We recently wrote about this three-transistor regenerative receiver from the January 1958 issue of Boys’ Life magazine.

I just received this picture of the completed receiver, constructed by Tom, WB3HLH, of Rockville, Maryland.

As a Cub Scout, he saw the receiver in the magazine and was very interested. This is understandable, since the magazine also carried a feature extoling the virtues of SWL’ing, as well as a listing of the prizes in the annual radio contest.

About 50 years later, he located the magazine and took it upon himself to make one. The article noted that the set was not for beginners, and his experience agrees with this assessment. He notes that the audio stage was simple, but it was very tricky to get the detector oscillating.  As you can see, he very carefully duplicated the layout of the original project.

In addition to the coils described in the article (wound on plug-in coil forms), he wound a coil for the broadcast band. He reports that the set performs well on shortwave, both for broadcast and SSB signals. On the broadcast band, it pulls in all of the major East Coast stations, and signals as far west as KMOX in St. Louis.

The article calls for the use of four penlight batteries, but he reports using a 9 volt battery. The only other circuit modification is the addition of a 3.3 k resistor in parallel with a .01 uF capacitor on the emitter of the detector transistor.

The January 1958 issue of Boys’ Life magazine carried the third part in a series about shortwave listening, and included the plans for the three-transistor shortwave receiver shown here. The construction article was authored by Howard McEntee, W2SI, who was also the designer of the magazine’s 1956 CONELRAD receiver.

The shortwave set covered 1.25 to 18.5 MHz with four plug-in coils, meaning that it could tune the top of the broadcast band, several shortwave broadcast bands, and the 160, 80, 40, and 20 meter ham bands.  It employed a 2N1114 as the regenerative detector, followed by two CK722‘s for audio amplification to drive a pair of headphones.  It was powered by four penlite cells, which were said to provide several hundred hours of use.

Tuning was accomplished with two variable capacitors, one for broad tuning, with another for bandspread for carefully tuning a crowded band.  A third variable capacitor was used to adjust regeneration.

The article cautioned that this set wasn’t necessarily for beginners.  It advised that those who had never built a radio before should start with a more simple set and then graduate to this one.  “Real care is needed in wiring, for a wrong connection in some parts could mean immediate ruin of over $10 worth of transistors, the finished job shoujld be checked and rechecked, before the power is turned on.”

Seventy years ago this month, the January 1948 issue of Boys’ Life magazine let its readers know that after a wartime absence, amateur radio was back, and that the DX Hounds were back. The article began with the story of how an Ohio ham, former Navy radio operator Paul L. Hughes, saved 300 in New Mexico. One night, Hughes heard a call on 10 meters from a motorist stranded in a snowstorm with 300 other motorists in New Mexico. Hughes found a ham in Albuquerque who phoned the New Mexico State Police, who had a rescue party on the way 26 minutes after the call for help.

For scouts interested in getting started, the article recommended three books, How to Become a Radio Amateur and the License Manual from the ARRL, as well as, of course, the Radio Merit Badge pamphlet. Each was available for 25 cents from the respective publisher.

Sixty years ago this month, the December 1957 issue of Boys’ Life announced the 1958 running of the magazine’s radio contest for hams and SWL’s.

According to the magazine, over 300 Scouts and Explorers at the 1957 Jamboree had been licensed hams, and most of them got their start with one of the BL radio contests.

The 1958 running had two classes for SWL’s. Class A entries used manufactured receivers or converted surplus sets. Class B was for scouts using homemade receivers they made themselves.

There was also a class for licensed hams, but the magazine noted that licensed hams were never eligible for prizes for winning contests. Hams were to call CQ BSA, and exchanged message number, RST, rank in scouting, and BSA region or country.  For the SWL categories, prizes ranged from ARRL memberships to receivers.

This year, the SWL contest was based entirely on the number of US and Canadian regions logged, number of states, and number of countries. Once a station in a particular region, state, or country was logged, there was no reason to log another. There were bonus points for logging all regions and all states, and any station qualified, whether it was broadcast, TV, FM, code, armed forces, police, amateur, or other.

The log had to include a 25 word written statement of either “I like short-wave radio because…” or “I’d like to get an amateur radio operator’s license because….”

Logs were to be signed by an adult certifying that the scout logged the stations by himself, alone.

A few months ago, we reported how young Billy Hallicrafters used his Hallicrafters shortwave receiver to save the lives of some men aboard a sinking ship.

Here, we see young Billy at it again, saving the life of a pilot in distress, as reported in the November 1957 issue of Boys’ Life.

Billy was apparently late for school that day, but I’m sure his tardiness was excused.  We enter the story as Billy’s mother reminds him that it’s time to get ready for school.  He prepares to shut down his receiver and get to school, but at the last minute, he hears something truly ominous.

He hears a pilot, apparently in communication with air traffic control, since the pilot is acknowledging a message. But the pilot interrupts the acknowledgment to declare a mayday, which apparently only Billy hears. The pilot had “flamed out 10 miles south of Westport” and was bailing out.

Billy interrupts his school preparations and frantically calls the Civil Air Patrol to report the emergency. Within minutes, a CAP helicopter is dispatched, and spots the parachute. One of the crew comments that it’s a good thing that boy was tuned in, since nobody else heard the Mayday.

The crew quickly gets the unconscious pilot out of the tree where he’s dangling and to the hospital. In the next scene, Billy is visiting the hospital where the downed pilot thanks Billy for saving his life.