So interesting to hear in detail the thrill of this man discovering radio. I remember my great-grandfather, born about 1909, had a room in his house for his ham radio hobby. My grandmother said he would have LOVED the internet but he died in the late 1980s. He was a scientist and musician and his band was broadcast on radio back in the early days.
Very interesting video. I have been collecting antique radios since I was a kid. I am 70 years old now. I have several "crystal" radios from the early 1920s, and they still pick up stations just as they did 100 years ago. I also have an RCA Radiola Sr. one tube regenerative receiver from 1923. It is MUCH more sensitive, and quite selective, and, using a decent outdoor antenna and a good ground receives AM broadcast band stations from hundreds of miles away on a good night. I was an electrical engineer by profession, and my hobby is restoring these antique receivers.
I have a homemade radio, one tube , using parts from Crosley. I’m sure it would work if I had the knowledge to hook up proper battery. I have other radios from the mid 1930’s - on up to some currently sold portable SW radios. 📻🙂
In1961 I made those power-free crystal radios with a 1n34A diode, old type headphones, using scrap 22 or 24ga copper wire from defective electric motors for winding my own coils, plus for long wire antennas. As a country boy in central Texas was receiving stations over thousand + miles way, dozen states and Mexico. My Dad at the time worried about my hobby, wire antennas between trees but when Hurricane Carla came inland clear across most of the state causing power outages for weeks, not everyone had battery radios back then so He appreciated having that crystal radio with a backup wire antenna in the attic for news broadcasts, wish I would have taken a picture of him listening!
@@MrBobm001I'm in the UK (66 years old 😂), and just like you I also used to break open old transformers to get the 22swg enamelled copper wire to make my own coils (90 turns on a 2inch cardboard tube former was just about right!). I used oa81 germanium diodes, and air spaced tuning capacitors , all salvaged from old radios found in junk shops or donated by neighbours. The aerial was strung up on my mother's washing line , and the earth connection was the supply pipe to our gas fire 😊! I then progressed onto transistors ( oc71 ) , and made regen sets , and also a few valve sets ,all with secondhand parts , if I had a time machine I'd go back in a flash .
The fascination of pulling information, voice , etc. out of the air is what I think still drives most of us “radio hobbyists” to this day. Yeah, sure there are streaming services and all that but there is still nothing like sitting, tuning around on a radio and pulling a distant station in to hear.
There is interest and enthusiasm in this just as I experienced. Aged 14 in 1969 I bought an H.A.C.; Hear All Continents regenerative one valve kit purchased from a radio magazine a neighbour gave me and he gave me 2,000 Ω headphones. A wire round the kitchen and one to a water pipe, 90 Volt battery and a 3 Volt cycle battery dropped to 2 by a resistor. 3 Denco coils to cover 160 to 10m. After a few whistles I heard a bird whistling so listened and then a voice announced, "This is Radio South Africa." I heard local amateurs on 160m and thought I want to do this. Aged 19 I got my G8 licence for vhf and up and then did the Morse Code Test for this G4. I have old parts and used 4 pin valves to make a replica. G4GHB
I had the same set , saved up my pocket money for it and well remember the postman delivering it ! It came in a box full of parts all individually wrapped with tissue paper and a green general coverage denco coil, stayed up till the early hours putting it together and it worked !!! I remember the Eveready B126 90v battery being quite expensive at the time though!
@@bobgorman9481 Hi Bob, great stuff! One green Denco coil I put in my Wireless 19 Set for independent r.f. aerial tuning on rx. Already been modified and needed a lot of work to get it going properly as it was extremely deaf at first. Denco coils stupid prices now. B126 I remember 10/6, 12/6 and finished at 15/-. Not too sure if they were even 7/6d for a short time. £20 on ebay as display model only! I saw a boxed unbuilt H.A.C. kit advertised by Chevet Books in Blackpool maybe 1980-ish but I bet somebody snapped it up. He didn't repair radio sets but took them apart for spares, he got me a PM2 valve and base. I bought two radio magazines, Popular Wireless, 1926 and 1927 and was going to buy more but he had shut. Bill, G4GHB
I have been a licensed ham radio operator (W5JN) since I was 15 years old...and that is almost 50 years ago! My hobby of ham radio turned into a job as a military contractor at the tender age of only 19! I went on to work on projects for NASA, USAF and USN as an electronics technician!
Reminds me of the man who owned the house my daughter bought. He was a ham radio hobbyist. There was a huge tower in the backyard and he soundproofed half of the garage. He seemed like an interesting person.
"...my sleeping porch..." there's a true reference from the past. it was a custom if you had the room to sleep on a screened porch in the summer months. if you didn't have the room, but had a fire escape, that would do.
what a lovely introduction, I began with my catwhisker receiver and crystal headphones in 1965, hundreds of receivers followed, ham radios, two meter, then satellite, then broadcast radio and TV. I've been a broadcast television engineer and director since 1976, I owe it ALL to my father's willingness to introduce me to a small piece of Galena. a cat whisker, a crystal earpiece and the solidity of ground, the mysteries of the sky and aerial and the imagination and lust for discovery that would forever change my life.
The big AM radio pioneers went live in 1921 and shortly thereafter (KDKA Pittsburgh, WJZ Newark, et al). Entrepreneurs played their hunch that the medium could be monetized through advertisements, and/or as cross-promotional tools for their other businesses (department stores, newspapers, receiver manufacturers). What an exciting era!
