Seventy years ago, this couple are pulling in a program on the short waves, thanks to the shortwave converter described in the June 1954 issue of Popular Mechanics.

According to the magazine, the setup was ideal for experimenters who were intersted in shortwave reception, but didn’t want to invest in a communications receiver or mess around with the proper tuning of a regenerative set. It could be used with any standard broadcast receiver, and the magazine explained how to make the connection to the set’s antenna coil if an external antenna were not present.

With two sets of plug-in coils, the combination would tune 3-20 MHz.

A hundred years ago, Marie Lohre was named the most beautiful girl at the Real American celebration in Seattle Washington, as shown here in the June 16, 1924 issue of the Washington Evening Star.   The festival was apparently named after the Native American Newspaper of the same name, as Miss Lohre was featured as the previous year’s queen in the March 6, 1925, issue of the paper, pictured at left.

According to both sources, Miss Lohre was a member of the Quinault nation, and she was a student at some unnamed Indian high school.

We found no more information about her. Occasionally, people Google the names of their ancestors. We always appreciate hearing from the descendants of people we feature here, to follow up on these images from the past.

Taking your radio out for a spin around the pond was popular on both sides of, well, the Pond, as evidenced by this British couple illustrated on the cover of Modern Wireless, June 1924.

For an idea of what they might have been listening to, we can consult the program schedules in the same magazine. Perhaps they were tuned to the Eiffel Tower on 2600 meters. If so, at 10:50 AM, they could listen to the fish prices in the Paris markets at 10:50 AM.

Or, if they stay out until 9:00 PM, at 450 meters, they might be able to tune in an evening concert from the station of the Ecole Supérieure des Postes et Teléraphes.

A hundred years ago this month, the June 1944 issue of Popular Science published some pointers on taking your radio with you on vacation. The magazine quoted Hiram Percy Maxim as predicting that within five years, most automobiles would be equipped with a radio. In the meantime, the magazine offered some suggestions.

The most critical element was the antenna, and it noted that a long aerial would always outperform a loop, especially if your vacation took you a long distance from the closest station. Fortunately, there was almost always something available for getting the wire in the air, as long as you used a bit of ingenuity. The photo above shows a radio fan who got his set working on a fishing expedition along the Green River near Seattle.

Eighty-five years ago, it was customary to put on a tie before learning Morse code, and this young man honored that custom. He’s practicing with a self-explanatory device shown in the February 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics.

To hear perfect code, he simply runs the test lead over the cardboard cutout over a copper sheet, and the code sends itself. We’ve seen similar ideas before, such as here.

Seventy years ago this month, this electronics hobbyist is undoubtedly the first on her block to own a transistor radio of her own construction. She is showing off three coveted CK722 transistors, complete with red dots. They had been developed by Bell Labs only five years earlier, and they were still costly devices. But the venerable CK722 was “only” $7.60 each ($87.39 in 2023 dollars).  As such the well-heeled experimenter could start using them in simple circuits.

The October 1953 issue of Popular Mechanics shows two radio receivers using the new transistor. The one-transistor set is within the grasp of the beginner. And for the advanced student, the three transistor set could drive a loudspeaker. It was assumed that the expensive devices would be re-used in other circuits, so they plugged in to transistor sockets. The magazine noted the importance of marking the sockets so that the transistor was plugged in correctly. It warned that before turning on the power, to check the polarity, and then check it again. Turning it on with the wrong polarity would prove costly, since the transistor junctions would be destroyed immediately.

In 1954, the Saturday Evening Post named Thorofare Markets of Pittsubrgh as the “Brand Name Retailer of the Year” for 1953. To commemorate the honor, the supermarket took out this ad in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, Sept. 16, 1954, honoring the Post, and also serving as its newspaper ad for the week. As such, it give a snapshot of grocery prices in 1954. While these prices look low, keep in mind that there’s been a lot of inflation since 1954. According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1954 is the equivalent of $11.36 in 2023 dollars. So the Campbell’s tomato soup for 11-1/2 cents per can works out to about $1.30 per can. Sirloin steak was 79 cents per pound, but that’s the same as $8.97 per pound in today’s money.

What would you make for dinner in 1954 if you did your shopping at this store?  For a full-size copy of the ad, you can click on the images above.