Seventy-five years ago this month, the August 1946 issue of Radio Craft carried this simple circuit for a one-tube receiver. The circuit had been sent in to the magazine by one Robert Sherrington of High Prairie, Alberta, who noted that the circuit was very selective and would pull in locals with good volume on a loudspeaker. It employed a 117L7GT, half of which served as a rectifier, with the other half serving as a regenerative detector.

The designer of the circuit was almost certainly the same Robert Sherrington, who was 16 at the time he sent the circuit into the magazine. According to his 2015 obituary, he attended the Radio College of Canada in Toronto in 1949, and then owned a radio repair shop in High Prairie. He later moved to British Columbia, where was licensed as VE7DLX.

The magazine’s editor noted that the circuit, while unusual for the time, was not new, having been used in earlier receivers, including the Reinartz.

Sixty years ago this month, the August 1961 issue of Popular Electronics included this ad for an unusual combination from Hammarlund–the model HQ-105-TR.

The set was basically an HQ-100 receiver with one added feature: It included one additional tube for the CB transmitter. One CB crystal was included, and the receiver’s audio amplifier was used as the modulator.

The receiver covered the broadcast band up to 30 MHz, and had a bandspread calibrated for the ham bands. The ad noted that when the owner got the general class ham license, the transmitter could be easily retuned to the 10 meter band. In the meantime, the receiver could be used to copy W1AW code practice toward getting that license.

You can view the receiver in action in this video:

Interestingly, the mike connection is in the back, and there is no indication on the front panel that the unit also contains a transmitter.

Seventy years ago this month, the August 1951 issue of Radio Television Retailing reminded dealers that there was money to be made by selling clock radios, an item that readily sold to people in all income brackets.

The clock radio “looks just like any other table model set” to the customer, so some salesmanship was required. The salesman needed to be thoroughly familiar with the product, and emphasize the low price for something that could serve as a fine radio, an alarm clock, a timekeeper, and in many cases, an automatic outlet.

The magazine suggested that direct mail might be a profitable way to sell. Select customers could be sent a mailing offering a set on approval, and once in the home, the customer was very likely to keep the set.

This ad appeared in the Pittsburgh Press 85 years ago today, August 7, 1936, and it raises some interesting questions. It’s for the store of one S.H. DeRoy, 408 Smithfield Street, Pittsburgh.
It implores customers not to be confused by stores of a similar name, and points out that there is but one location for the S.H. DeRoy store. There was a picture of S.H. DeRoy in the window, and you were supposed to look for that before going in.

It appears that other relatives of S.H. DeRoy might have been operating their own competing stores, hence the warnings. This case from the U.S. Tax Court reveals that S.H. had been in partnership with his brother and father running a jewelry business, but the partnership went bankrupt in 1930. Another brother acquired the assets, formed a new corporation, and attempted to continue the business. But by 1937, it too had become insolvent. While it’s hard to tell for sure, it’s likely that other family members were in competition, hence the warnings.

According to the court decision, the company was primarily in the retail jewelry business, and it appears that much of their business was frames for eyeglasses.  In 1936, S.H. apparently branched out into radio, with the model shown here.  The court opinion notes that the jewelry was sold on credit, and the radio was as well, since you could take it home for only 25 cents per week, or buy it for $9.95 cash.

Despite the insistence on not being misled by similar names, it’s interesting to see the brand name of the radio being sold. This set, described only as receiving both longwave and shortwave, bears the brand name of Deroyla. That makes perfect sense, since it’s being sold by DeRoy. But it’s also suspiciously similar to Detrola, which was a major brand name at the time. The only other Deroyla radio I’ve been able to find is this ebay listing, which is for a model with a similar description by somewhat different front panel layout.

New Britain Herald, Aug. 6, 1921.

Forbes Field. Wikipedia image.

One hundred years ago today, August 5, 1921, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5 at Pittsburgh, as duly recorded by the next morning’s newspapers. While nothing remarkable happened during the game, it was a landmark event, since it was the first time that a baseball game was broadcast by radio.

Harold Arlin provided the play by play over KDKA, which had just received its commercial license. He sat in a converted box seat at Forbes Field and spoke into a microphone that he described as looking like a tomato can lined with felt.

Hams:  To commemorate the event, KD3KA will be operating a special event station on August 7 and offering a commemorative QSL card.  Details are available at the ARRL website.

For the amateur radio enthusiast a hundred years ago, summer vacation didn’t mean a vacation from radio, and the August 1921 issue of Science and Invention contained some pointers on bringing the station along. Even if the method of getting there was canoe or motorcycle, the station shown here would prove very suitable. The transmitter-receiver combo is built into a compact case, with extra storage room for extra tubes, pencil, log, and whatever else was needed.

The kite antenna proved most suitable, and for much ordinary work, just a wire tossed over a tree would prove adequate.

A century later, the same general concepts apply, but the equipment looks a little different.  For some ideas, see some of our earlier posts about outdoor operating.