In the early days my grandfather worked for KDKA as the technician of their mobile unit around Pittsburgh which mostly broadcasted the University of Pittsburgh football games. In the early 1950s one day he told me what a big deal Transistors would become! I was about 7yo and that day always stayed on my mind. He retired from the Westinghouse Manufacturing Plant in 1968. He was always thinking ten years ahead about technology. He had a lot of firsts in our neighborhood - FIRSTS ...Ham Operator ,TV set, color TV set , aluminum siding, wall to wall carpeting, gas refrigerator, bomb shelter, rotary lawn mower, double pane windows, rotary antenna, and High Fidelity record player 33 1/3 speed.
KDKA and WWJ both went on the air in 1920 (KDKA broadcast the results of the presidential elections that November). And both stations are still on the air!
And 30s and 40s (slightly superseded by film), then in the 1950s and 60s, TV. in the 70s, it kind of came back with car culture, and held on in the 80s, supplemented by music videos. It was overshadowed by the internet in the 90s and beyond, but it still holds on.
NO! This was only one way receiving! The average America could not afford their own Radio Station. This is when the corporate propaganda started with nationwide radio networks. And started propagandizing America to Socialism. Then TV networks in the 50s and Hollywood movies. And Public Schools! All Big Government and Corporate propaganda!
How exciting!!! A radio, CB, and Morse code. We take a lot for granted today. This reading was an amazing account. His excitement came through loud and clear. 😊
I have been a huge radio enthusiast since when i was real young watching my brother tune around on my moms short wave radio, which also recieved the aircraft band, CB band which I found most interesting, and the VHF band with police and fire, and 2 meter ham radio. "Magical airwaves crackle with life, bright antennae bristle with the energy." Spirit of Radio by Rush.
Fifty years later I listened to shortwave on old tube radios purchased at yard sales, soon moving up to a Realistic DX-160 which to me was an amazing machine!
My brother and I were each given a transistor radio when we were young in the late '50s. I remember slowly turning the tuning dial at night and listened to the far off stations I could receive. That experience helped me to connect with this man's thrill in hearing his receiver get stations far, far away. I really enjoyed this video and hearing how he explored his new toy.
Wonderful narration, and many thanks! Some of us resonate powerfully to technological connections like this. An example is the great radio raconteur Jean Shepherd, who was an avid ham operator until his passing. His AM broadcast essays often touched on the power of radio, and the spoken word.
I used to have a little shortwave radio receiver and I can relate to the thrill of finding a broadcast from somewhere far across the planet. Granted, real-time worldwide communication is not a new thing anymore, and I won't ever have the United States Navy respond that way to a letter I wrote to them. But it's still great fun flipping through the frequencies to see what you can find.
My father built a crystal radio in the early 1920's from either a kit or from scrounged materials, winding his own coils. He recalled the most expensive item was the headphones. Living in Hillsboro, Oregon he was able to listen to Louis Armstrong broadcasting live from Chicago. This instilled a love of Dixieland Jazz, and of Louis Armstrong. He later built radar installations in the Pacific in World War II. As a teenager pianist in 1969, I listened to Jimi Hendrix and Crosby Stills & Nash, and sent away for a Vox Jaguar combo organ by HEATHKIT. I now realize why my father, so tight with a dollar, was so supportive of this $350 endeavor. He remembered his amazement at building his own crystal radio, and his love of Armstrong's music. Supply your kids with the opportunity to create something useful like a radio or musical instrument from scratch, its a wonderful experience.
My handsome , wonderful father was born in 1921 . Dad was in the Navy & at Pearl Harbor when bombed , then went 8nto the Air force & flew over Midway . Really good channel you've got ❣️
this sounds so exciting - now i know why ham radio was such a big deal. it just never occurred to me. the SOS thing was fantastic. imagine everyone in the world going quiet so they could deal with the ship in trouble. Wow! thanks so much :) ⚡️🌷🌱
I still find the thought of the old tv in my room using the ariel upon the chimney converting the invisible signals way cooler than her lounge tv relying on the telephone line with all its Internet capability - no matter how much choice she has over my 150 odd terrestrial channels. the old analogue system was more fun though- when we had just 4 terrestrial channels & the thrill of lift conditions allowing good reception from our neighbouring tv region then giving a massive 6 alternative programmes depending on time of day….🐢👍😁
@@jeffking4176 our itv station is Meridian which moved from Southampton to studios near Fareham & used a Portsmouth backdrop which apparently cost them half of Southampton viewers so now it’s news show is based in Oxford . We live closer to Bristol & London ! they did plonk one presenter in front of The Needles though which is nice..👍
Depends on where you are. I’m in Jacksonville Florida. Not much locally, but 50 mi south is WPLK [ Palatka Florida], a great Oldies station. At night, WSM, Nashville, KMOX, St.Louis, another Oldies station in Naples Florida on 1320, and another on 1380. Short Wave is still around with some great stations from around the world. [ not quite like it was during the Cold War, but in a quiet place [ away from electrical noise]. 📻🙂
@@jeffking4176 "Холодная война" никогда не заканчивалась, товарищ. Россия не пала, как ваша некогда могущественная нация. Ваша армия наполнена психически и духовно больными, которые не знают, какого пола они родились. Очень грустно.
