I was going to write something about Field Day, but realized you’ve heard it all before. So…
I was looking around the shelves for some light reading the other day and found a magazine I hadn’t looked at in a while (which describes most of my library, I guess) It was an issue of “Radio Broadcast” – from July 1925. It was a good one. 1925 was a boom time for radio, amateur or not.
Then, as now, even the ads are interesting. One even pointed out the difference between straight line wavelength and straight line capacitance construction of tuning capacitors, something even oldsters have likely forgotten, and hams from anywhere in the age of digital displays never knew. On the other hand, they also advertised “antennas” that plugged into a light socket and used the house wiring to collect signals.
The famous Mr. Marconi himself had a 9 page article about not only the new “Short” waves he was experimenting with, but he brought up the fact that these could be directed, or focused in a particular direction, as opposed to the old, long wave practice of spewing the energy everywhere, whether you needed/wanted it or not. He suggested that if this practice was widespread, one could reach anywhere in the world while dropping the power down from 600 kW to a mere 12, and perhaps even lower. This was probably before the signal QRP came along.
There was a report of the first world conference of amateurs, now known as the IARU. They had decided on recommendations for what exclusive amateur wavelengths should be recommended, to their respective Governments. David Sarnoff, vice-president of the Radio Corporation of America opined that advertising over radio should be clearly separated from the program material. Harry Warner, the president of some motion picture company, told people that radio would not usurp moving pictures, just as his product did not destroy live theatre. An expedition to the North Pole was in the works and it would have an amateur with them to attempt communication with the rest of the world on 20 metres, a bold move at the time. There were still blank spots on the world map.
The technical section featured a “Super Autodyne” receiver, a superhet whose particular features I didn’t quite understand, something about the local oscillator and detector both in the same triode tube, I think.
For the less ambitious, there was an article on how to build a radio into a phonograph, and a crystal set that could be built for $1.82. Of course, a spool of number 24 enameled wire cost a dime back then.
I even learned how you could figure out the polarity of a battery using just a potato, in case the battery had no markings and your favourite multimeter wasn’t handy.
Not a bad education for a lazy afternoon’s reading.
73
See you at Field Day
mk
VE3FFK
Last Updated on 2026-06-03 by Eve