Eighty years ago today, the October 1939 issue of Life magazine detailed the adventures of 21 year old hitchhiker Will Parker of San Francisco, who thumbed his way to New York thanks to the 29 motorists who stopped to give him a lift. He was accompanied by his friend and amateur photographer Hart Preston who got the pictures of the trip for Life.

As you can see from the photo above (and from several other photos where it was visible), Parker brought with him a portable radio, which the magazine attributed as being one of the secrets of his success. In addition to the radio, Parker brought an electric razor which he used daily. He also bathed almost every day, resulting in a clean-cut appearance.

According to the magazine, the radio was the inspired touch. Drivers would ask Parker about it, made conversation about it, and found themselves persuaded to take him along.

Drivers were eager to talk about themselves and give their opinions about politics. By the time he reached New York, all drivers thought that Roosevelt should run again, but only a third said they would vote for him. Most were in favor of staying out of the war, and almost all of them thought it had been a shame to change the date of Thanksgiving.

75 years ago this month, the October 1944 issue of Radio News carried this interesting testimonial for National receivers.

The cover of Radio Craft magazine 75 years ago this month, October 1944, showed an artist’s conception of the apparatus used for on-the-spot recordings of the D-Day invasion. Those broadcasts were made by Blue Network correspondent George Hix, whose reports were part of the pool coverage and heard on the other networks. You can listen to the reports at the video below.

The equipment being used was a Recordgraph manufactured by Amertype. We previously described that equipment.  It was a technology that was short lived, since it was soon replaced by magnetic recording. It recorded grooves on a 50 foot roll of film, with a total of 12,000 feet of sound track (in other words, 240 tracks on a strip of 35 mm film). The process is identical to a phonograph recording, but with a strip instead of a disc. The system allowed five hours of speech per roll. As you can hear from the recording below, the sound quality was quite good.

The magazine noted that the Navy considered that the device’s primary use would be production of a real-time log of a battle, although the ability to record a reporter’s voice was an important secondary use.

Many radio receivers sold in the U.S. in the late 1930s contained a shortwave band, but it took war in Europe for many Americans to show interest in tuning in. Eighty years ago today, the October 6, 1939, issue of Radio Guide provided some pointers in how to get the latest news directly from the European capitals.

During the day, London could be heard on the 16 meter band.  Starting mid afernoon, you could tune to 19 meters and also pull in Berlin and Moscow.  Later at night, France and Italy could be tuned in on the 25 and 31 meter bands.

The outbreak of war in Europe on September 1, 1939, meant opportunity for American radio dealers, and the editors of Radio Retailing were quick to point them out in the October 1939 issue.

In particular, the magazine pointed out that the war revitalized the sale of shortwave sets. The article started with some common-sense tips on how to listen, noting that most of the stations of beligerent countries would be presenting only part of the story at best. It also gives the frequencies of some of the strong European stations and gives some pointers on how to sell shortwave sets to new customers.

The article points out, however, that many existing customers had sets that tuned the shortwaves, but that the owners rarely listened to them. With the heightened interest in war news, the magazine gave some ideas. First, it suggested that many buyers might need a better antenna to optimize reception. And even if there was no particular need for an upgrade, it suggested that a friendly service call might be in order. The customer could be instructed in how to tune in the signals, and there might be some services that are needed. The magazine pointed out that a weak tube might work perfectly fine for strong broadcast band signals, but not quite strong enough to pull in the shortwaves.

This trio are pulling in stations from their campsite thanks to the three-tube portable described in the September 1939 issue of Popular Science. Just like the patio set described in the previous month’s issue, the set used three miniature tubes imported from England, although with the war just underway, it might have been hard to get more after the U.S. stocks were depleted. Apparently, the men had come to terms about taking turns with the headphones.

The author used a steel telescoping fishing rod as antenna by soldering a banana plug onto the end. The article noted that the connection could also be made by clipping a wire onto the end. In fact, if the wire were used, the set could be used in the boat, with the rod serving both to pull in stations and to pull in fish. In this case, however, an insulated handle would be needed for the fishing rod.

75 years ago this month, the September 1944 issue of the British publication Practical Wireless carried the plans for this very basic wartime one-tube regenerative receiver. The set employed a 1D8GT dual tube, half of which served as detector, with the other half serving as AF amp, providing about 100 mW of audio to the speaker. With a ten-foot antenna, the set would easily pull in the BBC home, European, and armed forces services.