Category Archives: Scouting

1920 Boys’ Life Radio Ad

1920FebBLA hundred years ago this month, the February 1920 issue of Boys’ Life asked the boys of America if they had a wireless station, and offered these two receivers. Both tuned 200 – 2500 meters (120 – 1500 kHz). Each included the loose coupler, radiometer, headphones, and hardware for the antenna and ground. The Moded 4007, selling for 28.00, included a crystal detector. Model 4008 was identical, but used an audion tube for the detector. It sold for $48.

The ad promised that the set could be up and running within hours. The crystal set was said to have a range of 300 miles under ordinary conditions, with the audion set being capable of pulling in stations up to a thousand miles away.

The manufacturer, the A.C. Gilbert Company, is the same one which is famous for erector sets, chemistry sets, and other tools for young scientists.  While the company no longer exists, the brand name is still in use.  The set in operation here is similar to, or possibly the same, as the one we previously featured,  delivered by Santa Claus in 1919.



1920 Telephone Set

1920JanBLA hundred years ago this month, the January 1920 issue of Boys’ Life magazine carried this ad for a real telephone for real boys. The set came with two transmitters, two receivers, and 150 feet of wire, all for $2. The ad noted that for longer distances, bell wire could be used. The set was available from dealers, or directly from the Robbins Manufacturing Company, 1807 N. Central Park Avenue, Chicago. It was billed as just the thing for scout work.



Official BSA Radio Kits: 1960

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Sixty years ago, Scouts looking to put together their own radio receiver could head down to the local BSA authorized dealer and pick up one of these official BSA radio kits, as shown in the January 1960 issue of Boys’ Life magazine.

There were two sets for the standard broadcast band. A two-tube set for $11.95 had a built-in loudspeaker. For headphone use, the one-tube set sold for $7.25. Both reuquired batteries. The filaments on both sets ran off a 1.5 volt battery for 20 cents. The two-tube set’s 90 volt B battery sold for $3.95, and the one-tube set’s 22.5 volt battery sold for $1.50.

For Scouts who already had radio building experience, it was time to move up to the short waves. That set, which looks like a regenerative receiver with one or two tubes, sold for $15.95. It ran off standard household current, so no batteries were necessary. Headphones were an additional $2.95, and “3 extra coils,” presumably to tune the short waves, were $2 for a set.

There was also an official BSA crystal set sold complete for $2.95. We actually had one of these around the house when I was a kid, and the chassis for this set was the bottom of the cardboard box it came in.

Finally, for Scouts working on their code, the Official S-O-S Signal Set sold for $1.95 for a single unit, or $3.95 for two units. The mathematically astute will realize that you paid a nickel extra if you bought two, but that presumably included the wire to hook the two units together.

1960JanBL2This issue of the magazine also contained a reminder of the upcoming February Boys’ Life radio contest, and in anticipation, contained some SWL’ing pointers by none other than Tom Kneitel.  Kneitel’s article contained some tips for pulling in DX, and a listing of some of the loudest and most likely to be heard stations from 3.2 to 25 MHz.

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Radio Scouting: 1940

1945JanBLEighty years ago this month, the December 1940 issue of Boys’ Life shows this enthusiastic group of Atlantic City Scouts preparing to get their ham licenses. Fifty Scouts were taking the eight month class, and were hoping to be able to render important communications assistance in the event of disaster. The council’s camp already had its own station.



1944 Boys’ Life Hallicrafters Ad

1944DecBLIn 1944, with wartime bans in place, Hallicrafters didn’t have any equipment for sale to civilians. But they were gearing up for a postwar boom, and they figured a lot of Boy Scouts would be in the market for radio equipment as soon as the war was over.

This ad appeared 75 years ago this month in the December 1944 issue of Boys’ Life. It encourages young radio fans to send 25 cents to the ARRL to get the most recent edition of “How to Become a Radio Amateur,” a splendid book.



BSA – NBC Hook Up, 1939

1939NovBLEighty years ago this month, the November 1939 issue of Boys’ Life shows Boy Scouts lending a hand at NBC radio stations. The images here are taken from network headquarters in New York, as well as WMAL Washington. The magazine shows scouts with Lowell Thomas. And Scout Stan Groner of Troop 248, Bronx, NY, is shown with Charlie McCarthy wearing a scout uniform, although it’s unclear whether McCarthy could pass the Tenderfoot requirements.



