Armin Wegner: Righteous Among the Nations

Armin Wegner. Wikipedia photo.

Armin Wegner. Wikipedia photo.

This month marks the hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, in which over a million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire and those working on its behalf. The killings were carried out in a variety of ways, and the net result was that the bulk of the Armenian Christian population was eliminated. Most of those who survived were forced from their homes and formed the Armenian Diaspora, with large populations in North America, the Soviet Union, Europe, South America, and Australia.

The “official” start date is generally considered to be April 24, 1915, when about 250 intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up in Constantinople for eventual execution.

One convenient method employed to execute women and children was to simply march them into the Syrian desert where they could die by dehydration and starvation.

Armin Theophil Wegner was born in Elberfeld, Rhineland, in Germany, in 1886. He was trained in law, but didn’t seem to have much direction professionally. At one time, he decided to work as a travel writer. Eventually, deciding to see the world, he joined the Army, and served as a medic. The outbreak of war saw him attached to the Ottoman army and stationed along the Baghdad railway in Syria and Mespopotamia.

He heard stories of the death marches going on around him, and when he got leave, he took a camera and decided to investigate the stories, despite orders to the contrary. He learned that the stories were true, and the photos he took served as one of the few pieces of documentary evidence of the atrocities.

He was ultimately found out, and sent back to Germany. Many of his photos were seized, but he managed to smuggle out many negatives inside his belt.

The experience was moving for Wegner. In 1933, he wrote an open letter to Hitler denouncing the treatment of the Jews. No newspaper would publish it, and he was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo. He was eventually able to flee to Italy, where he lived until his death in 1978.

In 1967, Wegner was recognized as one of the Righteous Among The Nations by Yad Vashem.

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Eclipse of April 7, 1940

1940EclipseSeventy-five years ago today, April 7,  1940, an annular eclipse occurred, the center line of which passed through Texas and the southeastern United States.  Professor N. Wyman Storer of the University of Kansas took the opportunity to travel to Conroe, Texas, the closest point on the center line. There, he and assistants set up the University’s 6-inch refractor, shown here, on the tennis court of the Conroe High School, where he captured a number of good photographs of the eclipse.  The telescope was acquired by the University for $1000 in 1885, and was still in use as late as 1968.  The mount shown here was made of lumber, and cost $3.  The photos taken during this expedition can be found in the August 1940 issue of Popular Astronomy.

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QST and 73 Archives

I’m occasionally asked where I find material for this site. Most of it is found at AmericanRadioHistory.com, which has an archive of millions of pages of old radio and electronics publications. Much also comes from Google Books.

For Amateur Radio, a treasure trove of information is the QST Archive, which includes every issue of QST back to 1915. The search engine is not the best, and some of the scans are of rather poor quality. But it’s a great source of information.  (You must be an ARRL member and logged into your ARRL account to view articles.)  All issues of 73 Magazine are also available for free download at Archive.org.

If you’re looking for a more user-friendly version of these two resources, they are available at a reasonable price from Amazon at the links below. The QST CD covers up through 1941, and the 73 CD covers all issues.






1940 One Tube Shortwave Receiver from Popular Science

1940PSOneTubeThis little one-tube short wave receiver appeared in Popular Science 75 years ago this month, April 1940.  It uses as 12B8GT tube, a combined triode-pentode. The pentode section is used as a regenerative detector, and the triode is pressed into service as a diode, serving as the rectifier. The set runs directly from 120 volts AC. A 360 ohm resistor in series with the filament drops the voltage to 12 volts, and a hefty choke and two capacitors filter the power supply. Even though it’s run directly from the AC mains, the schematic shows no connections directly to the chassis, so as AC-DC sets go, this one is relatively safe to operate.

According to the accompanying article, the set could pull in signals from South America and Europe most evenings.

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1955 CONELRAD Receiver

1955ConelradRXUnder the headline, “Are You Ready For CONELRAD?”, the April 1955 issue of Radio News carried the plans for this small CONELRAD receiver which could be easily carried in a pocket or glove compartment. The circuit is very similar to the Conelrad receiver carried by Boys’ Life the following year.  This receiver also consists of a crystal set followed by a one-transistor audio amplifier.

The article describes CONELRAD, and notes that “the responsibility of the individual citizen and particularly of the electronic technician and experimenter would be to provide themselves and their families well ahead of time with some means for receiving Conelrad broadcasts under any or all emergency conditions.” The article noted that receivers should be exactly calibrated, to avoid losing valuable seconds fumbling around trying to find 640 and 1240 on the dial. The article suggests using a signal generator to calibrate and mark the dial before an emergency.

1955ConelradSchematicIt then offers the circuit shown here, since it would be “highly advisable to have available at all times a portable battery-operated radio. The average portable radio is fairly cumbersome to carry about over any appreciable distance and its power requirements are high enough to make it impossible to keep in operation continuously.

The author notes that his original plan was to have one transistor serve as the detector, but had some difficulty in designing the circuit, due to the low input impedance of most transistors. Therefore, like the author of the Boys’ Life design, he settled on a diode detector, with one stage of audio amplification.

Unlike the Boys’ Life model, which was mounted in a cigar box, this one is mounted snugly in a small plastic box. The author notes that “as most old crystal set men will recall, a fairly long antenna and a good ground are required for best results.” Therefore, he recommended taping 25-50 feet of fine wire to the case for use as an emergency antenna.

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Marianne Brown, 2AOA, Radio Pioneer

MarianneBrown1920

Here, in the April, 1920, issue of Radio Amateur News, we see the station of Miss Marianne C. Brown of of 206 W. 86th Street, New York City, which is the corner of 86th and Broadway.

Her receiver, designed by herself, was able to tune 300-1200 meters, which took in nearly all of the commercial stations. She also reported that it was very satisfactory for reception of wireless telephone stations and arc stations. It was usable either with an indoor loop or an outdoor antenna.

Still under construction was her transmitter, consisting of a 1/2 KW transformer and oil condenser. She expected to have the transmitter in working order in a short time.

She was listed in the 1920 call book as 2AOA.  Another short biography of this wireless pioneer can be found at this link.  She held a commercial license and trained as a marine operator, but theNavy had a policy forbidding women serving in this position.  She did get a position with the Marconi company testing equipment.

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1940 Homemade Phonograph

1940PMPhono The woman shown here is no doubt admiring the technical skill of the gentleman, who constructed this handsome phonograph into the bookcase. But he has a little secret. He got the idea from the April, 1940, issue of Popular Mechanics, which reveals that no technical expertise whatsoever is required. The turntable came complete with tone arm, and simply needed to be plugged in to the amplifier, which came complete with controls pre-wired. Rounding out the installation was the 12-inch speaker.

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1915 Radio Truck

1915RadioTruck

A hundred years ago, the public works department of Baltimore had equipped this truck with a wireless receiver, capable of receiving messages while the car was being driven at high speed through streets flanked with high buildings. The set was capable of receiving messages within a 10 mile radius, allowing crews to be dispatched quickly to any emergency situation. Among other equipment, the truck contained a pump capable of pumping 12,000 gallons per hour. It is shown here in the March, 1915, issue of Popular Mechanics.

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