Eighty years ago this month, the March 1943 issue of Popular Mechanics showed this preparedness tip. During an air raid, the first thing you would of course grab would be the radio. This cloth cover fits over the set and contains other items needed during a blackout. As an added bonus, it covered the front and back of the set to keep any light from leaking out.
The March issue of Popular Mechanics typically carried the plans for a receiver dubbed the “Little Giant,” and despite the war, the March 1943 issue was no exception. The couple shown above are putting the finishing touches on the set.
Wartime parts shortages were taken into consideration, and the set could be constructed with many parts found in the junk box. For example, the coils were wound on the cardboard forms retrieved from an old flashlight battery.
The circuit was a simple 3-tube TRF set, using a 12K7GT as RF amplifier, 12J7GT detector, and a 70L7GT AF amplifier driving a PM speaker. With a good antenna, the set would pull in stations a thousand miles away, but still had good selectivity for use even in a city with many stations.
We’ve previously discussed the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS), a wartime civil defense service set up to harness the talents of amateur radio operators who were otherwise off the air for the duration of World War II.
Eighty years ago this month, the February 1943 issue of Radio Retailing takes a look at how the local radio dealer might fill part of the need in supplying equipment and expertise. The illustration shown above is a mobile repair facility, and undoubtedly some of the personnel shown here service radios as their civilian job as well.
In addition to radio operators, a role likely filled by hams, the dealers might fit into one of five other categories: Maintenance, procurement, construction, repair, and training.
Eighty years ago this month, the February 1943 issue of QST showed this emergency generator. Hams might have been off the air for the duration, but they still had an interest in emergency needs, including WERS operations.
It was powered by a Briggs & Stratton gasoline engine normally rated at 1-3/4 HP, but the accompanying article noted that it was capable of up to 2-1/2 HP maximum as shown here. It was capable of putting out 120 volts thanks to a salvaged Dodge 12-volt generator, rewound, and was capable of putting out over 1400 watts. The field coils needed power, and that was provided by a second six-volt generator also driven by the engine.
The estimated cost of the whole unit was said to be $7.50, although the author admitted that this figure might have been somewhat “under-exaggerated.” The set shown here was the second one constructed, and a third was underway.
One of the gentlemen shown on the cover, although they’re not identified, was apparently Warren Copp, W8ZQ. The article mentioned that he was the father of then-eight-year-old actress Carolyn Lee. We’re not sure exactly why that’s relevant, but like the author of the QST article, we believe that’s the kind of thing our readers would want to know.
We’ve previously written about the prisoner of war broadcasts of World War 2, and eighty years ago today, the Washington Evening Star of February 16, 1943, carried this report of one such broadcast. Col. Richard G. Rogers was being held prisoner in Formosa, and recorded a message to his family in America. As often happened, listeners in America sent news to his family. There were many such letters sent in these cases, as documented in the book Letters of Compassion, but this is the first case I’ve heard of where one listener sent a phonograph record of the broadcast, undoubtedly recorded on their Recordio.
This young British woman, shown on the cover of the February 1943 issue of Radio Craft is a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), and was tasked with spotting enemy planes. According to the magazine, she and her colleagues shared much of the credit for winning the Battle of Britain.
The young women of the ATS took over important “desk jobs,” freeing men to serve in combat. Their training was intense, and required intelligence and keen perceptive powers. In particular, the work shown here at a radiolocation station required keen senses of sight and hearing, as well as concentration and constant alertness.
Eighty years ago this month, the February 1943 issue of Radio Retailing acknowledged that there had long been prejudice against women in the field of radio servicing. But the exigencies of war meant that the industry no longer had time for that luxury. Just as the armed services were incorporating women into their ranks, private industry was going to need to do the same thing. There was a war to be won, the men were overseas, and this meant that women would need to prove once and for all that they were capable of doing the work.
According to the magazine, “often we think of women as stenographers, clerks, small parts assemblers, and light machine operators. But that is no longer the case. Women are moving into the ranks of engineers, chemists, draftsmen and other technical and professional activities, as well as into any and every other occupation that once was reserved to men.” Just as there was a women’s corps in the armed services, the magazine stressed the need for a Women’s Corps for the Radio Store.
In hiring anyone, male or female, long experience was not required, but merely the proper training. And that training, more often than not, could take the form of friendly personal supervision, along with a free hand to exercise their natural talent for neatness and order.
The magazine concluded by noting that “women have made good in every occupation they have tackled, though it cannot be said that all employers have given women the same thoughtful selection, and training they have to men.”
Eighty five years ago, they didn’t know it wasn’t going to catch on, but it looked like the next big thing was going to be facsimile. The January 1938 issue of Radio Retailing carried a feature discussing the state of the art. It acknowledged that television was right around the corner (and it was, with only a world war serving to delay it), but the magazine incorrectly predicted that facsimile equipment might find its way into American homes before television.
The idea seemed reasonable, since a number of stations were already licensed to send fax transmissions, as shown by the list at the right. In the Upper Midwest, both WHO Des Moines and KSTP Kansas City held licenses to broadcast with the new mode, on their standard broadcast frequencies.
The magazine acknowledged that standards had to be fixed before facsimile service became common. And testing needed to be done to see how well it worked in outlying areas. And it still wasn’t know if the receivers would be standalone units, or if a printer would plug into the loudspeaker output of a standard broadcast radio.
Shown above is a pioneer of facsimile transmission, W.G.H. Finch of Finch Telecommunications, Inc. Other contenders for a market share were R.C.A., Radio Pictures, and Fultograph. Facsimile service was seen as a way in which radio stations could take on the competition of newspapers. But when the War ended, television took off a lot faster than many people imagined, and radio facsimile service is relegated to a footnote in the history of radio.
Like most veterans of World War II, my dad never spoke very much about his service, and it never occurred to me to ask about it. I know that he was a Machinist Mate in the U.S. Navy, and I know that he was assigned to a Blimp HedRon near the Caribean. He was one of about 12,499 Navy personnel assigned to blimps. He enlisted in 1943, so this article predates him, but the January 18, 1943 issue of Life magazine shows how blimps were used to patrol waters off the coast of the United States to scout for enemy submarine activity.
Eighty years ago today, the January 11, 1943, issue of Life magazine showed these shoppers preparing to pay for their groceries with not just cash, but with ration coupons. And this would become a more common scene as more foods, such as those shown below, were to be rationed.
The magazine noted that canned goods had been an important part of warfare since the days of Napoleon, and this war was no different. Starting later in the month, a new ration book was to be issued, and those coupons would be required for the purchase of canned or bottled soups and juices, as well as most canned, dried, or frozen, fruits or vegetables.