Listening AM bands in the evening, esp. with a good radio giving you all AM bands (LW, MW, SW), and an antenna that picks up far less environmental electrical noise than a mere wire, as today's consumer electronics "spam" the bands with noise, you may be able to receive far away stations, also depending on ionospheric conditions etc. With space constraints like I have, the best thing I ever tried was an active, shielded magnetic _broadband_ loop antenna, made for a few bucks out of cheap RG58 coax cable, a frame, few electronic components... The main part being 1m x 1m square, on a cable guide plastic tube put over a vertical stick, to make it rotateable.
@@coloradostrong True, but it was leftist madness that got the West to where it is now in the first place. The USSR ultimately failed because their system was unsustainable (although I would argue that our present society's system and its culture aren't much more sustainable either so I guess we'll just have to see). But hey, a lot of people are into radio because they want to be prepared for a sort of societal collapse anyway so I don't think that should be too scary for ham radio types.
Once again you knocked it out of the park with another radio video!...My…what an accurate account of bringing home that first crystal set!!...A first-hand description of radio hobbyist enthusiasm!!!
1921 is very, very, early in commercial broadcasting history; KDKA, the first commercial station, had gone on the air only the year before. The writer describes what modern shortwave listeners do--send broadcast sources confirmation that they have received their transmissions, in order to receive a written response (what is called a "QSL card"). Perhaps verification nowadays is by the Internet, which many commercial shortwave broadcasters now use anyway. Early broadcasters such as KDKA asked listeners to let them know if they were receiving their programming. The writer described hearing jazz, which is interesting; in 1921; that may have been a very, very, early live musical performance from an early commercial station, or an amateur making music and broadcasting it himself. Early stations put just about anything on the air, simply to be on the air. More prevalent at the time would have been the Naval broadcasting he also mentions, in Morse code, which predated commercial broadcasting. The writer describes a crystal set, the introduction to radio for generations of listeners. (He modified his rig for more selective tuning, and added a vacuum-tube detector circuit for much greater sensitivity, later on.) The basic crystal set contained the simplest radio circuit possible. I had the official Cub Scout/Boy Scout kit model, with copper tuning coil. You could only get a couple of local stations with the diode, but you were listening to radio with a kit you built yourself, which was the point.
What an amazing article and it really translate the enthusiasm and fascination 100 years into the future for later generations to appreciate and understand. The funny thing is the transmitter site at Nauen, near Berlin, still exists till this day :) It is for the most part a Museum but the Shortwave transmitter is still used sometimes.
Back in the late 1960s I purchased a shortwave radio kit from Radio Shack on sale for $20. I carefully put it together and with the help from my electronics instructor I was able to properly tune the IF Section. With a long wire outside my window and a ground to our plumbing I received signals from around the world. I never forgot the magic of hearing sounds from so far away.
I still find radio as fascinating and magical as this fellow did 100 years ago. There is still much joy to be had in the radio hobbies in the age of the internet :)
Sounds complicated, but it worked. For you Ham radio folks, Hiram Percy Maxim's grave is located here in Hagerstown, MD in Rose Hill Cemetery in the Hamilton family area. He is a few feet from William Hamilton, Governor of Maryland in the 1880s. His wife was a Hamilton.
Listening to the narration was like having a time-machine back to 1921. I got my amateur radio license about 30 year later (1953) and my equipment was a huge leap forward from what was being used in 1921. My Hallicrafters SX-28 was a 1940 era receiver and was an excellent piece of equipment. The transmitter was a homebrew 6AG7-6L6, a common rig for those days. That was my start at the age of 13. All financed from a newspaper route, BTW.
I remember thinking how far in the past this was 51 years later in 1972 when I was 13. Now I'm 64 and that memory event was also 51 years ago. But I still think of that as recent. Pretty crazy.
Radio's development has a track similar to that of most other communication technologies, it seems. It starts first as an experimental, cutting-edge technology invented by amateur and professional technicians, of real interest only to tech-geek hobbyists and state and private entities that early on realize its potential as a ground-breaking form of communication. Slowly over time, it technologically develops to the extent that it becomes more widely accessible and affordable for the layperson, opening a whole new world of broadcast communication that, though no longer a niche hobby, still has the exciting or even subversive aires of a wide-open technological community free of hamstringing state regulations and for-profit corporate interests. Soon enough, government and big business peek their heads in to see what all the noisy hoopla surrounding this newfangled technology is and discover a world ready for the pickings. What was once a seemingly exclusive place inhabited only by tech geeks, amateur hobbyists, small business entrepreneurs, govt/military operators, and your usual eccentric nuts and cranks then gets forced open to the wide market, becoming overregulated, corporatized, and widely marketed as a consumer product to the extent that even your 90-year-old great-grandma regularly uses it.
Still a great hobby, but of course without the thrill of the new technology and every year big new developments, like use of the shortwave, superheterodyne-receivers, first transmission of pictures and from 1926 experimental television. It's a bit like I felt when I was "online" for the first time in my life somewhere in the mid 1980s and the fast development after the "WWW" became popular in the mid 1990s.
I have pleasant memories of when I was a kid and I would listen to my Mom and Dad's radio. Such shows as Arthur Godfrey, Gangbusters, Burns and Allen, etc. So recently I went to Target to purchase a regular tabletop radio. That plastic box that you plug in, and has a on/off volume knob on the left , and a station-tunet knob on the right. Well, not only did Target NOT have a radio for sale, but the lady clerk didnt even know ehat one was,!!!😮
Until a few years ago, I had a Philco shortwave set which belonged to my grandfather. The superheterodyne circuit could tune in the world with only a straight-wire antenna. Durability? The original tubes, dated 1938, were STILL WORKING some seventy years later. It still functioned, but, due to its age, was something of a fire hazard. Maybe it's still working for someone else at present.
