1938 One-Tube Shortwave Receiver

This young woman is now about 90 years old, but in the September 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics, she is shown helping her father pull in a shortwave signal with the simple one-tube receiver described in that issue. It uses an RK-43 dual triode tube as regenerative detector and audio amplifier.

The set can be initially constructed for the standard broadcast band. Then, to pull in the shortwaves, a fixed capacitor is switched in series with the main tuning capacitor to lower its capacitance. In addition, shortwave coils are used in place of the coil for the broadcast band.

1959 Grocery Prices

For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1959, this ad for A&P appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on August 31, 1959.

The prices might look low, but there’s been a lot of inflation since 1959. According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1959 is the equivalent of $10.50 in 2023 dollars. The make the math easier, let’s just call it $10. So a can of beans or peas for a dime is really a dollar. And ham for 39 cents a pound is actually $3.90.

The minimum wage was $1 per hour, so an hour’s labor could buy you two cans of Spam at 49 cents each, with two cents left over. And if Junior needed a new shirt for back to school, you could get one for a dollar.

If you were shopping for dinner in 1959, what would you buy?

1923 Camping Afloat

A hundred years ago, “the newest way of camping is to pitch a tent on a barge,” and the August 1923 issue of Popular Mechanics showed you just how to do it. The construction article, penned by “widely known authority on outdoor life” Stillman Taylor, notes that the floating camp has many unique advantages. It was easy to build and not expensive, and provided a good comfortable canvas home with large storage places. And whenever the camper felt like picking up and changing camp, he could easily drift with the current and wind to a new spot.

The camping scow shown here was good for many years of service. It was hauled out of the water each year and stored, bottom up, out of the reach of ice. The boat featured plenty of storage space, including a waterproof box accessible through a trap door in the tent floor.

The scow would be hard to row with the tent set up, but was fairly easy to scull. Therefore, an oar lock or scull plate could be fixed to the roomy front deck.

Today, such a craft would undoubtedly need to be registered in most states, but this shouldn’t present a problem. In Minnesota, for example, a homemade boat over ten feet in length can be registered. But save the receipts for the materials, as you’ll need to present them, along with four photographs of the completed boat.

1923 Homemade Radio

Shown here is Miss Dorothy Benkeser, from the August 1923 issue of Science and Invention, , in which she described building her first radio set. When she decided to make a radio, she told a friend (presumably male), and was told “when you need my help, just call me up.” She vowed not to call him, no matter how much assistance she needed.

She bought the parts, and managed to put it together. She had only the tools from her mother’s sewing machine, which seemed to get the job done, until soldering was needed. For that, she tried using a curling iron, the type which was heated up on a stove. While she was able to do some soldering after it got red hot, it didn’t prove completely satisfactory. Eventually, she borrowed an alcohol powered iron, and got the job complete.

She had another friend help with the antenna:

In order to attach one of the poles, I tried to climb on a little ledge which is a good deal higher than the rest of the roof and quite near the edge. My friend told me it was very foolish to do this for the house was old and she thought any part of it might be very apt to become detached and besides, she didn’t think the chimney was a safe thing to hold on. I asked her if
she were making any reference to my weight and told her to “unhand me” for I was very confident the chimney was strong enough to hold me. This she refused to do and I was struggling to get away from her and to pull myself up when the piece of the chimney which I held gave way and had she not held me, I should most likely have landed on the cold and unsympathetic pavement three or four stories below.

She reports that the set had been in service for about two months, and picked up distant stations with little difficulty. She concluded with, “no, I do not wear overalls.”

1925 Grocery Prices

For a snapshot of grocery prices in 1925, this ad for Sanitary Grocery Co. appeared in the Washington Times, August 8, 1925. There’s been a lot of inflation since 1925. According to this inflation calculator, one dollar in 1925 is the equivalent of $17.47 in 2023 dollars. So that 15 cent loaf of bread would be the equivalent of $2.62 in today’s money. A 12 pack of Schlitz would set you back 98 cents, or about $17.12 in today’s money. Of course, this was during prohibition, so that near beer had an alcohol content of only 0.5%. You could also buy a quart of grape juice for 35 cents. But, of course, you would want to be careful and not leave it sitting out too long.

Eggs were 47 cents a dozen, which sounds like a bargain, but that’s the equivalent of over $8.

