May 12, 2006

Giant Radio Has 37 Tubes (Apr, 1934)

Filed under: Radio — @ 11:50 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1934
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Giant Radio Has 37 Tubes
EQUIPPED with 37 tubes and six speakers, the largest of which is 18 inches in diameter, one of the largest radio sets in the world has been produced by a Cincinnati, Ohio, radio manufacturer. The set is nearly five feet high and weighs 475 pounds.
The huge radio has a tremendous volume range with a maximum output of 75 watts, yet it can be tuned down to normal living room volume without distortion of tone quality. Four chassis are required to mount the working elements.
The set is capable of reproducing from 20 to 20,000 cycles of audio frequency, although the normal human ear is incapable of hearing above 16,000. The dial of the receiver is 12 inches in diameter.

May 10, 2006

Hotel Guests DIAL for Radio Programs (Aug, 1935)

Filed under: Cool, Radio — @ 5:23 pm
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Aug, 1935
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This is pretty sweet.

Hotel Guests DIAL for Radio Programs
HOMESICK foreign guests at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel can now listen to radio programs from their own country, or perhaps even from their home town. At their service is the greatest all-wave radio receiver in the world—a set which can bring to each of the 2,200 suites of rooms programs from any one of the powerful broadcasting stations in the world. These programs are oftentimes heard with the same volume and clarity as are local stations.

Some rooms have a unique dialing system, which permits guests to select any station they desire from a printed daily list of world-wide broadcasts, or even hear their favorite phonograph records. In other rooms there are controls on the modernistic loudspeaker, which give to guests a choice of six broadcasts. Amplifiers build up the strength of weak signals more than a hundred billion times.

Radio Listens In On Phone Calls (Jul, 1936)

Filed under: Radio — @ 10:24 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1936
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Radio Listens In On Phone Calls
AN ELECTRICAL eavesdropper, the invention of a Washington, D. C, man, Samuel S. Hixon, permits the listening in on phone conversations without connecting to the line. The device, operating on the radio principle, is capable of picking up conversation from phone wires within a radius of twenty-five feet without tapping lines.

Kansas Girl Genius Operates Television-Radio Station (Jun, 1936)

Filed under: Radio, Sign of the Times — @ 10:02 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1936
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Yeah, well, she’s pretty smart, for a girl.

Kansas Girl Genius Operates Television-Radio Station
CONQUERING fields in which very few men have ventured eighteen-year-old Eleanor Thomas of Kansas City, Mo., is assistant engineer of Television station W9XBY. Finding the life on a college campus too prosaic Miss Thomas, a mathematical genius for a girl, decided to leave and enter an engineering school.

Throughout the course the young woman excelled in her studies and upon her graduation she was appointed to the position she now holds. She is the youngest member of her sex ever to pass the difficult examinations for a first class operator’s license from the Federal Communications Commission.

May 9, 2006

DIRECT FACTORY-TO-YOU RADIO SALE (Feb, 1938)

Filed under: Advertisements, Radio — @ 9:18 am
Source: Science And Mechanics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1938
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DIRECT FACTORY-TO-YOU SALE
Save 50% on this 16-tube touch button world-wide Midwest!
Only $39.95!
Absolutely Complete with tubes in richly finished console – nothing else to buy!

JUST imagine a radio so big, so powerful, so luxurious—in a big, beautiful, richly-finished walnut console—selling at such an amazingly low factory-to-you price 1 While it costs no more than an ordinary 6 or 8-tube set, its advanced circuit and improved design result in great current economv. In addition its tremendous range (550 KC to 18,000 KC) and great reserve of power enable you to drive across the world and bring in weak, distant, foreign stations (10,000 and more miles away) like “locals” That’s why careful buyers say: “Midwest gives you twice as much for your money.”
GLORIOUS NEW TONE

Midwest gives you glorious, crystal-clear concert realism, brilliant world-wide reception and scores of advanced features, including Dial-A-Matic Tuning— at a sensationally low factory-to-you price! Zip!…Zip!…stations come in instantly, automatically, perfectly … as fast as you can push buttons. The famous Midwest factory-to-you plan, proven by 18 years of success, is just as exciting. It enables you to buy at wholesale prices …to save up to 50% …to make your radio dollar go twice as far…and to pay as little as 50 cents a week on the Midwest Easy Pay Plan. You get 30 days Free home trial!

May 7, 2006

Bridge Played Via Short Waves (Apr, 1936)

Filed under: Radio, Toys and Games — @ 10:20 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1936
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Bridge Played Via Short Waves
CONDUCTING a bridge match in which the opponents were 6,000 miles away sounds incredible, but the Culbertsons engaged in just such a game. Using two official “dummies” who made the plays called for by the players located at Buenos Aires Mr. and Mrs. Culbertson engaged in the International Contract Bridge match although they were in New York.
At Buenos Aires an announcer named the plays made by the South American players. The “dummies” at New York followed these just as though they were opposing the Culbertsons, themselves. At the other end “dummies” representing the Culbertsons made the plays announced over the air.

