In 1946, the war was over, and it was time to start designing the dream house.  A dream house wouldn’t be complete without a built-in radio.  And if you’re going to build a radio into your house, it may as well be a shortwave radio!

Shown here in the April 1946 issue of Popular Mechanics is just that.  It is the Ansley Paneltone receiver.  With one of these babies, you would have a 17 tube radio behind the wall. In addition to the standard broadcast band,it would cover both FM and shortwave, with pushbutton tuning. There was also provision for a phonograph connection. The 12 inch speaker would put out 15 watts of room filling audio.

I haven’t been able to find any evidence that this set ever made it into production. I have found references to the smaller 7 tube set shown in the same article, which covered just the standard broadcast band. It too featured pushbutton tuning, and its six inch speaker put out five watts.  You can find more information about that set, which also carried the Ansley Paneltone name, at RadioMuseum.org.

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This ad appeared 75 years ago today in Radio Guide magazine, April 26, 1941.  I suspect a lot of boys drooled over the prospect of having a radio on their bike.  For details on how to “win” one “free,” they were to write to the Boy Sales Manager of the magazine.  Undoubtedly, they would be told how many subscriptions they would need to sell to win the radio.  I suspect they would have to sell quite a few.  The magazine had a single issue price of ten cents, and an annual subscription was $4.  The radio itself appears to be the Motorola model B-150, with a retail price of $19.95.

The radio was probably a fairly good performer, being a three-tube superhet. Its tube lineup consisted of a 1A7GT, 3A8GT, and 1Q5GT, and had a 4 inch speaker. More information is available at RadioMuseum.org.

The set was powered by a combination A-B battery from Ray-O-Vac, which mounted on the frame of the bicycle. It also featured a whip antenna.  One novel feature of the set is that it had permeability tuning, meaning that the tuning knob adjusted the slug of an inductor, rather than moving a variable capacitor.

You can see a surviving example of the set at OldBike.eu.  Update:  Greg Farmer sent a link to a nice example of the radio at this link.  The radio, along with a bike of the same vintage, was on display at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis Park, MN.

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Fifty years ago, the FCC was considering a new radio service which never came to fruition. This was the Highway Emergency Locating Plan Radio Service (HELP), which was petitioned for by the Automobile Manufacturers Association, Inc. Described in the June 1965 issue of Popular Electronics, the plan called for two channels within the existing CB band, 27.235 and 27.245. For those familiar with 23 channel CB radios of the day, these were the mysterious channels 22A and 22B, which were included on the dial, but disabled.

HELP would be a new radio service, but would allow existing Class D CB operators to operate on thos channels for motorist assistance. The idea was the vehicles would be equipped with radios for these channels, for use in summoning help in an emergency. Land stations would be allowed 30 watts, with mobiles using 5 watts.

A March 1966 FCC order looked favorably on the proposal, and FCC staff was tasked with researching it further. However, it never came to fruition.

Manufacturers were apparently eager to get on board with the HELP service. As mentioned above, most 23 channel CB radios included channels 22A and 22B. In the 1965 ad shown above, Heath advertises this 25 channel CB transceiver, including the 2 HELP channels. An asterisk next to the description of those channels points out that the FCC petition is still pending.

And shown here in the April 1966 issue of Radio TV Experimenter is a 200 milliwatt handheld, the Mark 1 HELP Transciver from the Avcomm Division of what the magazine calls “a company with the unlikely name of Ajax Floor Products Corp.”  The crystal controlled radio would operate on any frequency between 25-50 MHz.  The company promised coverage of up to a mile in tall buildings or heavy traffic areas, up to five miles line of sight, and 7 miles in open country or over water.  The receiver was a superhet, and the magazine opined that it looked “like a good bet to toss in the glove compartment if you want the reassurance of having a rig along with you on a trip without having to make a permanent installation.”

An interesting discussion of the HELP proposal can be found at RadioReference.com.

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Seventy-five years ago, this month’s issue of Popular Mechanics,
April 1941, carried the plans for this simple one-tube receiver, which covered the broadcast band, as well as the 160 and 80 meter bands.

Using a 1S4 Tube, the set required a B battery of only 6 volts, meaning that it could be run with four flashlight batteries in series. Another two flashlight batteries in parallel powered the filaments, and the total cost of batteries was only 30 cents.

Also presented was an audio amplifier on a separate chassis, also using a 1S4, which would drive a three inch speaker. Or, as the user in this drawing is shown, the set could be run by itself with headphones. Volume and regeneration were controlled by an adjustable tickler coil, keep the parts count of the set low.

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Seventy-five years ago this month, the April 1941 issue of QST carried the plans for this simple one-tube CW transmitter for 80 and 40 meters.

The set was billed as a compact portable transmitter for field or emergency use, but could also function as the control stage of the home station until being put into place for field duty. According to the article, the total cost, including tube and cabinet, was less than $12.

The set required 6 volts for the filament, and 250 volts DC for the B+. This could be derived from batteries, and the article pointed out that this would be good for several hundred hours of intermittent operation. But it was really designed to run from the vibrator power supply of the car radio. The article advised builders to consult with the manufacturer of the car radio to get the wiring diagram, since those could vary considerably. But the car radio’s power supply would be expected to have a typical output of 200-250 volts at 50 mA. A single pole double throw switch could be added to the car radio to switch the power from the transmitter to the receiver.