What would you make for dinner in 1925? Click on the image above to see a full-size version of the ad.

1963 Science Fair Ideas

If Junior is looking for ideas for the science fair, here are some oldies but goodies, from the August 1963 issue of Boys’ Life. Any of these will certainly earn Junior a nice participation ribbon. But if you’re looking for more spectacular ideas, some of which are very easy, and some of which are very complicated, be sure to check out our full category of Science Fair Ideas.

1963 External BFO

Sixty years ago this month, the August 1963 issue of Popular Electronics carried the plans for this outboard BFO, dubbed the “Code Bander.” The two-transistor circuit would add CW and SSB capabilities to any receiver, making them useful for the novice ham.

No internal connections were required to the radio, because this BFO operated not at the receiver’s IF frequency, but on the same frequency as the received signal. It covered 3.5 – 4 MHz, the 80 meter ham band. It was usable on the other ham bands thanks to the harmonics.

The designer and author is familiar to our readers, Hartland Smith, W8VFD, later W8QX. Smith became a silent key in 2022, but we were privileged to exchange a few e-mails with him prior to his death.

1943 British One Tube Reflex Set

This one-tube circuit appeared in the British Practical Wireless 80 years ago this month, August 1943. It made the best of wartime parts shortages, since the single tube, a P220, did double duty as both RF and AF amplifier. A fixed crystal was used as detector.

It had been sent to the magazine by R.J. Amblin of Bath, England, who reported that with 18 volts of anode (plate) voltage, it gave good volume through the headphones, and he was able to pull in the BBC Home Service with as little as 1.5 volts. For normal listening, he left it at 4.5 volts, which proved quite satisfactory.

World’s Largest Ball of Paint

As John F. Kennedy famously said, we do some things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. We previously documented the hard way to start a library. And we recently discovered the hard way to decorate a baseball.

My family recently visited the world’s largest ball of paint, near Anderson, Indiana. (No, I didn’t coordinate the color of my shirt–that was just a happy coincidence.) At the core of this massive ball of paint is a baseball, that Mike Carmichael and his family began painting in 1977. Over the years, over 25,000 layers of paint cover the ball, which now weighs in at over 4,000 pounds, as attested to by the scale from which it now hangs. As the ball grew, Carmichael constructed a building to house it, and showed us the steel beam frame from which it hangs.

The ball is open to the public, and Carmichael is eager to show it off. In fact, visitors are often invited to add a coat of paint. We arrived at a time when the ball was wet from an earlier coat of paint that morning, so we weren’t able to contribute this time. He suggests that visitors contact him in advance, to ensure an opportunity to paint. He can be contacted through the ball’s official website.

Carmichael is a veteran and, not surprisingly, a house painter by trade.

Admission is free, although free-will donations are welcome. It’s open to the public 7 days a week from 9:00 to 5:00. We became aware of the existence of the ball of paint due to seeing hundreds of smiling sun lawn ornaments on lawns throughout the region. All of them were created by Carmichael, who explained that he began making them in 2020 during COVID as a way to bring a bit of joy to the community. They are also for sale. Of course, we purchased one, which will soon be on display at OneTubeRadio.com world headquarters.

1963 Sony Micro-TV

Sixty years ago, if you wanted a small television that you could watch anywhere, it was available, but it wasn’t cheap. Shown here, in the August 1963 issue of Electronics World, is Sony’s ad for its Micro-TV. Weighing in at only 8 pounds, the 25-transistor set could be powered with AC, DC, or an optional rechargeable battery pack.

The retail price was only $189.95. According to this inflation calculator, that works out to about $1897 in 2023 dollars. If you lived in an area with one of those elusive UHF channels, you weren’t out of luck, because an optional UHF adaptor (and yes, that’s an alternate spelling) was available for only $49.95 extra. The prices weren’t given, but other accessories (such as the rechargeable battery) were available, including a “luggage carrying case.”

I guess I would pay extra for the carrying case. If I was taking my $1897 TV with me on vacation, I’d want it to be well protected in transit.

These days, you probably don’t need the luggage carrying case. You already have a TV screen in your pocket, and you just need the tuner for it. The the one shown here plugs into your android phone and allows you to watch local TV stations. And it costs a lot less than $1897.00.

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