Seventy-five years ago this month, the July 1960 issue of Electronics Illustrated reviewed the then-new Mohican shortwave receiver from Heathkit. The reviewer reported that the assembled the $100 receiver in about 40 hours, and the result was an astonishingly “hot” 10-transistor superheterodyne that covered 560 kHz to 30 MHz (with apologies, apparently, to the stations at the very bottom of the broadcast dial).

The general coverage receiver would serve the SWL well, and the set was also a good backup receiver for the ham, especially on the lower bands. The bandspread dial was calibrated for the amateur bands, making it particularly useful. The receiver ran on flashlight batteries, but an AC power supply was available for an additional $9.95.

The set weighed in at 17 pounds, making it “transportable” rather than “portable” according to the reviewer.

I’m not sure this is legal everywhere, so check your local fish and game laws before you give it a try. But apparently, it was legal in California in 1960, as shown by the experience of George Boling, W6NOD.  He rigged up this radio controlled boat to pull in the big fish.  The motor and rudder are initially locked, and the remote control, running two watts, allowed him to control the rudder.  The boat trolls, and when a fish bites, the tension slowly winds in the reel, and the motor speed increases slightly.  When the fish is hooked, he steered the boat to shore.

The picture and description appeared in the July 1960 issue of Electronics Illustrated.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the designation of CB channel 9 for emergency use only, July 24, 1970. This announcement appeared in the July 1970 issue of Popular Electronics.

This young woman and her faithful canine companion are pulling in a program from a distant station thanks to the very sensitive and selective three-tube superheterodyne receiver described in the July 1940 issue of Popular Science,

For added sensitivity, the detector is regenerative. Only one IF coil is used, meaning that the set can easily be aligned for peak performance. If a strong station is present in the area, then the article showed how to add a volume control in addition to the regeneration control shown in the circuit.

This listener was undoubtedly the first on her block to tune in a stereophonic broadcast, thanks to the two-tube AM-FM stereo receiver shown in the July 1960 issue of Electronics Illustrated.

That’s right,  With only two tubes, this radio pulls in AM-FM stereo broadcasts.  If you wondering how that’s even possible, read carefully.  It doesn’t receive FM stereo broadcasts.  In fact, the FCC didn’t even adopt a standard for FM stereo until 1961.  Just like I said, it receives AM-FM stereo broadcasts:  An AM station is transmitting the left channel, the right channel of the program is being transmitted on FM.  The set is actually two separate two-tube receivers.  It uses a dual triode 12AT7, one half as a regenerative AM detector, and the other half as a superregenerative FM detector.  The set contains two audio amplifiers, each using half of a 12AX7.  A DPDT switch on the stereo headphones allows the listener to select AM, FM, or AM-FM stereo.

The author concedes that the set is basically experimental, and not high fidelity.  But he added that the set gave remarkable qualities of depth and direction to the sound.  By tweaking the coils a bit, the FM side could also be used to listen to TV audio when stereo broadcasts weren’t on the air.  The magazine noted that stereo broadcasts would be listed in the newspaper, and were available in many cities.

In addition to being the first on her block to have a stereo receiver, this woman could very well have been one of the few on her block to have an FM receiver of any kind.  They were starting to show up by 1960, especially in higher-end console radios for the home.  AM-FM portables were available, but as this issue of the magazine also shows, they were very expensive.  This Zenith AM-FM portable, the Royal 2000, gives every indication of being a top performer.  But it also sold for the princely sum of $189.95.

A minimum wage worker earning a dollar an hour would have to work for more than a month to afford this radio, and still wouldn’t have enough money to buy the eight D cells.  Putting together your own AM-FM stereo doesn’t sound like that bad a deal.

We’ve previously written about (here and here) Elementary Electronics CB editor Kathi Martin, KGK3916. She got her big break fifty years ago this month, July 1970, when her column, Kathi’s CB Carousel, first appeared in the magazine.

We read her column every month, but we always wondered what a nice girl like Kathi was doing in a place like 11 meters.  In any event, we congratulate Kathi on this important anniversary and wish her all the best.

One of our readers made a strong circumstantial case that Kathi, along with her husband, is the author of this interesting looking book on how live a retirement lifestyle yet keep money rolling in with continuing education seminars.  It’s not a bad idea, as I also try to make a living with  such seminars (although mine tend to be in places like Iowa, and she seems to recommend more popular tourist destinations).

Sixty years ago this month, the July 1960 issue of Electronics World carried the plans for this CB converter. The magazine noted that inexpensive transceivers were available with superregenerative receivers, and that those worked well at first to get people on the air at a low price. But as the band became more and more popular, the lack of selectivity posed a problem, and a superheterodyne was becoming necessary.

This circuit used a single 6EZ8 triple triode, and would use a standard AM radio tuned to 1500 kHz as the IF stage. It circuit could also be tuned to cover any 400 KHz segment of the 10 meter band.

We’ve previously featured ads from Young McCombs department store in Rock Island, Illinois and its well-stocked radio department.  This ad appeared a hundred years ago today in the July 15, 1920, issue of the Rock Island Argus and Daily Union.

Sixty years ago this month, the July 1960 issue of Popular Mechanics showed this car radio from Motorola, which, according to the magazine, was the first mass-produced transitorized FM car radio. The set installed under the dash, and despite its compact size, it was completely self-contained, with its own speaker.

The radio was in response to the demands of discriminating motorists who enjoyed a more specialized programming, and the set was capable of reproducing the full range of FM audio.