The top of the set had three insulators. Two had connections that would be used with a doublet, and the third was to be used with a single wire antenna. The article noted that the transmitter could tune virtually any antenna.

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Ninety years ago, the April 1926 issue of Radio In The Home magazine carried the plans for the “200 Mile” crystal set shown below.  The author describes the set in the following terms:

Many readers will be surprised to learn that a simple crystal set has given a fairly consistent nightly range of more than 200 miles. Yet this is not unusual; it is just the average performance of a well designed crystal set and has been done repeatedly this and the latter part of last winter.

From our location in Niagara Falls, New York, with an aerial and location no better than the usual, we have regularly listened to Pittsburgh, 200 miles, to Schenectady, 250 miles and to Chicago, 450 miles.

This record may seem out of the ordinary and indeed we ourselves were surprised at first. But the manner in which the first set and others of the same type, used on our own and other people’s aerials operate, has convinced us that the feat may be duplicated almost at will.

It then goes on to describe the set, emphasizing how low-loss components are used throughout.  Any detector could be used, but for best results, “it should also bear a certain relation (rather difficult of exact specification) to the input impedance. These conditions can best be met through use of the electrically controlled carborundum permanent detector (Carborundum Stabilizing Detector Unit).”

The Carborundum Stabilizing Detector Unit was manufactured by the country’s only producer of carborundum (silicon carbide), the Carborundum Company, which just happened to be also located in Niagara Falls, New York.

The carborundum detector does have the advantage of being permanently fixed, with no cat’s whisker to fiddle with.  It requires a reverse bias, provided by a flashlight battery.  The Carborundum Stabilizing Detector Unit included a potentiometer for adjusting the bias voltage.  So the listener accustomed to fiddling with the cat’s whisker could instead fiddle with the potentiometer.

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Here’s what the well equipped audiophile would have in his living room 75 years ago. The receiver is unmistakably made by National, and it’s shown in the April 1941 issue of FM magazine.

The ad’s caption conceded that the set was designed primarily as a communication receiver, but that it gave superb FM rception.  It had dual high fidelity output circuits, an excellent signal to noise ratio, and extreme sensitivity.  The ad doesn’t say so, but it would look nice in any living room.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to identify the model number, or even whether this receiver actually made its way into production.  According to the ad, the set was described in the December 1940 issue of the magazine, but that issue isn’t available online.

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Eighty years ago, the well equipped radio service shop could very well have been equipped with a Wobbulator. Shown here, in the April 1936 issue of Service magazine is the Model 180 Wobbulator, manufactured by the Triumph Manufacturing Company of 4017 W. Lake Street, Chicago.  The unusual name is for a signal generator covering 100 kHz to 30 MHz.

The Wobbulator should not be confused with a Gonculator, a device used only on submarines.

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Taking the code test in 1926.

The April 1926 issue of Popular Radio contains an interesting article detailing the requirements to get an amateur radio license 90 years ago. Written by prolific author Howard S. Pyle, 7HP, W7ASL, and W7OE, the article notes that examinations were given at the various radio inspection offices on a regular schedule. In Detroit, for example, Amateur exams were given on Saturdays starting at 10:00 AM, “and it is wise to appear promptly at this time, for the examining officer dislikes to be compelled to run the code test again for late comers.” It also explains that for those living in outlying areas, a temporary permit could be issued based upon a questionnaire and sworn affidavit of code ability, to be followed up by a personal examination at a later date.

The code test was originally set at “an arbitrary speed of five words a minute, … but experience proved it to be too slow.” Therefore, the speed as of 1926 was 10 words per minute, meaning 50 characters per minute. “An applicant is really offered five opportunities to demonstrate his ability,” since a single minute of solid copy was all that was required. “It is assumed, however, that he will put down a reasonable portion of the balance, in addition to the required number.”

Until a few years earlier, no sending test had been required. But “large numbers of operators, notably at sea, were later found, on observation, to have extremely poor ‘fists’ as their sending hand and style is termed in radio phraseology,” including the “Lake Erie Swing.” Therefore, a sending test was also required.

The code test out of the way, the applicant was then tested on his knowledge of radio theory. This test was based not upon a transmitter “you’ve seen on a steamer or in a broadcast station, but the one that is actually on your own operating table.”

Therefore, the first part of the test was to prepare a complete diagram of the transmitter, receiver, and source of power. “This must be complete in every sense of the word.” Then, the applicant was to explain to the inspector how it worked.

This does not mean that you are to say, “I throw my antenna switch to the transmitting position; cut in my power and work my key.” What is wanted is something like this:

“Using the alternating current of the house lighting circuits, through the medium of a setp-down transformer, the filament of the vacuum-tube oscillator is brought to incandescence, thus emitting an electron stream, which is caused to flow to the plate by reason…”

The remainder of the exam consisted of showing similar familiarity with the radio laws, operating procedures, Q signals, and other items deemed important by the examiner.

Pyle concludes:

Let the aspiring applicants to the “blue ticket” of the full-fledged amateur be encouraged and may the great fraternity remain foremost among the country’s youthful experimenters!

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