Outstanding historical detail! Amateur radio remains a great hobby through constant tech innovation. There is nothing quite like "working" a station thousands of miles away without the Internet while parked in your vehicle or sitting in your house. 73 DE KJ4MZ E E
Excellent video, all that conent from an article first published in PopSci back in the day. One thing to remember is ,signal bouned off the ionosphore for gobleal communications,.
I can appreciate and understand how the first generation in adulthood were so thrilled by the radio technology , becaus it's the same experience with us late wave gen x'ers in relation to the internet. growing up in an analog world and then being able to just communicate and see in real time what's going on around the world and the click of a button, to this day is just amazing to me where the kids now are just..."yeah whatever, the internet, so what?"
I have a Westinghouse Aeriola Sr. radio that was made in 1921. It has one vacuum tube and is meant to run on batteries, and listened to through headphones, and in 1921 it cost the equivalent of about $800 in today's money!
I prefer the radio over the television. I listen to old time radio shows all the time and current programs of course. I sleep with a radio on..I got this from my Father.
We don’t have many opportunities to have a fresh, new, exciting experience like this. Radio has been here, TV has been here, internet has been here, social media has been here, cameras have been here, cellphones have been here….what’s new now?
With his modified, better equipment, the writer is pulling in the world. By late 1921 broadcasting had begun to be divided up, and the AM, or standard, band (540 to 1700 kHZ in the U. S., in 10-kHZ increments) was developed for commercial stations.
My dad was a great radio bigband singer. I was a radiotelegrafist in the navy. Later my oceansailing days were only safe with good radio. (weather and intershipcom..) Now even the TV era I have to leave behind. Hello WWW. We have to move on.
@@philipcox5041 It did 56 years ago :) This was one of the first steps with my electronic experimentation box. Later we built a medium frequency transmitter (500 mW) which, of course, was somewhat illegal.
@rainerausdemspring3584 I was doing the same when I was young. Went on to get an engineering degree. You gave me some good childhood memories, thank you, my friend.
Dad and his family wood sit in the kitchen and LOOK at the radio and listen when they got a TV they still had the AM radio in cornder and listen to ball games
WIFI and Bluetooth are the radios of the 21 century. The frequency is in the microwave range instead of long wave, medium wave and short wave bands as in the 1920s, but still the principle is the same.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 79 | คู่เอก "ก้องชัย vs อาเมียร์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/WfPSA1A0NHc/mqdefault.jpg)
So interesting to hear in detail the thrill of this man discovering radio. I remember my great-grandfather, born about 1909, had a room in his house for his ham radio hobby. My grandmother said he would have LOVED the internet but he died in the late 1980s. He was a scientist and musician and his band was broadcast on radio back in the early days.
Sounds like an interesting guy.
His great grandson should do the research and write his biography. I would buy a first edition.
Ditto.
@@uslines
And radio is still just as miraculous a technology. The business standard has become stale but radio is incredible
This is the realest thing I’ve read on TH-cam in a long time. No wires. Fiber or otherwise. Just free and in the air.
Very interesting video. I have been collecting antique radios since I was a kid. I am 70 years old now. I have several "crystal" radios from the early 1920s, and they still pick up stations just as they did 100 years ago. I also have an RCA Radiola Sr. one tube regenerative receiver from 1923. It is MUCH more sensitive, and quite selective, and, using a decent outdoor antenna and a good ground receives AM broadcast band stations from hundreds of miles away on a good night. I was an electrical engineer by profession, and my hobby is restoring these antique receivers.
I have a homemade radio, one tube , using parts from Crosley. I’m sure it would work if I had the knowledge to hook up proper battery.
I have other radios from the mid 1930’s - on up to some currently sold portable SW radios.
📻🙂
In1961 I made those power-free crystal radios with a 1n34A diode, old type headphones, using scrap 22 or 24ga copper wire from defective electric motors for winding my own coils, plus for long wire antennas. As a country boy in central Texas was receiving stations over thousand + miles way, dozen states and Mexico. My Dad at the time worried about my hobby, wire antennas between trees but when Hurricane Carla came inland clear across most of the state causing power outages for weeks, not everyone had battery radios back then so He appreciated having that crystal radio with a backup wire antenna in the attic for news broadcasts, wish I would have taken a picture of him listening!
@@MrBobm001I'm in the UK (66 years old 😂), and just like you I also used to break open old transformers to get the 22swg enamelled copper wire to make my own coils (90 turns on a 2inch cardboard tube former was just about right!).
I used oa81 germanium diodes, and air spaced tuning capacitors , all salvaged from old radios found in junk shops or donated by neighbours. The aerial was strung up on my mother's washing line , and the earth connection was the supply pipe to our gas fire 😊!
I then progressed onto transistors ( oc71 ) , and made regen sets , and also a few valve sets ,all with secondhand parts , if I had a time machine I'd go back in a flash .
That is incredible , I would love to see your collection and play with them
The fascination of pulling information, voice , etc. out of the air is what I think still drives most of us “radio hobbyists” to this day. Yeah, sure there are streaming services and all that but there is still nothing like sitting, tuning around on a radio and pulling a distant station in to hear.
It’s magical isn’t it?
@@chasbodaniels1744It'll always be.
