p. 1

a a annual convention w rit conference center rochester ny august 17-21 2010 themes 100 years of the radio club of america the midget radio and sylvania w elcome back at the 49th annual convention collectors and history enthusiasts will convene exchange equipment and learn more about the development of radio and electronics if you have ever been to the yearly reunion why not give it a try rochester henrietta is just north of upstate new york s beautiful finger lakes region easily reached by car or plane the site is 26 easy miles from the awa museum at bloomfield the convention will be held once more at the rochester institute of technology conference center which offers special nightly rates of $96.00 for a single or double for info or reservations call 585 359-1800 the conference center has restaurant facilities and other lodging and eating places are nearby advance registration is encouraged and registration materials will be included in the july issue of the awa journal you may also register on line at www awaconference.com the facility is reached from exit 46 of the new york state thruway i-90 take i-390 north to ny 253 west to ny 15 south for visitors arriving by air the location is about seven miles from the airport there is shuttle service 6 a.m 11 p.m specify the rit conference center for more information please see the convention doings section of the membership news column in this issue partial program listing complete listing to appear in july issue awa awa membership forum little midgets for big spies bart lee key and telegraph seminar tom perera w1tp moderator collecting the key makers bill holly submarine cable pioneers bill burns discovery of the mecograph vertical key gil schlehman the evolution history and archaeology of alaskan wireless stations morgan blanchard moonlight restorations seminar hosted by marc ellis old equipment contest geoffrey bourne and chris bacon the de forest photo-phone mike adams bricks and mortar the construction of the new awa museum gib buckbee the all red line operations and equipment at the bamfield b.c canada station of the submarine cable to australia and new zealand 1902-1930 robert murray and bruce macmillan pre-1912 apparatus show and tell hosted by lauren peckham and felicia kreuzer review of amateur operations hosted by tim walker auctions vacuum tubes paper collectables general radios and equipment plus special larry babcock estate auction april 2010 the awa journal 19

[close]

p. 2

old equipment contest awa 2010 annual convention by geoffrey bourne and chris bacon contest coordinators his year our contest has three themes 100 years of the radio club of america the midget radio and sylvania there are contest categories for each theme in addition to our standard categories the radio club of america is the oldest communications society in the us it was formed in 1909 by w.e.d stokes sr miss lillian e todd reginald fessenden w.e.d stokes jr mr seymour george eltz w faitoute munn frank king and frederick seymour originally known as the junior wireless club of america ltd the name was changed to the radio club of america in 1911 it is not possible to list here all the notable radio pioneers inventors amateurs engineers entrepreneurs manufacturers and others who were or are members of the organization over the past century its members have been in the forefront of nearly every significant development in the field of wireless communications and it helps to further new developments in the field through its scholarships and awards programs there will be two categories celebrating the centennial of the radio club of america one is for exhibits pertaining to the organization itself especially its history its pioneering spirit and its educational programs the other category is for biographical exhibits focusing on noteworthy club members past or present midget radio requires some definition since the term has been loosely applied to nearly every type of small radio it originally meant low cost compact ac/dc radios having four tubes or less not counting any ballast tubes this is the definition we will use for the contest these radios first appeared in the early 1930s with the introduction of vacuum tubes having high voltage heaters that could be used in series with ballast resistors where necessary the cost of power transformers could thereby be avoided nearly every kind of circuit was tried including trf regenerative and superheterodyne and in some cases the detector and output stages were combined into a power detector towards the end of the 1930s many of these temperamental circuits were displaced by what has been dubbed the all american four essentially a five-tube superhet without the if stage in this form midget radios remained in production into the early 1960s of course with fewer tubes and a line-operated power supply midget radios could not offer the t same performance as larger and more sophisticated models they were intended for listening to local stations mainly during daylight hours when skip interference is at a minimum they were despised by most radio repair shops many of the original midgets were made by small independent companies that never published service information also the small chassis were hard to work on even after the designs became standardized midget sets were shunned by repairmen because most customers would not spend more than a couple of dollars to repair radios that only cost five or ten dollars new midgets therefore became the first disposable radios offered to consumers nevertheless midget sets did play an important role in the history of radio besides the u.s many other countries made small inexpensive radios the germans did it famously in the 1930s and during world war ii the first midgets were housed in wood or metal cabinets manufacturers soon discovered that the radios sold better in stylish plastic cabinets which encouraged the development of plastics technology manufacturers also learned that the public was willing to accept smaller simpler products of limited performance and longevity if the price was right it s a marketing philosophy that still works well today the third theme of this year s conference is sylvania although it is one of the newer names in radio having made radios and tvs under its own name only since 1950 its origins in radio go back to the pioneering work of dr fulton cutting and bowden washington who established themselves as cutting washington inc in 1917 this firm got about a dozen radio models to market but ran into problems with their outsourced manufacturing and clashed with westinghouse over their armstrong regenerative license the company went into receivership in 1924 cutting and washington reappeared a few months later with their newly formed colonial radio corporation colonial had its own factory in long island city new york its first receivers the three and two-dial battery models 16 and 17 respectively were troublesome and underwent numerous design changes few new models were introduced and sales were slow until 1929 when the firm came out with a series of highly styled electric consoles that had exceptionally good performance 20 the awa journal april 2010

