Shown here in the July 1943 issue of Radio Retailing Today are students in one of the successful radio courses offered by Sewanhaka Central High School in Floral Park, Long Island, New York.

In addition to the school’s 300 hour “pre-induction” course in radio, the class shown here is probably the “radio mechanics group,” which consisted of 20 boys and 7 girls building radio receivers. The school offered a four year electrical course which included radio, and also offered a class in light assembly, made up entirely of senior girls, in which special emphasis on soldering was stressed.

Owing to wartime labor shortages, local dealers made the most of the opportunity, and many students were employed by local radio shops, to the mutual advantage of both student and employer. While many trained employees were hired off by industry, one local dealer is quoted as saying that it was entirely pracical to secure the services of students after school or during vacations.

The article noted that the public school system was the nation’s largest business, and had the finest equipment and best teaching talent at their disposal. They provided the radio dealer with a solution to the critical labor shortage in the radio repair business.

Fern Sunde.

We previously told the story of Fern Sunde, the Canadian-born radio operator who served aboard a Norwegian freighter during World War II. While Ms. Sunde was the most famous, we noted that 23 other women served in the role of radio officer in the Norwegian merchant marine.

The July 1943 issue of Radio Mirror contains the story of another woman, Adline “Peggy” Richards, born in Australia in about 1918, who also served as radio officer aboard a Norwegian freighter.  Here is that article in its entirety.

SHE OPERATES SHIP’S RADIO

By Mary Bradley

Radio Officer Adeline Richards (Peggy, to her fellow officers) has been serving on an eleven-thousand-ton Norwegian cargo boat for nearly two years. Back from her roughest-ever trip across the Atlantic, during which she got concussion, she is only waiting for her ship to refit before she will be off again.

Twenty-five years old, a five-foot brunette, Peggy is Australian-born of seafaring folk. She came to Britain for her first visit when she was four, then, arriving again at the age of nineteen, took a post as secretary to a cinema manager.

But the call of the sea was too much for her, and early in the war she began to make plans to get a berth afloat. “My mother was a nurse on board ship, both in the last war and in this one,” Peggy says. But nursing did not appeal to Peggy so she thought up a better idea.

Although she knew that the British Merchant Service would not accept women as radio officers, she decided to take the training. Four months later, armed with her ticket, she tried first British shipping officers and then Norwegian. They were not interested. But she left her name and address, and sure enough in May 1941 a Norwegian line gave her her chance on a trip to Canada.

At first a number of the crew refused to sail with a woman on board; they reckoned that she would be a liability in an emergency. But the Captain told them they must sail or he would replace them. So they sailed.

Now Radio Officer Richards shares watches with a man radio officer, taking down news bulletins and warnings of Axis shipping, straight from the earphones to her typewriter. Messages are often received in code, but ship transmissions are made only in extreme emergency. Between-whiles Peggy  does clerical work for the Captain–paysheets, crew-lists, doctors’ reports and so on. She also does odd mending jobs for the eleven officers.

First thing she does when she sails up the Hudson, is to go ashore and order a thick steak.

Peggy loves New York and its lights. After the war she’d like to settle down in Philadelphia.

Most of her outfit comes from the Women’s Royal Naval Service. On the navy suit, however, she wears Merchant Service buttons, and she has a navy forage cap with the gold and velvet badge of the Merchant Service. Her shoulder flash labels her “AUSTRALIA.” At sea she wears slacks, sea-boots and oilskins, and sleeps in her clothes till she reaches port again.

Peggy knows what it is to brave air attacks, torpedoes, E-boats, minefields and gales. But the call of the sea is stronger than ever. She will soon be back.

I’ve been unable to find any other information about Ms. Richards.  If anyone, perhaps a relative, knows more about this radio pioneer, I would love to hear from you.  I can be contacted at clem.law@usa.net.

For a sampling of what could be heard on the shortwaves during World War II, here is the program schedule of the BBC’s shortwave signal 75 years ago today. This schedule is from the June 30, 1943, issue of the Ottawa Citizen.

For more information about the shortwave bands during the war:

• WW2 Shortwave Broadcasting
• The Shortwave Broadcast Bands During WW2
• World War 2 Shortwave Listening
• American Shortwave Broadcasting, 1941
• KGEI, GE’s Shortwave Station

You can call me a skeptic, but if I had been a young man 75 years ago and encountered this ad in the June 1943 issue of Radio News, I think I would have had my doubts as to the bona fides of the New York Technical Institute.

First of all, despite the Big Apple moniker, the Institute was located at 786 Broad Street, Newark, New Jersey.

Of course, there’s something to be said for getting out of the rut, not griping, and making yourself valuable.  And the ad pointed out that men with outstanding ability and specialized training were the ones who got ahead both in the armed forces and in civilian life.  So the concept of mastering Japanese Morse code probably wasn’t a bad one.