It's amazing how crystal radios can detect those week electrical signals in the air.
There is interest and enthusiasm in this just as I experienced.
Aged 14 in 1969 I bought an H.A.C.; Hear All Continents regenerative one valve kit purchased from a radio magazine a neighbour gave me and he gave me 2,000 Ω headphones. A wire round the kitchen and one to a water pipe, 90 Volt battery and a 3 Volt cycle battery dropped to 2 by a resistor. 3 Denco coils to cover 160 to 10m.
After a few whistles I heard a bird whistling so listened and then a voice announced, "This is Radio South Africa." I heard local amateurs on 160m and thought I want to do this.
Aged 19 I got my G8 licence for vhf and up and then did the Morse Code Test for this G4.
I have old parts and used 4 pin valves to make a replica.
G4GHB
I had the same set , saved up my pocket money for it and well remember the postman delivering it ! It came in a box full of parts all individually wrapped with tissue paper and a green general coverage denco coil, stayed up till the early hours putting it together and it worked !!!
I remember the Eveready B126 90v battery being quite expensive at the time though!
@@bobgorman9481 Hi Bob, great stuff!
One green Denco coil I put in my Wireless 19 Set for independent r.f. aerial tuning on rx. Already been modified and needed a lot of work to get it going properly as it was extremely deaf at first. Denco coils stupid prices now.
B126 I remember 10/6, 12/6 and finished at 15/-. Not too sure if they were even 7/6d for a short time.
£20 on ebay as display model only!
I saw a boxed unbuilt H.A.C. kit advertised by Chevet Books in Blackpool maybe 1980-ish but I bet somebody snapped it up. He didn't repair radio sets but took them apart for spares, he got me a PM2 valve and base. I bought two radio magazines, Popular Wireless, 1926 and 1927 and was going to buy more but he had shut.
Bill, G4GHB
I have been a licensed ham radio operator (W5JN) since I was 15 years old...and that is almost 50 years ago! My hobby of ham radio turned into a job as a military contractor at the tender age of only 19! I went on to work on projects for NASA, USAF and USN as an electronics technician!
Reminds me of the man who owned the house my daughter bought. He was a ham radio hobbyist. There was a huge tower in the backyard and he soundproofed half of the garage. He seemed like an interesting person.
Get ur Amateur Radio "ham" license, as I did 50 yrs ago👍😃🇺🇸
It was a cool hobby when I was kid, too pricey for me unfortunately.
@@WilliamMcDougald-pm3fq with the right choices, one can get on the air for very little
There's other things you can do with backyard towers and soundproof rooms that are also interesting.
"...my sleeping porch..."
there's a true reference from the past.
it was a custom if you had the room to sleep on a screened porch in the summer months.
if you didn't have the room, but had a fire escape, that would do.
I recall seeing such houses before.
It was only comparatively recent that I learned there were such things once upon a time.
what a lovely introduction, I began with my catwhisker receiver and crystal headphones in 1965, hundreds of receivers followed, ham radios, two meter, then satellite, then broadcast radio and TV. I've been a broadcast television engineer and director since 1976, I owe it ALL to my father's willingness to introduce me to a small piece of Galena. a cat whisker, a crystal earpiece and the solidity of ground, the mysteries of the sky and aerial and the imagination and lust for discovery that would forever change my life.
My dad was born in 1920. My mom, 1921. When I was a kid, dad had his ''radio room.'' He had all sorts of receivers and he was an avid CBer.
My dad was born in 1917 he told me he had a xtal radio and listened to WGY which was about50 miles from his home in new Hartford NY in the 20s
My Dad and Mom were born those same years.
The big AM radio pioneers went live in 1921 and shortly thereafter
(KDKA Pittsburgh, WJZ Newark, et al). Entrepreneurs played their hunch that the medium could be monetized through advertisements, and/or as cross-promotional tools for their other businesses (department stores, newspapers, receiver manufacturers).
What an exciting era!
In the early days my grandfather worked for KDKA as the technician of their mobile unit around Pittsburgh which mostly broadcasted the University of Pittsburgh football games. In the early 1950s one day he told me what a big deal Transistors would become! I was about 7yo and that day always stayed on my mind. He retired from the Westinghouse Manufacturing Plant in 1968. He was always thinking ten years ahead about technology. He had a lot of firsts in our neighborhood - FIRSTS ...Ham Operator ,TV set, color TV set , aluminum siding, wall to wall carpeting, gas refrigerator, bomb shelter, rotary lawn mower, double pane windows, rotary antenna, and High Fidelity record player 33 1/3 speed.
@@gieb6428 The past tense of "broadcast" is "broadcast." (e.g. University of Pittsburgh football games were broadcast live on KDKA.)
KDKA and WWJ both went on the air in 1920 (KDKA broadcast the results of the presidential elections that November). And both stations are still on the air!
102 years later, it's clear that radio was the Internet of the 1920s.
And 30s and 40s (slightly superseded by film), then in the 1950s and 60s, TV. in the 70s, it kind of came back with car culture, and held on in the 80s, supplemented by music videos. It was overshadowed by the internet in the 90s and beyond, but it still holds on.
Poet Velimir Khlebnikov predicted the Internet in 1921, calling it the Radio of the Future.
❤️Glory to Rus❤️
With the exception that your radio can't be hacked and your personal identification can't be stolen.
NO! This was only one way receiving! The average America could not afford their own Radio Station.
