Category Archives: Radio history

5 August 1921: First Baseball Broadcast

Forbes Field exterior.jpg

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.



1960 NEAR Test, Charlotte, MI

1961AugPE1We’ve previously written about the NEAR system, which was a system envisioned to alert the American public to a nuclear attack. It relied upon a 240 Hz signal superimposed upon the power lines. This signal was picked up by an ingenious electromechanical receiver in the home, and sounded a loud buzzer in the event of an alert. We previously described how the receiver worked, and the August 1960 issue of Popular Electronics, from which the pictures above were taken, explains the equally simple method used to transmit the signal. In the schematic at right, at the utility substation, to send the alert, switch S1 is opened. The rectifier sends a flow of DC1961AugPE2 pulses through the transformer secondaries, generating a signal at the fourth harmonic of the power line frequency. This signal averaged about 2-3 volts, meaning it would not interfere with regular power transmission.

On that October day, the alarm originated at a radar station in the Arctic, from which it was relayed to NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs, CO. An officer there pushed the button to activate the NEAR system, resulting in the alarm being sounded almost immediately in Charlotte, MI.

That morning, seniors at the high school, the Charlotte Class of 1961, had inflated weather balloons and distributed them around town. When the devices buzzed in each home, homeowners were to release the balloon on a tether. Back at the courthouse, the students were in the tower of the courthouse counting balloons.

References



Taking the Radio on Vacation: 1921

1921AugSciInvFor 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.



Great Flood of 1951

1951Jul30LifeThis year marks the 70th anniversary of the Great Flood of 1951 along the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. With 17 deaths and almost a billion dollars in damage, the flood was the nations then-costliest natural disaster.

The photo above shows downtown North Topeka, Kansas, from the July 30, 1951, issue of Life magazine.

According to the November 1951 issue of QST, much of the Amateur Radio response to the flood focused around the U.S. Naval Reserve. Station K0NRZ at the Naval Reserve Training Center in Topeka maintained a continuous watch on local emergency frequency 29.5 MHz from July 11 to 15. On the 15th, a long-haul net was established on 7042 kHz and handled over 1000 messages through July 20.

One ham reportedly furnished handie-talkies (3885 kHz) which were used for communication between Army/Air Force trucks and Coast Guard boats engaged in sandbagging the levees.

The QST October issue also reported that the station K0NAB at the Naval Air Station in Olathe, KS, handled radio traffic for Western Union, whose lines were out.



1921 Radio Equipped Baby Carriage

1921JulSciInvOne hundred years ago this month, the July 1921 issue of Science and Invention proposed this idea of an early tracking device to prevent kidnappings. The photograph in the lower right hand corner served as the inspiration, as it showed a baby carriage equipped with a receiver to play lullabies sent by nearby amateur stations.

The magazine editors took the idea a step further and proposed a transmitter and tracking device, so that the kidnapper could quickly be brought to justice.



WLS 1941

1941Jul28BCEighty years ago, WLS in Chicago wanted to remind its advertisers of its importance to agriculture by running this ad in the July 28, 1941, issue of Broadcasting. The station knew that many farmers had a radio in the barn and listened to the station while they worked, so it asked them to write in and join the Radio in the Barn Club.

2000 farmers in 14 states responded, demonstrating that American farmers had come to depend on radio for its business value.



1941 Philco Radios

1941July27PghEighty years ago today, the July 27, 1941, issue of the Pittsburgh Press showed the Philco radio offerings for the upcoming model year.



KPAC, Port Arthur College, TX

1941JulyRadioCraftEighty years ago this month, the July 1941 issue of Radio Craft carried this ad for the radio operator’s course offered by Port Arthur College, Port Arthur, TX, known today  as Lamar State College-Port Arthur.  The college was the licensee of KPAC, which the ad notes was the only commercial station licensed by a college.  As such, the modern facility had advertising representative in major cities, and was a full-fledged member of NAB and BMI.  As such, it promised many contacts with industry, and it reported that it received more requests for graduates than it could possibly satisfy.

KPAC was a successful commercial operation, with a top 40 format in the 1950s, moving to a middle of the road format in the 60s.  It was sold to Clear Channel in 1981, and the company attempted to use it to enter the Houston market by upgrading the FM signal.  The station was sold, and it currently operates as KDEI, a Spanish-language Catholic station.



1961 FM Antenna

1961JulPE260 years ago this month, the July 1961 issue of Popular Electronics showed this self-explanatory idea for an FM antenna.  The set’s two-wire power cord is replaced with one with three conductors.  The third conductor is inductively coupled to the power line, and feeds the set’s RF stage through a capacitor.