As promised, here are the answers to yesterday’s quiz, from the July 1961 issue of Popular Electronics.

Today’s quiz comes from the July 1961 issue of Popular Electronics. It’s tougher than it appears at first glance. The answers will appear tomorrow.

Eighty years ago, these young men were mastering the Morse code, thanks to a battery-powered code practice oscillator shown in the July 1941 issue of Popular Mechanics.  The set used a single 1Q5GT tube and was powered by two inexpensive batteries.  A 1.5 volt dry cell lit up the filaments, and a 45 volt battery provided the B+ voltage.

The magazine noted that the country had an increased need for trained radio men for the national defense program. While a buzzer and dry cell would do the trick for code practice, the smooth high-pitched tone of a vacuum tube oscillator was much preferable.

While headphones could be used, an inexpensive permanent magnet speaker is shown, which would provide ample volume for group code practice.

A hundred years ago, the radio experimenter in the nation’s capital could get the parts he needed from Doubleday-Hill Electric Company, as evidenced by this ad in the Washington Evening Star, July 4, 1921. The company was located at 715 – 12th St. NW, Washington.

The shop and its staff as they appeared about that time can be seen at the photo below, from the Library of Congress.

The company was actually based in Pittsburgh, and was the licensee of KQV, formerly 8ZAE.  The April 1917 issue of QST carried this ad for their rotary spark gap:

Shown here, in the July 1946 issue of Radio Retailing magazine, are the postwar offerings in home radios from Delco division of General Motors.

When one thinks of Delco radios, one thinks first of the factory radios in GM cars. But as you can see here, Delco was also a name in home radios.  You can see more examples at the Radio Attic Archives.

The humble postcard can be an extremely cost-effective method of advertising (particularly if it has a real stamp on it). We saw previously how a dealer could print their own cards.  But 75 years ago, Cornell Dubilier capacitors would supply them, preprinted with the dealer’s name and address, at no charge.  The dealer’s only expense would be a penny postage.

As you can see Cornell Dubilier was a forward thinking company.  When most people still referred to their main product as “condensers,” they had already adopted the modern name “capacitor.”

This ad appeared in the July 1946 issue of Service magazine.

Popular Mechanics, Oct. 1951.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Novice class amateur radio license, which was authorized by the FCC effective July 1, 1951. Actually, there were no novices as of that date, since it was a Sunday. But the first exams took place at FCC offices on July 2, and the first licenses started arriving in the mail a few weeks after that.

The novice license, which I earned in 1974, was an entry-level license, initially valid for one year, to give new hams a taste of on-the-air operation. It required a code test at just five words per minute, and a written test consisting of twenty multiple-choice questions. The material for the test came from a 28 question study guide that appeared in the June 1951 issue of QST.  The questions weren’t very different from the ones I studied for in the 1970s, and in retrospect, they were pretty easy.

Novices were initially granted privileges on the 80, 11, and 2 meter ham bands.  They were allowed CW (Morse code) only, but with voice allowed on 2 meters.

Here is what you would have heard on the radio 80 years ago today, June 30, 1941. This listing is from that day’s edition of the Pittsburgh Press.

Seventy-five years ago, these workers are testing mica and paper capacitors from the assembly line of Sangamo Electric Company in Springfield, Illinois.  Each day, samples were taken from the day’s production and subjected to life testing.

The photo appeared on the cover of Radio News, June 1946.