A hundred years ago, if you wanted to go out in the woods to play a practical joke, you wore a tie, as demonstrated by this picture from the cover of Radio News, June 1924.
1939 Portable Crystal Set
This woman, like most radio listeners 85 years ago, knew that a good crystal set would pull in local stations with ample volume and excellent tone, as long as an antenna and ground were available. She took advantage of this knowledge and constructed the low-cost (under a dollar) pocket size crystal set with built-in headphone. The antenna and ground leads had clips on the end, so it was an easy matter to clip it to a telephone, as she did here, or even to a metal drain pipe or water pipe.
As long as the building was not of metal construction, this was said to pull in stations from 2-12 miles away. At home with a long outside antenna, receptions of powerful stations 30 miles away was possible.
The design is from the June 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics.
1920s-Era Regen from 1974
Fifty years ago this month, the May 1974 issue of Elementary Electronics showed how to build this receiver, which dated back another fifty years. It was dubbed an “antennaless” one-tube regen, and was said to work well without an outdoor antenna, instead using only a ground connection to a water pipe.
It uses two spiderweb coils, a type 30 tube (although others are possible), a variable capacitor, and only one resistor and capacitor.
I wasn’t able to find the original design, but according to the 1974 article, it was taken from an issue of Radio News from the “early 1920s.”
WKY Mobile Unit, 1949
Gracing the cover of Radio News 75 years ago this month, May 1949, is the mobile unit of WKY, Oklahoma City. The unit was custom built, and was complete with both transmitting and receiving antennas for AM and FM.
1939 Sears BC-SW Radio-Phono
If you were in the market for a new radio-phono 85 years ago, Sears was the place to go. They would give you a liberal allowance for your trade-in. For only $49.95 plus your old radio (or just $5 down), you could go home with this two-band receiver. The broadcast band went up to 1720 kHz, so you would be able to pull in police calls. And the 6-18 MHz shortwave band meant that you could listen to the news direct from Europe.
The ad appeared in the May 28, 1939, issue of the Washington Evening Star.
Wartime Jobs for Women: 1944
These ads appeared eighty years ago this month in the May 1944 issue of Radio Mirror.Preview to encourage women to do their patriotic duty and get a job.
The ad below, sponsored by Pharma- Craft Corporation, makers of Fresh Underarm Deodorant Cream, advised women that the more of them hit the workforce, the faster the war would be over. If they didn’t do their part, it could be a month longer or a year longer than it otherwise would be.
The ad at left, published by the makers of Kleenex, gives some more practical advice for the woman who thinks she knows only housework. It reminds her that if she’s ever cooked or served meals, there were plenty of essential jobs waiting for her in hotels and restaurants. If she liked shopping, then she would probably be a good salesperson, since it was just like shopping–in reverse. Similarly, if she knew how to do washing or ironing, there were laundries in need of employees. Finally, if she was good with books, she could enlist in one of the armed services, freeing up a man to fight.
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Grandma Goes to War, 1944
While her sons, son-in-law, and granddaughter were off to war, Mrs. Louise Oeser does her part by calibrating radio transmitters for GE at Schenectady, NY.
This item appeared in the May 1944 issue of Radio Craft.
Battery Charging by Phone, 1924
A hundred years ago, if your radio battery was dead, you could get it charged by phone, kind of. You could call before 10:00 AM, the service station would come and pick it up, and you would have it back in time to pull in the DX that evening.
The ad appeared in the Washington Evening Star, May 25, 1924, and the service was offered by Smith’s, 2119 18th St. NW, Washington, DC.
Gonset Communicator: 1954
No family picnic is complete without getting on the air and making some 2 meter QSOs, as shown 70 years ago this month on the cover of Radio News, May 1944. While mom gets lunch ready and junior looks on, dad is making some contacts with his Gonset Communicator, which can operate on either 117 volts AC or 6 volts DC.
The magazine contained an article describing the then-new offering. It noted that it was considerably more sophisticated than prewar rigs. While the target market for the rig was hams, the magazine noted that it was also suitable for CAP use, or even as the UNICOM frequency of a small airport.
1924 Phonograph for Language Learning
A hundred years ago this month, the May 1924 issue of Science and Invention shows the latest development in language education, namely, the photograph.
The main breakthrough here is that instead of listening through a horn, the phonograph reproducer contains a microphone, which is hooked to an amplifier feeding headphones for the individual students. The teacher is also supplied with a microphone, through which she can address the students without any need for them to remove the headphones.
The phonograph is also equipped to cut disks.