This is when the corporate propaganda started with nationwide radio networks. And started propagandizing America to Socialism.
Then TV networks in the 50s and Hollywood movies. And Public Schools!
All Big Government and Corporate propaganda!
Some people say there are no miracles. This world is nothing but miracles!
I remember my dad making a crystal radio with an earphone. That was so exciting but that was many years ago.
I made one. In about 1970.
This was freaking amazing and I was on pins and needles waiting to hear what he was going to do or learn next!!!
How exciting!!! A radio, CB, and Morse code. We take a lot for granted today. This reading was an amazing account. His excitement came through loud and clear. 😊
What a riveting article! I loved every minute of it. Thanks so much for posting this.
I have been a huge radio enthusiast since when i was real young watching my brother tune around on my moms short wave radio, which also recieved the aircraft band, CB band which I found most interesting, and the VHF band with police and fire, and 2 meter ham radio. "Magical airwaves crackle with life, bright antennae bristle with the energy."
Spirit of Radio by Rush.
Fifty years later I listened to shortwave on old tube radios purchased at yard sales, soon moving up to a Realistic DX-160 which to me was an amazing machine!
You have a fine channel
My brother and I were each given a transistor radio when we were young in the late '50s. I remember slowly turning the tuning dial at night and listened to the far off stations I could receive. That experience helped me to connect with this man's thrill in hearing his receiver get stations far, far away. I really enjoyed this video and hearing how he explored his new toy.
Unfortunately, now we have podcasts. Effort used to be a filter. Love your channel.
Wonderful narration, and many thanks!
Some of us resonate powerfully to technological connections like this. An example is the great radio raconteur Jean Shepherd, who was an avid ham operator until his passing. His AM broadcast essays often touched on the power of radio, and the spoken word.
You should listen to his recollections of being a teenage ham!
I used to have a little shortwave radio receiver and I can relate to the thrill of finding a broadcast from somewhere far across the planet. Granted, real-time worldwide communication is not a new thing anymore, and I won't ever have the United States Navy respond that way to a letter I wrote to them. But it's still great fun flipping through the frequencies to see what you can find.
I still have and use several Short Wave radios.
📻🙂
My father built a crystal radio in the early 1920's from either a kit or from scrounged materials, winding his own coils. He recalled the most expensive item was the headphones. Living in Hillsboro, Oregon he was able to listen to Louis Armstrong broadcasting live from Chicago. This instilled a love of Dixieland Jazz, and of Louis Armstrong. He later built radar installations in the Pacific in World War II. As a teenager pianist in 1969, I listened to Jimi Hendrix and Crosby Stills & Nash, and sent away for a Vox Jaguar combo organ by HEATHKIT. I now realize why my father, so tight with a dollar, was so supportive of this $350 endeavor. He remembered his amazement at building his own crystal radio, and his love of Armstrong's music. Supply your kids with the opportunity to create something useful like a radio or musical instrument from scratch, its a wonderful experience.
My handsome , wonderful father was born in 1921 . Dad was in the Navy & at Pearl Harbor when bombed , then went 8nto the Air force & flew over Midway . Really good channel you've got ❣️
this sounds so exciting - now i know why ham radio was such a big deal. it just never occurred to me. the SOS thing was fantastic. imagine everyone in the world going quiet so they could deal with the ship in trouble. Wow! thanks so much :) ⚡️🌷🌱
This was so awesome…❤
Thank you so much for your research and presentation of the 1920s
I still find the thought of the old tv in my room using the ariel upon the chimney converting the invisible signals way cooler than her lounge tv relying on the telephone line with all its Internet capability - no matter how much choice she has over my 150 odd terrestrial channels. the old analogue system was more fun though- when we had just 4 terrestrial channels & the thrill of lift conditions allowing good reception from our neighbouring tv region then giving a massive 6 alternative programmes depending on time of day….🐢👍😁
I still watch local tv - [ no Internet router here].
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@@jeffking4176 our itv station is Meridian which moved from Southampton to studios near Fareham & used a Portsmouth backdrop which apparently cost them half of Southampton viewers so now it’s news show is based in Oxford . We live closer to Bristol & London ! they did plonk one presenter in front of The Needles though which is nice..👍
1921 More radio with listenable content than today!
Depends on where you are.
I’m in Jacksonville Florida. Not much locally, but 50 mi south is WPLK [ Palatka Florida], a great Oldies station.
At night, WSM, Nashville, KMOX, St.Louis, another Oldies station in Naples Florida on 1320, and another on 1380.
Short Wave is still around with some great stations from around the world. [ not quite like it was during the Cold War, but in a quiet place [ away from electrical noise].
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@@jeffking4176 "Холодная война" никогда не заканчивалась, товарищ. Россия не пала, как ваша некогда могущественная нация. Ваша армия наполнена психически и духовно больными, которые не знают, какого пола они родились. Очень грустно.
@@coloradostrong Тем не менее, нация, возглавляемая обнаженным всадником Владом, как и все мы, движется к целям "Повестки дня на 2030 год".
Listening AM bands in the evening, esp. with a good radio giving you all AM bands (LW, MW, SW), and an antenna that picks up far less environmental electrical noise than a mere wire, as today's consumer electronics "spam" the bands with noise, you may be able to receive far away stations, also depending on ionospheric conditions etc.
With space constraints like I have, the best thing I ever tried was an active, shielded magnetic _broadband_ loop antenna, made for a few bucks out of cheap RG58 coax cable, a frame, few electronic components... The main part being 1m x 1m square, on a cable guide plastic tube put over a vertical stick, to make it rotateable.
