Category Archives: Radio history

1922 Drone Delivery

Popular-Wireless-1922-11-S-OCR-1Amazon 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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1947 Police Radar

1947NovRadioCraftSeventy-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.



Electronics Illustrated: 1958-1972

Screenshot 2022-11-16 12.41.28 PMFifty 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 Screenshot 2022-11-16 1.01.22 PM“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.



Radios for Christmas: 1922

1922Nov15WashHeraldChristmas of 1922 was going to be a big one for radio, as evidenced by this ad in the Washington Herald a hundred years ago today, November 15, 1922. As shown here, Santa’s workshop was busy turning out radio sets, many of which would show up under the tree.

We previously profiled this dealer, White & Boyer, 812 13th St. NW, Washington.  In addition to running the retail dealership, they were the licensee of station WJH, thus ensuring their customers had something to tune in.



1962 Distance Learning

1962NovEI1962NovEI2They didn’t have Zoom classes 60 years ago, but when a polio outbreak struck Nunda, NY, in 1962, the high school tapped the ingenuity of local hams and CB’ers to come up with a method of distance learning.

Several students came down with the disease and were confined to their homes. Initially, they had to discontinue their studies, but the school bought a number of CB radios. Hy-Gain antennas were placed on the school roof, with coaxial cables running to classrooms. The school purchased Johnson transceivers, and volunteer students carried the radios from class to class and plugged the radio into the coax outlet in each room. The teacher was then able to transmit lectures to students at home.

Individual homes had smaller mobile-style whip antennas installed hooked up to transceivers there. When homebound students were called upon, it was a simple matter of pressing the push-to-talk button.

The pictures here appeared in the November 1962 issue of Electronics Illustrated, which pointed out that so far, seven students had received their schooling at home via CB. The teacher shown above was discussing the lesson with a student after class. The magazine confirmed that call letters were always given as required.



1942: Car Radios for Slow Driving

1942Nov7RadioGuideOn this date 80 years ago, the November 7, 1942, issue of Radio Guide carried this ad for Motorola car radios. Production of civilian radios had ceased on April 22, 1942, but Motorola dealers still had prewar sets in stock.

We previously featured ideas for bringing the car radio inside. With gas being strictly rationed, the radio would do more good inside. But Motorola took another view: Since you had to drive slowly to conserve gas and rubber, the radio would make the slow drive more enjoyable.

But those prewar stocks wouldn’t last forever, so you were reminded to get yours before they were gone, because there would be no more for the duration.



Air Raid Alarm: 1942

1942NovPMWe’ve previously shown (here and here) this air raid alarm that could be attached to a radio, the Model AR-101 Air Raid Alarm from National Union Radio Corp., 57 State Street, Newark, NJ. The simple device would activate a siren-like sound if the station to which it was tuned left the air, which would presumably be because an air raid was in progress.

Here, in this illustration from the November 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics, we see it in action. While Junior looks on, Mom gathers the flashlight and shovel that Dad will use in his duties as air raid warden.



1922: Radio Sweeps Nation

A hundred years ago, radio was sweeping the nation, and the Sunday Amarillo (Texas) Daily News for October 29, 1922, had to devote an entire pictorial page to the phenomenon. Bread trucks were getting equipped with radio, voices were heard across the Atlantic, and everything seemed to revolve around radio.



1922 Zenith Ad

1922Oct26RichmondIndThis Zenith ad ran a hundred years ago today in the October 26, 1922, issue of the Richmond (Ind.) Palladium and Sun-Telegram.  It asks the reader what they’re going to do that night, and speculates that they might play an uninteresting game of cards, sit in an uninteresting conversation, or spend the night in some time-killing chore or lukewarm hobby.

But real, diversified entertainment was at hand, in the form of radio! To find out more, all you had to do was call the Weisbrod’s music store, the town’s Zenith dealer, and set up an appointment to come into the store and see what their sets could pull in.

(Click on the ad to see a full size version.)



1952 Transatlantic Television Ideas

1952OctWirelessWorldSeventy years ago this month, the October 1952 issue of the British Wireless World carried this illustration showing possible methods of linking American and European television. The diagram had actually first appeared two months earlier in the August 1952 issue of Tele-Tech as part of an open letter to the President of the United States (which would have been Harry S Truman) imploring action on TV networking with Europe and South America.  According to the magazine, American homes would be able to view the great events of Europe, live, but “the underprivileged of Europe can be shown the wonderful richness of life in America.”

The diagram showed the potential methods, the first of which being an “airplane-relay between a dozen or more express planes continuously flying a regular route across the ocean,” presumably carrying 16-mm film.

The next idea was Stratovision, the use of a string of aircraft aloft, each relaying the signal to the next plane. As we previously showed, this system was tested, and even used to a certain extent, in the United States. But doing it over the Atlantic would require a set of aircraft carriers on which the planes could land, which would likely make the idea much less feasible.

The next idea was a string of VHF relay stations through Labrador, Baffin Island, Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, and the Shetland Islands. The longest link would be 290 miles, meaning that the idea might be feasible. If this idea sounds familiar, it’s because it’s similar to one we talked about earlier, one proposed by David Sarnoff in 1951, although his plan envisioned the link going the other way, over the Bering Strait. Other ideas included a submarine coaxial cable, or scatter transmission, essentially the use of brute force to propagate VHF signals over the horizon. It also mentioned “miscellaneous marginal proposals,” such as use of moon reflections, which of course depended on the moon being visible over both continents, which would happen for about five hours per day.

One of the first transatlantic broadcasts was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the following year. It was first seen on American television courtesy of 16-mm film flown by the RAF to Gander, Newfoundland, to the CBC, which was then picked up by American networks. The first live transatlantic broadcast didn’t take place until 1962, and it relied upon a method not anticipated by the 1952 article, namely, the use of the Telstar 1 satellite.  While Telstar was the first transatlantic use of satellite, it should be pointed out that it wasn’t the first television transmission by satellite. Those honors go to Echo 1, which successfully relayed signals via a passive reflector between the east and west coasts of the U.S.