Category Archives: Scouting

Philco Model 41-841

20150814_102532

Many Point Scout Camp is owned and operated by the Northern Star Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and has been in operation since 1947. Local scouts and scouters don’t always realize what a gem it is, and those in other parts of the country are often unable to comprehend its sheer size. It covers 2400 acres and nine miles of shoreline on two lakes, Many Point and Round Lake. At 15 miles per hour, it’s about a 30 minute drive from one end of the camp to the other, and it’s another 30 minute drive to the nearest full-service gas station or supermarket. Therefore, it provides a real wilderness experience to thousands of scouts.

Because of its size, it lies on land that has seen its share of history, and since 1996, it has included a very nice History Center to showcase some of that history. In addition to the scouting that’s taken place there since 1947, the museum contains displays regarding the earlier users of the land. Therefore, it has displays about the Native Americans, the fur traders, the loggers, and the sportsmen. In the first half of the 20th century, several resorts were located on the land where Many Point is now located, and one of these is recreated in the museum.   (A complete guide to the History Center is available online.)

20150814_102540What caught my eye, of course, was the Philco portable radio shown here. The set, it turns out, is a Philco model 41-841, which would have been manufactured shortly before the War in 1941. So as far as the age of the set, it’s consistent with the display.

It is a battery-operated portable, which ran off a 3 volt A battery for the filaments, and a 90 volt B battery. It was also capable of running off household current, using a 117Z6G rectifier for the B+. When run on household current, the filament voltage was provided by simply dropping the rectified power supply through two resistors. The set’s schematic can be found at this link, and you can read more discussion at this link and this link.

In addition to the rectifier, the set has four tubes, a 1A7G, 1N5G, 1H5G or 1LD5, and 3Q5G. It’s a fairly typical superheterodyne, and has provisions for external antenna and ground. At night, the fishermen sitting around the table would be able to hear scores of stations from the Twin Cities, Chicago, and around the country. One of the strongest stations at night probably would have been WDGY, whose nine-tower array cast a formidable signal to the north.

During the daylight hours, the set would probably get a fairly good signal from WDAY in Fargo, North Dakota.  In addition, it might possibly have pulled in 50,000 watt WCCO or then 25,000 watt KSTP in the Twin Cities during the daylight hours.



Armenian Genocide Memorial Eagle Projects

Memorial at St. Vartan Armenian Church, Oakland, Cal. Photo courtesty of St. Vartan Armenian Church http://stvartanoakland.org/PhotoAlbum/Genocide%20Project%202014/index.html

Memorial at St. Vartan Armenian Church, Oakland, Cal. Photo courtesty of St. Vartan Armenian Church.

As those who are involved in Scouting, and many others, know, one of the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout is for the Scout to plan, develop, and lead a significant service project to benefit a religious institution, school, or community. Often, Life Scouts are looking for ideas of what might be a suitable project, and they can take inspiration from the projects of two recent Eagle Scouts, Noubar Armen Mannogian of Troop 869, Scottsdale, Arizona, of the BSA Grand Canyon Council, and Alex Collelo of Troop 805, Danville, California, of the BSA Mt. Diablo Silverado Council.

An item in the Winter 2015 issue of Eagles’ Call magazine, the publication of the National Eagle Scout Association, caught my eye recently. It described the Mr. Manoogian’s Eagle project. He is a second-generation Armenian-American and member of St. Apgar Armenian Apostolic Church in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Largely forgotten by most Americans, a century ago, the people of Armenia were in the midst of immense persecution, the end result of which was the wholesale genocide of the Armenian people. In the midst of World War 1, in 1915, as many as 1.5 million Armenians would die at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. It was the first genocide of the twentieth century, and it set the stage for all of the rest.  And to the extent that it is remembered, what is often overlooked is the fact that it was a case of Christian martyrdom. As I wrote previously, most of the victims died because they clung to their Christian faith despite persecution.

The survivors became the Armenian Diaspora, eventually finding their way to North America, the Soviet Union, South America, and Australia.  Among the descendants of those survivors was Mr. Manoogian, and his Eagle project was in remembrance of the genocide. At his church, he led the construction of a memorial to the genocide, one of only a handful in the United States. It contains the names of 113 towns where the victims, ancestors of the church’s members, lived.

Mr. Colello’s Eagle project was to create a similar memorial as well as new landscaping at his church, St. Vartan Armenian Church in Oakland, California. It also included the names of 48 ancestral hometowns, a plaque, and marble benches.

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1951 Boys’ Life One Tube Receiver

1951BLrcvrThe one-tube shortwave receiver shown here appeared in Boys’ Life magazine in October, 1951. It’s a very simple regenerative circuit using a single 3A4 tube. According to the accompanying article (which carried no byline), the circuit was designed by the ARRL. The filaments were powered by the two dry cells in series, with a 22.5 volt battery supplying the B+. The Boys’ Life editors priced the components at $17.05 in New York, and noted that most Scouts could beat that price both by shopping around and by asking a friendly local ham for components from the junk box.
1951BLrcvrSchematicThe article is a bit sketchy on details; in fact, it doesn’t mention the tuning range. But from the size of the coil and capacitor, I’m guessing that its coverage is in the vicinity of 40 meters. The Novice class license had just been created by the FCC, and the article notes that the little receiver would be good for code practice for earning that license:

For your money and time you will have a working receiver capable of picking up amateur signals, ships at sea, aircraft, and the code-practice broadcasts of the American Radio Relay League. The League broadcasts at 9:30 P.M., Monday through Friday, at Eastern Standard Time. If you’re after the Novice Class ticket, you’ll find the ARRL broadcasts tops for real practice.