@@coloradostrong True, but it was leftist madness that got the West to where it is now in the first place. The USSR ultimately failed because their system was unsustainable (although I would argue that our present society's system and its culture aren't much more sustainable either so I guess we'll just have to see). But hey, a lot of people are into radio because they want to be prepared for a sort of societal collapse anyway so I don't think that should be too scary for ham radio types.
“His new hobby will cost far less than his tobacco habits”. - very astute observation
But it’s not true 🤠
Once again you knocked it out of the park with another radio video!...My…what an accurate account of bringing home that first crystal set!!...A first-hand description of radio hobbyist enthusiasm!!!
1921 is very, very, early in commercial broadcasting history; KDKA, the first commercial station, had gone on the air only the year before. The writer describes what modern shortwave listeners do--send broadcast sources confirmation that they have received their transmissions, in order to receive a written response (what is called a "QSL card"). Perhaps verification nowadays is by the Internet, which many commercial shortwave broadcasters now use anyway. Early broadcasters such as KDKA asked listeners to let them know if they were receiving their programming.
The writer described hearing jazz, which is interesting; in 1921; that may have been a very, very, early live musical performance from an early commercial station, or an amateur making music and broadcasting it himself. Early stations put just about anything on the air, simply to be on the air. More prevalent at the time would have been the Naval broadcasting he also mentions, in Morse code, which predated commercial broadcasting.
The writer describes a crystal set, the introduction to radio for generations of listeners. (He modified his rig for more selective tuning, and added a vacuum-tube detector circuit for much greater sensitivity, later on.) The basic crystal set contained the simplest radio circuit possible. I had the official Cub Scout/Boy Scout kit model, with copper tuning coil. You could only get a couple of local stations with the diode, but you were listening to radio with a kit you built yourself, which was the point.
You started in an exciting era. I got involved in the 50’s. I’m a ham but I still listen to broadcast and world radio. It’s a wonderful hobby.
the enthusiasm and passion of the author of that text is evident a century later, bravo to the v/o artist
What an amazing article and it really translate the enthusiasm and fascination 100 years into the future for later generations to appreciate and understand. The funny thing is the transmitter site at Nauen, near Berlin, still exists till this day :) It is for the most part a Museum but the Shortwave transmitter is still used sometimes.
Back in the late 1960s I purchased a shortwave radio kit from Radio Shack on sale for $20. I carefully put it together and with the help from my electronics instructor I was able to properly tune the IF Section. With a long wire outside my window and a ground to our plumbing I received signals from around the world. I never forgot the magic of hearing sounds from so far away.
I still find radio as fascinating and magical as this fellow did 100 years ago. There is still much joy to be had in the radio hobbies in the age of the internet :)
Cheers from your newest subscriber from California 😊
My grandfather had a car in 1921. It wasn't until 1979 he had a car with a radio. Even in 1979 a radio was a special order on a new car.
Sounds complicated, but it worked. For you Ham radio folks, Hiram Percy Maxim's grave is located here in Hagerstown, MD in Rose Hill Cemetery in the Hamilton family area. He is a few feet from William Hamilton, Governor of Maryland in the 1880s. His wife was a Hamilton.
That was VERY COOL! THANKS!
Thank you 📻
Thanks for another great video. I truly enjoy your channel. 👍
Listening to the narration was like having a time-machine back to 1921. I got my amateur radio license about 30 year later (1953) and my equipment was a huge leap forward from what was being used in 1921. My Hallicrafters SX-28 was a 1940 era receiver and was an excellent piece of equipment. The transmitter was a homebrew 6AG7-6L6, a common rig for those days. That was my start at the age of 13. All financed from a newspaper route, BTW.
The downfall required to bring radio back to relevence is something we should all pray to avoid. But, as career radio vet, we had a good century.
Some things really are universal and timeless. That SOS call - that helpless feeling will always be there. What a story!
I remember thinking how far in the past this was 51 years later in 1972 when I was 13. Now I'm 64 and that memory event was also 51 years ago. But I still think of that as recent. Pretty crazy.
Radio's development has a track similar to that of most other communication technologies, it seems. It starts first as an experimental, cutting-edge technology invented by amateur and professional technicians, of real interest only to tech-geek hobbyists and state and private entities that early on realize its potential as a ground-breaking form of communication. Slowly over time, it technologically develops to the extent that it becomes more widely accessible and affordable for the layperson, opening a whole new world of broadcast communication that, though no longer a niche hobby, still has the exciting or even subversive aires of a wide-open technological community free of hamstringing state regulations and for-profit corporate interests. Soon enough, government and big business peek their heads in to see what all the noisy hoopla surrounding this newfangled technology is and discover a world ready for the pickings. What was once a seemingly exclusive place inhabited only by tech geeks, amateur hobbyists, small business entrepreneurs, govt/military operators, and your usual eccentric nuts and cranks then gets forced open to the wide market, becoming overregulated, corporatized, and widely marketed as a consumer product to the extent that even your 90-year-old great-grandma regularly uses it.
Still a great hobby, but of course without the thrill of the new technology and every year big new developments, like use of the shortwave, superheterodyne-receivers, first transmission of pictures and from 1926 experimental television. It's a bit like I felt when I was "online" for the first time in my life somewhere in the mid 1980s and the fast development after the "WWW" became popular in the mid 1990s.
