One hundred years ago this month, the April 1923 issue of Popular Science carried the plans for this one-tube regenerative radio receiver, which was said to be able to pull in concerts from a hundred miles away. The total cost, including headphones, was under twenty dollars. And if the reader already had a crystal set, especially one with a variocoupler, the cost could be further reduced.

And the $20 figure was for store-bought parts. Someone good with tools could make some of the parts themselves, saving even more money. For example, the variocoupler could be home built, as could the condenser and even the tube socket.  The switches shown here are commercially made, but they could also be fabricated at home from brass screws.

Tuning was accomplished with taps on the coil, and regeneration was adjusted by rotating the small coil.

Sixty years ago this month, the April 1963 issue of Popular Mechanics showed how to put together this handsome transistor radio. And miraculously, the magazine proclaimed that you could make it in a half hour, at a cost of less than $25.

The secret was the fact that it included to pre-wired subchasses that you could buy from Lafayette. One of them was the AM tuner module, and the other one was the audio amplifier. It was an easy matter to install both of them in a cabinet (which could also be found in the Lafayette catalog), add a speaker, and wire them together.

The young man shown here is about 80 years old, but he’s shown here in 1953 working with his father on an electronic project using a 6-in-1 kit they constructed themselves, thanks to the plans in the April 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics.

With components mounted on a board, with Fahnestock clips for interconnection and adding additional parts, the kit started out as a simple crystal set, and was then modified to more and more complex receivers. It could also be turned into a code practice oscillator, thanks to the key mounted on the board. It was powered with an isolation transformer, and the article warned to insulate the primary side, and avoid touching any of the connections when the kit was plugged in.

For modern kids wanting the same experience of being able to build multiple electronic circuits, we recommend the kits shown below.

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The plans for this handsome instrument were found in the March 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics.  The version shown here contained four tubes, the detector, and three stages of audio amplification to drive the speaker.  Also shown were scaled-down models with one or two stages of audio, for use with headphones.

The set tuned 150-400 meters (750 kHz – 2 MHz) and was said to be a well performing receiver for a reasonable cost.

If you were visiting New York 70 years ago, you wouldn’t want to be stuck in a room without a radio. So the Hotel Chesterfield, 130 W. 49th St.,  all rooms with a radio, sounds like a good choice.  A single room was $3 a night, with a double going for $4.  Adjusted for inflation, that works out to $33.80 and $45.07.  I bet you can’t find a room in Manhattan for that price today.

The ad appeared in the Washington Evening Star seventy years ago today, March 24, 1953.  You can read more about the hotel at this link.

Solar eclipse litigation.

The “UHF” receiver shown here appeared in the March 1943 issue of Radio Craft magazine. It was sent in to the magazine by Stanley Dowgiala, who reported that the set was designed primarily to pull in police calls in the New York area. He reported that he received calls from Newark Jersey City, New York, Bayonne, and Union City. He also received many FM stations. He notes that the coil consisted of 8 turns for the 42-49 MHz FM stations, and 12 turns for the police calls, meaning that they were probably around 30 MHz.

He also pulled in TV signals, especially WNBT, but didn’t have accurate coil data. The unusual tuner included a variometer coil salvaged from an ancient Zenith. He reported that it worked better than a small variable capacitor.

This nicely equipped ham station appeared on the cover of Radio News 75 years ago this month. It’s compact because part of it, the 400 watt BC-610E transmitter is hidden away in another room and is being operated remotely.  It’s being driven by the Hallicrafters HT-18 exciter shown on the top shelf, which by itself put out only about 4 watts.

The receiver, which this unnamed ham is tuning, is the Hallicrafters SX-43.  Rounding out the station is a panadaptor and wire recorder.

The woman at left might look like she’s been hypnotized, but she’s actually just listening to a particularly interesting radio program, thanks to the whole-house headphone system described in the March 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics. Twisted lamp cord is carefully run through the walls, to open-circuit headphone jacks in whatever room they are desired. In the living room, the wiring is connected to the radio, and the magazine provides details on how to tap in.