The same receiver appeared in the Radio Merit Badge pamphlet, a copy of which has been scanned and placed online by AL7FS.  It appears that the receiver appeared in the merit badge book until 1962. From the text, it appears that a requirement at that time was to construct a receiver and use it to log five stations, and this one would certainly be up to the task.

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More CONELRAD Crystal Sets

1956 Boys' Life Conelrad Receiver.

1956 Boys’ Life Conelrad Receiver.

We’ve had a number of posts about the use of crystal sets for reception of CONELRAD signals.   For example, a 1956 Boys’ Life article contained instructions for building a one-transistor set for use in receiving CONELRAD during an attack.  A later 1965 article pared down the set to a simple crystal set.

Boy Scout and Civil Defense leaders in Spokane apparently thought it was a good idea, as reported in the November 24, 1958 issue of the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

Chester L. Brown, the civil defense communications chief, prepared a special bulletin on Conelrad crystal radio receivers, which were distributed by Boy Scouts of the Inland Empire Council.

According to the article, the idea was suggested by a scout mother who had been active in civil defense. She had read a newspaper article in which an Atomic Energy Commission official had proposed that all households should be equipped with a receiver capable of operating without commercial power.

The CD pamphlet contained a diagram for a set, and noted that the parts could be purchased in kit form for as little as $1.25.

 

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Scouts Distribute Radios to Blind, 1925

1925ChicagoScouts

Ninety years ago, Chicago Boy Scouts were busy learning how to hook up and operate the Mohawk radio receiver shown here in this photo from the June 1925 issue of Radio Broadcast.  These scouts had been selected by the Chicago Tribune to distribute the sets to blind persons and instruct the new owners on the sets’ operation.

According to the newspaper’s March 15, 1925, issue, the sets were five-tube models and were distributed to persons whose names were submitted by the Council of Social Agencies.

The set appears to be the Mohawk Model A5, a TRF containing five UX201A tubes.

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Another 1950 Boys’ Life One Tube Receiver

1950JanBLreceiver

A few months ago, I posted about a one-tube regenerative receiver from the September 1950 issue of Boys’ Life magazine. I was even sent some photos of a very similar receiver discovered by Jon, WS1K. That receiver covered short wave, I’m guessing about 3-6 MHz.

1950JanBLschematicInterestingly, I overlooked this one-tube receiver appearing in the same magazine a few months earlier. In the January 1950 issue of Boys’ Life appeared this one-tube receiver. The article was written by one of the same authors as the September article, Glenn A. Wagner. The January receiver appears to cover the broadcast band, since it calls for a “standard replacement antenna coil” along with a 365 uF variable capacitor. It uses a single 1N5G tube with a 1.5 volt battery for the filament, along with a 45-90 volt B battery. It’s all mounted on a 5×7 pine board.

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1926 Boys’ Life Crystal Set

1926BLxtalset

The January 1926 issue of Boys’ Life magazine contains the plans for this simple crystal set. According to the article, the parts would set the Scout back about 80 cents, not counting the headphones, which would cost about $3.00. The parts could be found at “any well-stocked five and ten cent store,” and the receiver was said to pull in stations up to twenty miles.

For those wishing to duplicate this or similar receivers, if your five and ten cent store isn’t sufficiently well stocked, you can get some ideas on locating the parts on my crystal set parts page.

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Miss Miami Aviation, 1940

MiamiAviationSeventy five years ago, Scout Felton Fineannon of Troop 26, Miami, assists 19-year-old Miss Ruth Shelley as she hoists Old Glory to mark the opening of the All-American Air Maneouvers held in Miami. Miss Shelly had been named Miss Miami Aviation in a beauty contest in which she took a challenge to earn her pilot license and learn to fly a sea plane solo within a week.

She held the title for two years, during which time her photo frequently appeared in the papers. Years later, a schoolmate wrote to her and told her that one of those newspaper clippings kept him alive during World War II. In a letter written to her a half century later, he told her that the picture kept his faith alive during the darkest moments of the war. She died Mrs. Ruth Chenoweth in 2009 at the age of 89.

Referernces

 

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Rev. J. Stanley Light, Eagle Scout, 1915

One hundred years ago this month, Boys Life magazine, March 1915, reported that scout J. Stanley Light of Boston had completed the rank of Eagle Scout. This was regarded as a remarkable achievement, since Scout Light had been deaf from a very young age. Despite his disability, he did well in school, and in 1911 became a member of Troop 1, Boston. After earning the rank of First Class, he transferred to Troop 36, which was closer to his home. He was elected patrol leader and became an Eagle Scout on January 19, 1915, having earned the following merit badges: Chemistry, Civics, Personal Health, Public Health, Swimming, Forestry, Camping, Cooking, Pathfinding, Pioneering, Athletics, Handicraft, Business, Firemanship, Scholarship, Astronomy, Craftsmanship, First Aid, Art, Electricity, Masonry, and Life Saving.

Rev. J. Stanley Light, 1963. Photo, New England Homes for the Deaf

Rev. J. Stanley Light, 1963. Photo, New England Homes for the Deaf

Boys’ Life reported that Mr. Light was then attending Galludet College in Washington.  He went on to become ordained in the Episcopal church.  In 1963, he was the founding pastor of St. Andrews Mission for the Deaf, Brookline, Mass., which later became St. Andrews Episcopal Church of the Deaf. Sadly, he died two days after the dedication of the new mission.