I have pleasant memories of when I was a kid and I would listen to my Mom and Dad's radio. Such shows as Arthur Godfrey, Gangbusters, Burns and Allen, etc. So recently I went to Target to purchase a regular tabletop radio. That plastic box that you plug in, and has a on/off volume knob on the left , and a station-tunet knob on the right. Well, not only did Target NOT have a radio for sale, but the lady clerk didnt even know ehat one was,!!!😮
Until a few years ago, I had a Philco shortwave set which belonged to my grandfather. The superheterodyne circuit could tune in the world with only a straight-wire antenna. Durability? The original tubes, dated 1938, were STILL WORKING some seventy years later. It still functioned, but, due to its age, was something of a fire hazard. Maybe it's still working for someone else at present.
Absolutely lovely, and transportive.. Thank you.
It's so amazing to have this history captured and it was, look at American history what a beautiful way we had
That was good teaching. Words easily recognized and pictures clearly seen and understood.
Outstanding historical detail! Amateur radio remains a great hobby through constant tech innovation. There is nothing quite like "working" a station thousands of miles away without the Internet while parked in your vehicle or sitting in your house. 73 DE KJ4MZ E E
Excellent video, all that conent from an article first published in PopSci back in the day. One thing to remember is ,signal bouned off the ionosphore for gobleal communications,.
Love this channel! Good job setting it up
I can appreciate and understand how the first generation in adulthood were so thrilled by the radio technology , becaus it's the same experience with us late wave gen x'ers in relation to the internet. growing up in an analog world and then being able to just communicate and see in real time what's going on around the world and the click of a button, to this day is just amazing to me where the kids now are just..."yeah whatever, the internet, so what?"
I often read Popular Mechanics from the 1920's - 1930's free on Google books. 😄 Fascinating.
"His hobby will cost him far LESS than the TOBACCO HABIT". Radio is healthy lol
My Mother, born 1910, told me once, her Father had a crystal when she was
young, and she was able to hear radio
on the headphones. 😊
What's funny is that this tech is more mysterious to me now "in the future", than it was to him then
Absolutely fantastic. Thank you.
This brings back memories. I was born in 1902 so this is great
Fascinating!
I have a Westinghouse Aeriola Sr. radio that was made in 1921. It has one vacuum tube and is meant to run on batteries, and listened to through headphones, and in 1921 it cost the equivalent of about $800 in today's money!
I prefer the radio over the television. I listen to old time radio shows all the time and current programs of course. I sleep with a radio on..I got this from my Father.
Fascinating history 😎👍
My grandfather was really into all the new technology of a century ago, radio especially.
this is what bit me reading about this era in old books along with reading about the titanic disaster.
I loved this narration. Wonderful! W9TOF
I love the way you took us out with Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust👍🏼
We don’t have many opportunities to have a fresh, new, exciting experience like this. Radio has been here, TV has been here, internet has been here, social media has been here, cameras have been here, cellphones have been here….what’s new now?
With his modified, better equipment, the writer is pulling in the world. By late 1921 broadcasting had begun to be divided up, and the AM, or standard, band (540 to 1700 kHZ in the U. S., in 10-kHZ increments) was developed for commercial stations.
Thanks for posting this!
Great memories of radio in the 1970s. CB also cool speaking to someone 80 miles away.
My dad was a great radio bigband singer. I was a radiotelegrafist in the navy.
Later my oceansailing days were only safe with good radio. (weather and intershipcom..)
Now even the TV era I have to leave behind.
Hello WWW. We have to move on.
Hearing news from far away must have been amazing.
Radio started in Dunedin NZ on 17 December 1921
Well done. Very interesting.
Fascinating!!!!!
WOC Davenport Iowa. The second oldest radio station still on the air. Founded by Palmer School of Chiropractic.
Fantastic post. Subscribed 😊
I could imagine the old timers complaining about the young uns wasting their lives listening to that radio. And in hindsight they were probably right.
In order to build a Crystal radio you also need a coil of wire and a capacitor.
That will get you started.
@@philipcox5041 It did 56 years ago :) This was one of the first steps with my electronic experimentation box. Later we built a medium frequency transmitter (500 mW) which, of course, was somewhat illegal.
@rainerausdemspring3584 I was doing the same when I was young. Went on to get an engineering degree. You gave me some good childhood memories, thank you, my friend.
@@philipcox5041 Well, I had decided to become a mathematician when I was 9. And so I did.
@@rainerausdemspring3584 excellent.
I find it hilarious yet somehow poignant how innocently trusting this writer from the 1920s regards the Federal Government/US Navy.
Excellent & interesting. Thank You
I built a crystal radio when I was around ten years old. I thought I was a genius.
😂
WOW! he bought a radio kit for a few dollars !!! OMG! our currencies have been stuffed !
Very few people owned radios in 1921. The very rich could afford them.
The first decade of electronic mass media.
Pretty much.
Fantastic video, thank you
FASCINATING!!!
Dad and his family wood sit in the kitchen and LOOK at the radio and listen when they got a TV they still had the AM radio in cornder and listen to ball games
Interesting, thanks for posting.
That's a great slogan: "Radio: it's cheaper than cigarettes!"
WIFI and Bluetooth are the radios of the 21 century. The frequency is in the microwave range instead of long wave, medium wave and short wave bands as in the 1920s, but still the principle is the same.
Reminds me a little of the CB radio fad of the ‘70s