Interesting Gift

[kb1lxm]

My dad gave me a really old book that once belonged to my Great-Grandfather. It's titled "Practical Radio" by Moyer and Wostrel. It's a First Edition, Third Impression from 1924. I've read the first few chapters and have found it a very interesting read. The book covers topics such as antennas, basic electrical principles, and a wealth of information on tubes and tube based recievers. The book focuses more on recievers but does have a section on Raduo Telephone and Telegraphy, including information on spark, cw, and how some of these systems worked plus Morse charts published by The Department of Commerce, Bureau of Navigation (which lists CQ as General Inquiry Call) and a Chart of Q codes, some I've never seen before. It's a good look at radio before Transistors, Frequency Modulation or even before the FCC.

The content is obviously dated, but it does give a younger ham like me a better idea of how far we've come since the early days of radio. The book even includes plans for a few types of recievers and look like interesting projects, if I can track down the parts (Neutrodons??). I'd scan some of the images but I'm worried that the binding may be fragile and I've been handling the book very gently.

[WA5KRP]

Your curiosity and interest in the past will reward you in the future.

WTG!



WA5KRP
Texas

[ai4ep]

That is the best part about learning -- no one can take that information away from you. Just learn & enjoy life !!

[K8ERV]

Isn't that "Neutrodynes"? Inquiring minds (not mine) want to know. Maybe.

Pls scan and send me the section on transistors. Tubes are out.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[kb2vxa]

Hi all,

I don't remember what a "neutrodyne" was since it's been a long time since I read those old books in the library. It's just an antiquated term for something you'll come to recognize as something else.

Become familiar with the circuits and since antique tubes are rare and difficult to come by unless you want to search and spend lots of money, use more modern ones instead. It's the circuit that counts actually and tube substitution is so non critical just about anything with the same internal electrodes will work.

I built several simple receivers using new tubes (when tubes were new, hi) and some using antiques like the then common UV-201A triode. They worked surprisingly well but the only one I had trouble with understanding and never built was the original Marconi receiver using a coherer. Sure, making a coherer is easy enough but the book never even mentioned the decoherer needed to reset the coherer between sent Morse character components. BTW, the spark gap transmitter worked TOO well. (;->)

Yes, learning the inside (the cabinet) story of the history of radio is part and parcel of history itself. Better to know what made it tick from first hand experience than learning only the names. It's like building a time machine and being there when it happened.

73 de Warren KB2VXA

[K9STH]

Tom:

All "kidding aside".

Believe it or not, transistors WERE available back in the 1920s. They were called "amplifying crystals" and were of basically JFET in design. However, the manufacturing technology was not available to produce them in any kind of quantity. As such, they were primarily confined to the experimenters realm. There were articles in various wireless and radio experimenters magazines during the 1920s on how to build an amplifying crystal.

It wasn't until shortly after World War II that Shockley, et. al., perfected the point-junction germanium transistor which was then expanded into the silicon transistor and then into all sorts of designs.

But, transistors WERE definitely "around" back in the period shortly after World War I.

Glen, K9STH