1944 Scout Signal Gun

1944NovBL2The scout shown above is signalling by night, thanks to the signal gun described in the November 1944 issue of Boys Life. Most flashlights can’t be turned on and off fast enough to send Morse code, so this design adds a trigger and pistol grip to be able to conveniently send. The trigger is wired to the spring at the bottom of the flashlight, so that it can be conveniently aimed and keyed.

The magazine carried a number of other signalling devices, in an article penned by William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt.

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1939 Radio Sound Control Studio Set

1939OctBLEighty years ago this month, the October 1939 issue of Boys’ Life carried this ad for two extremely interesting products from RCA, more specifically, the RCA “Electronics and By-Products Division.”  The first is the RCA Sound Control Studio, which enabled aspiring young radio producers to make their own radio programs at home, with a complete selection of devices to make sound effects.

With the set, they could make train whistles, slamming doors, horses’ hoofs, howling wind, driving rain, and many others. And if they also added the “RCA microphone and radio coupling unit,” the program could be heard on the radio in an adjoining room. The set included a book with drama dialogues with certain sound effects specified. The set sold for a mere $5.95.

The other set, which apparently included the microphone and transmitter, was the RCA Electronics Labs kit. The projects contained therein allowed youngsters to build a real radio receiver, transmitter to talk from another room, realistic telegraph set. The electronics labs started at $7.50.



Scout Signaling: 1939

1939OctBL2Eighty years ago this month, Chief Scout Executive James E. West penned this editorial in the October, 1939, issue of Boys’ Life, stressing to Scouts the importance of the skill of signaling.

He noted that signaling was included in the Scout requirements because it was “part of the equipment of an outdoorsman” and helped a boy to be “accurate, painstaking, and thorough.”

He began by recounting an episode that took place in Sequoia National Park during a raging forest fire. One crew was at work on a hill when they found themselves trapped by flames on all sides. Frantically, they began signaling with their signal flags for water and more men.

But everyone else in the region was busy fighting the fire and initially nobody noticed their frantic plea. Fortunately, however, another fire fighter had been a Scout, and the signals caught his attention. Out of a crew of sixty men, he was the only one who could read the message, but rounded up a crew to rescue his trapped colleagues, who were saved in the nick of time.

Also, during a flood in Zanesville, Ohio, the flood waters divided the town, and all telephone and telegraph lines were down. The first messages to get through were from Scout troops on the opposite banks of the river.

Another Scout saw a plane circling over his town, and noticed that it was flashing a light. Thanks to his knowledge of Morse Code, he made out the siganl “N-A-M-E.” The quick-witted Scout figured out that the pilot had lost his way. He got a large mirror, turned on the lights of an automobile, and flashed the beam of light upward, sending the name of the town. The pilot answered, “T-H-A-N-X.”

The tradition of Scouts learning signaling continues with the Signs, Signals, and Codes Merit Badge, which I counsel in the BSA Northern Star Council.  I have more information about the Merit Badge at this post and this one.  I also have links to advice from William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt.

If you know any Scouts who are interested in earning the Signs, Signals, and Codes merit badge, I will be counseling it at the North Star Scouting Museum in North St. Paul, MN, on Saturday, October 19, 2019.  For more information or to sign up, visit the museum’s website.



How to Make a Hectograph: 1949

1949AugBLSeventy years ago, an aspiring young publisher could make up to 100 copies of important announcements, newsletters, or other documents, by way of the hectograph. The process is described here in the August 1949 issue of Boys’ Life magazine.

Back in the day, acquiring all of the needed parts was simple, as they were available at any office or school supply store.  Unfortunately, they are not available in prepackaged form any longer, but at our website, we have have instructions for making yours at home, and the process is quite simple.

For those not familiar with the process, the hectograph was the simpler version of the mimeograph.  The image is drawn or typed on paper using special hectograph ink.  The ink can come from a special sheet of carbon paper or from markers, and both are still readily available.  This image is then transferred to a gelatin surface, and from there it’s transferred to the sheet you want to print.  The prefix “hecto” means 100, but in practice, you’ll probably get a bit fewer copies.