It’s not uncommon for hams to be asked questions along the lines of, “how far can you talk with that?” For the last century, the answer to that question has been, more or less any spot on Earth.

Shown here is the December 1924 issue of QST announcing that hams had made contact between the antipodes–two points directly opposite each other on Earth. In this case, it was between Britain and New Zealand.  The magazine noted that the record might be stretched by a few hundred miles, since the two points were not directly opposite.  In fact, it wondered whether some well-equipped ham might not operate from a ship in the Indian Ocean, and work North America from the most distant point possible.

The contacts discussed here took place on 150 meters, or about 2 MHz.  As hams would soon learn, if they kept increasing the frequency, the contacts would get easier and easier.  At 14 MHz and above, even a modest station can boast the same results routinely.  In fact, there’s a slight advantage working another station at the antipode.  Since it doesn’t matter which direction you go to get there, you can take advantage of propagation in all directions.

Here’s what was on the radio 80 years ago today, according to the radio listings in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Thursday, December 28, 1944.

On Mutual, you could listen to The Shadow at 7:30 PM, or Sammy Kaye at 8:30. At 10:00 PM, NBC offered Abbott & Costello at 10:00 PM, followed by Rudy Vallee. The CBS lineup included The March of Time at 10:30 PM.

For another snapshot of life on the home front in 1944, see our earlier post about grocery prices that year.

One hundred years ago, the December 1924 issue of Popular Science showed how to build this two-tube loudspeaker set. The set took advantage of reflexing, since the first tube served as both RF and AF amplifier, with the second one serving as regenerative detector.

Seventy years ago, this British gentleman was putting the finishing touches on his valve tester or, as we would say on this side of the Pond, tube tester. The plans were found in the December 1954 issue of Practical Wireless. The circuit would perform the usual tests on tubes, and it also had the option of hooking it up to your oscilloscope to check the exact operating condition.

We’ve previously covered kerosene-powered radios, but the December 1939 issue of National Radio News covers a similar concept. Apparently, there were radios that were powered a home’s natural gas supply. This item is lacking in details, but it appears there were at least two such sets. One was somewhere in Britain, and the other one was displayed at the New York World’s Fair.

Like the kerosene sets, electricity came from a thermocouple.  The British version ran the filaments directly off the thermocouple, and the voltage was stepped up to provide the B+.