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Marconi, and the KKK Pleasure Club
Construction of the Belmar station began in 1912 and continued into at least 1914. The site even had a 45 room hotel for "unmarried employees." It's not actually in Belmar, Belmar was just the nearest...
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I don't totally understand this. Despite being on fire this radio continues to function for more than 20 minutes. It's auditory death throes begin around the 20-minute mark. The decline is clearly due...
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Halloween Martin
Halloween Martin was, by most definitions, the first female disk jockey, and quite almost certainly the first in the Chicago metro. She was a former newspaper reporter in the home economic department...
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The Wireless Microphone
The Microphone Book by John Eargle gets this wrong. He dates the development of the wireless microphone to the 1960s. It is easy to find references to wireless microphones that predate this date. For...
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Transcription Mystery Disc #203
This is a Packard Bell Phonocord. It has a metal core and is about 8-inches in diameter. This is another Grinnell's acetate. They were a music store based in Michigan. This disc is unlabeled but is...
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SINPO and SINPFEMO Code
SINPO is an acronym. Here's what it stands for: S - Signal StregnthI - InterferenceN - NoiseP - PropagationO - Overall RatingIn shortwave radio, a SINPO response indicates to the transmitting station...
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Angelo Della Riccia
In radio history some names are more sidelined than others. It took a radio text from 1926 to mention the name Angelo Della Riccia to me. The line was as follows: "Della Riccia in the same year ,...
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The Radome
The word radome is a contraction of the words "Radar" and "dome." The classic radomes we most often image are geodesic domes with all due credit to R. Buckminster Fuller. That particular radome...
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The Classic Old Ham Sketch
I've seen this picture on at least a dozen QSL cards and wondered where it came from. What stood out to me at second glance was the code ".- -... -.-. -.. ..-. --. " Which is rendered as ABCDFG. He...
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Transcription Mystery Disc #204
This is a Silvertone 10-inch acetate recording. It spins at 78 rpm and has a metal core. Unlike many others it is labeled "There I Go" - No I Lay Me Down to Dream, Installation Speech by E.C....
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Recording Blanks For All Purposes
You may want to zoom in for this. This is a panel from an Allied Electronics catalog detailing all the acetate blanks they have for sale. Most of them are Audiodisc and Presto brands. The cheapest were...
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The Origin of the Word "Telegraph"
The word "telegraph" was coined around 1792 by Claude Chappe. He was a french physician and inventor. You will notice this is not only before Morse patented the telegraph in 1837. It's also worthwhile...
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Wavelength Formula
In 1917 Audel & Co. published Hawkins Electrical Guide. There the formula for wavelength is described as follows:"That point where the electric wharp and the magnetic flux meet, or the distance...
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SRF-39FP
A month back I read this article about a specific Sony radio, the SRF-39FP. It has a transparent plastic body, a simple antenna made of copper wire and ferrite, a AM/FM circuit, amplifier, and tuner...
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Transcription Mystery Disc #205
This is an 8-inch metal-core, Capitol Pro-Disc. It's labeled, sort of. In red pencil it reads "Larry Carr" then an illegible line then in regular graphite is marginally more legible script... "Nice...
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Timley Template
Anyone else ever use these Timley Templates to speed up circuit diagram drawing? Most students that used worksheets instructions and text books were unaware that their teachers did not have perfect...
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TRAVEL
I'll be on the road for a few days. Be back next week. Go read Fybush for your radio fix.
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Democracy Now on WHUS
While driving out to the coast I stopped for drinks at a small town grocery. A stack of these were posted in the front hall. It's unclear if this was posted at the behest of WHUS or of Democracy Now...
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Transcription Mystery Disc #206
This is a red Wilcox-Gay Recordio. It has a metal core and is 8-inches in diameter. The disc is wholly unlabeled: no date, no name nada. I have ripped several others from this batch and have been...
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RCA Victor's In The Groove
RCA Victor's "In The Groove" was in circulation beginning in March of 1946 and running into 1949. they operated under editor Frank O'Connell until 1948 then Charles Schafhauser. (Schafhauser had...
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