The December 1942 issue of the British Practical Wireless carries this self-explanatory hint sent in to the magazine by one J.M. Firth of Beckenham. He noted that there was a great shortage of aluminum and sheet iron for making chasses for radios. Quite possibly to Mrs. Firth’s chagrin, he found a suitable replacement in the kitchen in the form of a tinplate baking tin. He noted that the pan would take solder easily.
There’s a reason why this young woman seems particularly cheerful about pulling in a station on her broadcast radio. It’s because she put the radio together herself from a kit.
The kit is described in the December 1947 issue of Popular Mechanics, and from the description, it sounds like an “All American Five” of the type manufactured by the millions. Curiously, though, the magazine doesn’t mention the source. If any of our readers can identify the brand of this kid, please let us know.
A hundred years ago, this young British woman was pulling in some signals from her garden at 1276 Leeds Road, Bradford. She is undoubtedly the daughter of one Mr. C.R. Land, who constructed the set and sent the picture to Practical Wireless, where it appeared in the November 1922 issue.
The issue also showed an interesting method of constructing a variable capacitor, as shown below. The magazine noted that they could be expensive and difficult to make, but this version was relatively easy to construct at home. It consisted of two sheets of zinc carefully rolled into tubes and soldered together. The dielectric consisted of waxed paper.
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Sixty years ago, the editors of Popular Mechanics did some testing of the latest toy offerings to see how they would hold up to rough use. The results appeared in the November 1962 issue.
One of the most intriguing toys they tested was the $40 Saranade doll from Westinghouse, shown above. But Saranade was much more than a doll. She was what one site called a “creepy Part 15 doll.” She came complete with her own record player (which played all speeds, 78 through 16 RPM). But it wasn’t just any record player. The player had a “DOLL – PHONO” switch. In the phono position, it played just like any other record player. But in the doll position, the speaker cut out, and the sound came out of a speaker strategically placed in the doll’s stomach.
The player had a one-tube amplifier inside, and when the switch was flipped, it became a transmitter on 180 kHz, in the Part 15 Lowfer band. In fact, it’s the only commercial product that I can think of that took advantage of this band. The doll contained a receiver, apparently transistorized, tuned to this signal. The doll contained neither tuning nor volume control. Fine tuning was accomplished with a control on the record player.
As with other toys reviewed, both the doll and record player survived drop tests, and were pronounced by the editors to be suitable for rough service at the hands of kids. Other items reviewed were the megaphone and perfume kit shown below, as well as the General Electric model EF 150 5 transistor shortwave receiver kit, which retailed for $29.95.
Happy Thanksgiving from OneTubeRadio.com!
A hundred years ago, Thanksgiving 1922 was to be a radio Thanksgiving, as shown in this ad in the Washington Times, Nov. 26, 1922. There were 35,000 radio receivers in Washington, and to celebrate the holiday, the Continental Electric Supply Co., 808 9th St., was sponsoring a concert on station WIL at 3:00 PM.
A hundred years ago, radio was definitely becoming a phenomenon, as evidenced by making the cover of Popular Science, November 1922.
The magazine contained ten commandments for the radio fan, authored by Jack Binns, described by the magazine as America’s most popular writer on radio. Many of the commandments are common sense, such as “learn how to use your tuner properly,” although most are outdated, such as “do not use a loop aerial with a crystal detector.”
The second commandment admonishes the reader not to make the ground connection with a gas pipe, but it’s not for the reason you might think. It turns out that gas pipes are insulated at certain points, so it just wouldn’t work very well.
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Seventy years ago this month, the November 1952 issue of Radio News introduced this transmitter for the novice. While the article contained the full details for constructing the set, it was really a kit, the Messner Model 2-CW. According to that company’s 1954 catalog, the kit retailed for $40, plus $5.50 for a plug-in coil for the desired band. Normally, the novice would start out on 80 meters, with the included coil, but as they upgraded, they could buy coils for 40, 20, 15, or 10 meters.
The transmitter used a single 6L6 tube, plus a rectifier, and was self-contained with a built-in power supply. Cathode keying was promised to keep chirp to a minimum.
Amazon might be starting drone delivery any day now, but as we can see here, it’s not a new idea. A hundred years ago this month, the cover of the November 1922 issue of Popular Wireless showed Major Raymond Phillips’ “famous” method for wireless controlled aerial mail. The issue included part of a series written by Major Phillips with some of the technical details of his system.
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Seventy-five years ago this month, the cover of Radio Craft magazine for November 1947 showed this Connecticut State Police officer studying traffic speeds courtesy of a radar, the Electro-Matic Speed Meter from Eastern Industries Ltd. of Norwalk, CT.
The complete unit consisted of three parts, the transmitter-receiver with built-in antenna, the indicator-amplifier, and a power supply. The radar used the doppler effect, since the reflection from an incoming object shortened the wavelength, and this could be measured and correlated with speed.
A number of the units were being tested, and the magazine noted that those tests would probably result in the adoption of radar speed control throughout the state.
According to the magazine, Connecticut speeders protesting that they were only doing forty would soon find themselves arguing with radar.
The complete apparatus weighed in at only 45 pounds, and could operate on either 120 volts AC or 6 volts DC. The radar signal on 2455 MHz was about 0.1 watt. The magazine noted that the radar required an FCC station license, but since it was so easy to operate, no operator’s license was required.
Fifty years ago this month, I got some sad news in the mail.
A couple of years earlier, as previously recounted here, I had been perusing the Publishers Clearing House mailing (which contained numerous personal notes written to me by my personal friend, company head honcho Robert H. Treller) and was intrigued by a magazine named Electronics Illustrated. I subscribed, and I think the magazine was one of the main things that spurred my interest in radio and all things electronic.
In fact, I even got my name in the magazine, as one of the finalists in the magazine’s 
“Win the World” contest, for submitting QSL card from shortwave and broadcast stations I had heard, as shown here in the March 1972 issue. I actually hadn’t submitted that many cards, and I was a little bit surprised that I had done as well as I had. And I was just a little bit proud to be a ten year old with my name in a national magazine. I figured the next year, I’d be able to easily win a valuable prize by employing a slightly better strategy.
But unfortunately, there would be no next year. Fifty years ago, the magazine delivered the sad news shown above, in the magazine’s November 1972 issue, which was to be the last. The magazine put the best spin on it as possible, and announced it as a “merger” with Mechanix Illustrated. But I knew better. I predicted that the “Electronics Illustrated” name would soon disappear completely, and it did. They had to placate us loyal subscribers by sending something, and they did it by continuing the subscription with Mechanix Illustrated. That was a good magazine, but it wasn’t the same.
The editor seemed to even concede this, in the full announcement buried deep in the last issue, in which he conceded that he would “miss the club-like atmosphere and special insider’s language.” He hit the nail on the head. I felt like I was a member of the club and had learned a new insider’s language, but now the club was to be disbanded. Bad news on the doorstep, indeed.