the plans were published in Popular Mechanics, the set was available as a kit from the  1939 Allied Radio catalog, as we featured in an earlier post.  We’ve also covered an updated 1943 version of the set, which was billed as a wartime emergency blackout set.

Seventy years ago this month, the February 1947 issue of Radio News carried the plans for this handie talkie for two meters.

The author was C.T. Haist, Jr., W6TWL, and this was the his third version of the set, with earlier ones appearing in the June 1944 and April 1946 issues of QST. Those earlier versions had one bug that still needed to be worked out: Since they used the same oscillator tube for both the transmitter and receiver, the result was that the transmit and receive frequencies were slightly offset. This didn’t pose a problem when working a fixed station, since the other station would probably be using a separate transmitter and receiver. But when two portable sets were used, the result was that each station would need to retune after each transmission, resulting in the two stations chasing one another around the band.

This set solved the problem by using separate tubes for transmit and receive, with a third tube used in common in both circuits. Transmit-Receive switching was accomplished with a three pole double throw switch.

The compact set had room for a 67-1/2 volt B battery and 2 flashlight batteries running the filaments. The built-in antenna was a repurposed telescoping automobile antenna. The set drew about 15 mA on transmit, meaning that the total input power was about one watt. At 8-10 miles line of sight, the set gave good signal reports. With batteries, it weighed in at about three pounds, and measured 2-1/4 x 2-3/4 x 9-1/4″

Fifty years ago this month, Popular Electronics for February 1967 carried this product announcement for the Heathkit Single-Bander transceivers, the HW-12A, HW-22A, and HW-32A, transceivers for the ‘phone portions of the 80, 40, and 20 meter bands.

Priced in kit form at only $104.95, the radios were well received and proved popular for mobile use, along with the accompanying mobile power supply. An earlier version of the sets (without the “A” suffix) had come out three years earlier, and these 1967 models offered more features at a lower price.

A full review for the 20 meter version appeared in the May 1967 issue of 73 Magazine, which can be viewed at this link.

Sixty years ago this month, the February 1957 issue of Popular Electronics
reported a first in transistor communication, with the first transatlantic amateur contact by W1OGU over a distance of 3800 miles. His transmitter is shown here. It used two Raytheon 2N113/CK761 fusion-alloy transistors.

Sixty years ago, the 1957 edition of Radio TV Experimenter showed how to make this combination lamp crystal set. It was billed as being useful not only as a lamp, but to provide Junior with a radio of his own. In an emergency, whether it was the big set being in the shop, or a power outage, it would be a source of information. And the headphones made it possible to listen late at night without disturbing others.

The crystal set circuit is unremarkable. The notable feature is the use of the electrical wiring for the antenna. The arrangment was safe, since the insulated lamp cord was simply wound a few turns around the main tuning coil, with no direct connection.