May 5, 2006

Feminine “Ham” Heard ‘Round The World (Feb, 1936)

Filed under: Radio — @ 11:59 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Feb, 1936
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Feminine “Ham” Heard ‘Round The World
RADIO amateurs of six continents were contacted within 6 hours and 20 minutes recently by Miss Nellie Corry, young British radio enthusiast. The feat, regarded as a record in amateur broadcasting circles, is all the more remarkable in that Miss Corry accomplished it on a home made set costing less than $20. Miss Corry built her transmitter in her home at Walton-On-The-Hill, Surrey, England, during her spare time. Working on a 10-meter wavelength on the occasion of her record breaking broadcast, she contacted amateur stations in Europe, Asia. Africa, Australia, and the two Americas.

May 4, 2006

Chicks Dig a Man With an Echophone (Apr, 1944)

Filed under: Advertisements, Just Weird, Radio — @ 9:07 am
Source: qst ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1944
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Note the underlying truth of this ad: surrounded by fawning girls, the geeky kid is focused on figuring out how the hookah works and how he can mod it.

“…. THAT’S EASY! WHAT HE’S GOT THAT YOU HAVEN’T GOT IS AN ECHOPHONE EC-1″
Echophone Model EC-1
(Illustrated) a compact communications receiver with every necessary feature for good reception. Covers from 550 ka to 30 mc. on three bands. Electrical bandspread on all bands. Six tubes. Self-contained speaker. 115-125 volts AC or DC.
Echophone Radio Co., 640 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 11, Illinois

April 11, 2006

AUTO RADIO “DE LUXE” (Jan, 1938)

Filed under: Automotive, General, Radio — @ 6:46 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1938
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AUTO RADIO “DE LUXE”
TO MEET the growing need for broadcasting from outside points, the National Broadcasting Company, of Chicago, 111., has outfitted a new car with all necessary equipment for this type of work. The vehicle is capable of traveling from place to place at high speeds.

The equipment for this mobile unit consists of two transmitters, three receivers and a gasoline driven generator, all compactly mounted in a specially built touring sedan. Considerable weight reduction was achieved by discarding storage batteries and substituting the generator for the transmitters’ power supply.

Immediately in back of the front seat is the control panel and console, which houses the ultra-high frequency receiver and the specially designed four-stage high gain audio amplifier. To the rear, in the space usually occupied by the back seat, is a large compartment containing a fifty-watt transmitter, used for stationary broadcasts. A forty-watt ultra-high frequency transmitter is used for mobile broadcasts. The mobile unit is so designed that one man can drive and broadcast at the same time.

April 4, 2006

Pocket-Sized Radio Used in Private Paging System (Apr, 1956)

Filed under: Ahead of its time, Origins, Radio — @ 9:32 am
Source: Popular Electronics ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1956
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My question is, what is an “confined induction loop area”? Does that mean you have to surround your building with an antenna?

Pocket-Sized Radio Used in Private Paging System
Private and individual paging of personnel in plants and offices is possible with Motorola’s pocket-sized “Handie-Talkie.” Weighing only 10 ounces and slightly larger than a package of king-size cigarettes, the set is carried on the person. Its use eliminates the need for public-address type paging and loud call devices such as bells.
A typical paging system, using the “Handie-Talkie,” consists of a selector console with individual buttons for key personnel, and an FM transmitter that radiates alerting tones and voice messages within a confined induction loop area. The receiver is powered by a 4-volt mercury battery and is free from the noise interference common to many industrial establishments. Up to several hundred persons can be paged individually. (Motorola Communications and Electronics, Inc., 4501 Augusta Blvd., Chicago 51, 111.).

April 3, 2006

“REPORT FROM ROTTERDAM” (Apr, 1944)

Filed under: Advertisements, Radio, War — @ 8:07 am
Source: qst ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Apr, 1944
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I think this is the only time i have ever seen the word rape used in an advertisement.


“REPORT FROM ROTTERDAM”

Secret underground broadcasters still send out news of what the brave Dutch are doing to upset the Nazi “new Disorder”. Radio furnishes the ONE link between conquered countries and the outside world. In war, as in peace, The Radio Shack continues to play its part in the field of communications . . . now supplying vital equipment to help hasten the day of victory, and revenge for the rape of Rotterdam.

BUY WAR BONDS and STAMPS

THE RADIO SHACK
167 Washington St.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.

February 28, 2006

DELAYING THE BROADCAST (Jun, 1939)

Filed under: Cool, Radio — @ 9:38 am
Source: Mechanix Illustrated ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jun, 1939
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The guy in this article absolutely fits my definition of a hacker. There was a problem where two radio stations were broadcasting the same syndicated content on the same frequency. Listeners near either station had no problem. However there were locations where both signals could be recieved. This would be fine, except for the fact that the cable running to one of the stations was longer than the other, so the signal was delayed by 1/23000 of a second. Enough to cause destructive interference. So the engineers solution was to create an acoustic delay line out of 23 feet of lead pipe stuffed with cloth and gauze with a speaker on one side and a microphone on the other. The slower speed of sound delayed the signal long enough for the two stations to be in sync.

DELAYING THE BROADCAST

A FEW weeks ago the popular radio show, Information Please, used the following catch question:

“Who hears the speaker first, the people at the back of the auditorium, or the people 3,000 miles across the country who are listening to the broadcast of the speech?”

The catch was that radio waves travel with the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, and sound waves only 1,080 feet per second. Therefore, the answer went, the listeners three thousand miles away would hear it first.
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