But I have my doubts as to what the New York Technical Institute, Japanese Code Section, could actually deliver, especially given the rather princely sum for the course, a total of $57.50.

And you had to be committed to sign up.  The ad didn’t ask you to send a stamp for more information about the course.  You were expected to send $10 for the first lesson.  If you were satisfied with the experience, then the remaining 19 lessons were an additional $2.50 each.  Of course, the dollars in question were made out of silver at the time, and the value of a silver dollar then was about the same as it is today.  So the price of that first lesson, sight unseen, was about $320 in today’s money.  I think I would have stayed in my rut.

This might be a bargain if they sent you some records or even Instructograph tapes to master the Japanese code at home.  But there’s no indication that any such thing was included.  And I suspect that if these features had been offered, the ad would have said something about them.  Instead, the 20 lessons apparently consisted of nothing but paper, with no indication of how the student was expected to gain any practical experience before getting out of his rut.

For those (then or now) interested in learning more about the Japanese telegraph code, much valuable information was contained in two articles published in QST in September 1942 and October 1943.  There was, understandably, great interest in the subject.  The 1943 article pointed out that many requests had been received for back issues containing the 1942 article, even though they had been long out of print.

I haven’t been able to find any other information about the Japanese Code Section of the New York Technical Institute.  I doubt if very many readers sent them a $10 money order.

Anne Frank. Wikipedia image.

On this date seventy-five years ago, June 15, 1943, Anne Frank noted in her diary that everyone in Holland had been directed to turn in their radios.  She noted that throughout Holland, people were scrambling to find old radios to turn in so that they could keep another set, and that those in her group had arranged to get a small secret set.

As we have written previously, some ingenious examples of clandestine Dutch receivers are shown above.

Seventy-five years ago today, KOA Denver ran this ad in the June 14, 1943, issue of Broadcasting.

The station ran its weekly “Music Center for Enlisted Men” for the morale of servicemen stationed in the Denver area. The half hour program ran Friday nights, and enlisted men participated in choirs and dramatic presentations. The project was spearheaded by the wifes of commanding generals and post commanders in the area, along with Colorado’s governor and his wife.

Here’s an unusual example of an “N” amateur call sign from 1938, from the June 1938 issue of All Wave Radio magazine.  The card was actually for a QSO by W9GZB, but the owner of that call, Arthur “Musty” Musgrave, 527 Union St., Emporia, Kansas, was a member of the Naval Communication Reserve, for which the corresponding “N” call sign was used. That service dates back to at least 1929, since there is an editorial in the August 1929 issue of QST encourage amateurs to consider enlistment.

According to an editorial in QST for August 1940, the Naval Communication Reserve was open to men aged 15-35. Former servicemen in any branch of the military were eligible up to the age of 50. Amateur radio operators could enlist as seamen and were immediately eligible to take the examination for the radioman rating. Physical fitness requirements were the same as those for the regular Navy. Experienced radiotelegraph operators were especially desired, since the need for signalmen at the time exceeded the need for radiomen.

Musgrave, the sender of this card, was a linotype operator with the Emporia Gazette newspaper. According to the December 20, 1940, issue of that paper, he was called up to service in 1940 and assigned to the San Diego naval base.  After the war, Musgrave’s call became W0ZGB, which he held until at least 1960.  He died in Kansas in 1971.

The signature on the left-hand margin of the card is the reason why the QSL was shown in the magazine.

This is the signature of William Allen White. W4DVO had sent it to the magazine along with the story of working Musgrave on 80 meter CW. After copying the QTH, the Florida station mentioned that Emporia “owed its place on the map to William Allen White.” To that, Musgrave replied, “you’re telling me!”, and told the Florida contact that he had worked for him for over twenty years. To prove the point, he had his boss autograph the card. According to the magazine, “something tells us that ZGB is going to be a popular station with the autograph hunters.”

William Allen White. Wikipedia image.

William Allen White was, indeed, the owner and editor of the Emporia Gazette, where Musgrave worked as a linotype operator.  White, was regarded as a spokesman for Middle America and was dubbed the “Sage of Emporia.”  Earlier a supporter of Teddy Roosevelt’s run for President on the Bull Moose ticket, he was later tapped by FDR to help generate support for the Allies before America’s entry into the Second World War.

Shown here is the victory garden of KNX, Los Angeles. The picture appeared 75 years ago today in the June 7, 1943, issue of Broadcasting magazine.

According to the ad, the station went to work after the call went out from Washington to raise vegetables. It noted that the soil under glamorous Hollywood had been, just a few years earlier, fertile farm land.

So the station ripped out the terrace in front of its studio, plowed the soil, fertilized and cultivated it. As a model to its listeners, the station grew vegetables to show what California was capable of.

The station’s first crop went to the Los Angeles Orphans’ Home. The practical experience of growing crops went by proxy to many thousands of listeners.