[close]

p. 3

for the day colonial bought valley appliances of rochester ny and king radio of buffalo ny maker of silvertone radios for sears roebuck co the contract with sears proved to be more lucrative than the colonial brand all the plants were closed except buffalo in 1931 and the colonial name was dropped in 1934 in 1944 the company was purchased by sylvania and officially became known as the radio and television division of sylvania in 1950 some sylvania radios and televisions of that era also have the colonial logo printed on the tube charts inside their cabinets sylvania itself traces its roots to 1901 when frank poor entered into a partnership in a massachusetts company that bought burned out light bulbs replaced the filaments and then re-evacuated and re-sealed them light bulbs of that era were expensive and did not last long so the business grew poor was able to buy out his partner and bring his brothers into the company which they reorganized into the bay state lamp company in 1909 they formed the hygrade incandescent lamp company to manufacture new carbon filament light bulbs in 1911 they started making tungsten filament lamps as well the bay state lamp rebuilding operation was discontinued in 1916 meanwhile the novelty lamp company of pennsylvania had been incorporated in 1906 to make novelty lights and rebuild burned-out light bulbs similar to the bay state lamp company it was purchased in 1922 by entrepreneurs who changed the name to the nilco lamp works in 1924 nilco started a new venture the sylvania products company to make radio tubes hygrade nilco and sylvania merged in 1931 to form the hygrade sylvania corporation which sold light bulbs under the hygrade name and radio tubes under the sylvania name in 1942 it was reorganized as sylvania electric products inc and debuted the famous lightning s logo sylvania merged with general telephone in 1959 and the new company became general telephone and electronics or simply gte in the 1980s the consumer electronics division was sold to north american philips in 1993 gte sold most of the remaining sylvania businesses to osram gmbh of munich germany forming the present day osram sylvania during the peak of their electronics operations in the 1940s and 1950s sylvania was a prolific manufacturer of vacuum tubes radios televisions and test equipment it is perhaps best known for the loktal tube which it introduced in 1938 locktal tubes were similar in size to the metal octal series introduced by rca a few years earlier but the internal elements were supported on steel pins that protruded through the glass base and made contact with the socket this was a radical development which was used on every type of tube to appear afterwards some of their other innovations include what they claimed was the first dynamic tube tester model 139/140 1950 the halolight 1956 an illuminated crt surround offered on a number of console and table top tv sets and the prospector model 3401 1957 a portable radio with a geiger counter built in theme categories for sylvania 1 the early years cutting and washington any and all early c&w equipment is welcome here 2 early light bulbs this category is for incandescent light bulbs of the 1901 to 1931 era by bay state lamp co novelty lamp co nilco and hygrade exhibits demonstrating the steps required to replace a filament in a burned-out light bulb would be of interest 3 the middle years colonial king and silvertone this category is for battery and electric sets from the mid-1920s to wwii philco and other radios that use locktal tubes are also welcome 4 the postwar years sylvania s consumer electronics division was in its heyday from about 1950 into the 1970s this is where radios televisions and test equipment from the golden era would be displayed 5 tubes tubes and more tubes from 1924 onward sylvania was a major manufacturer of electron tubes their best known development is the loktal tube in 1938 but they also produced many other unique and specialized designs 6 other products sylvania was and still is involved in many other types of products such as specialized lighting precision materials phosphors for fluorescent light bulbs and picture tubes semiconductors and military equipment any sylvania products or memorabilia of general interest may be entered here april 2010 the awa journal 21

[close]

p. 4

midget radio categories 7 1930s 8 1940s 9 1950s 10 1960s radio club of america categories 11 this category is for exhibits pertaining to the radio club of america itself especially its history its pioneering spirit and its educational programs 12 this category is for biographical exhibits focusing on noteworthy radio club of america members past or present standard contest categories 13 passive receivers any detecting device not including vacuum tubes or solid state amplifying devices whose purpose is to convert radio energy into intelligent signals 14 1920s superhet receivers any receiver which employs the super heterodyne circuit and is from the 1920s can be entered here 15 1920s tuned rf receivers during the 20s the trf was one of the most widely produced radios it was sold in kit form factory assembled or built from scratch form plan in a magazine this is where you would enter a freshman masterpiece an ak 20 etc 16 1920s regenerative reflexed receivers the regen and reflex are two of many different circuits that were used to improve radio receiving capabilities bring in a fine example of either type 17 cathedrals tombstones and consoles 1930s and 1940s these are probably the most recognized styles of antique radios just about everyone remembers one that had been in their family so bring in that philco 90 or any other cathedral tombstone or console radio we will split the category if enough entries show up 18 military radio a ww i b ww ii c korean conflict d vietnam e misc 19 portable radios any battery-operated portable radio may be entered in this category we may split the category into decades so a transistor set does not compete with a 1920s tube set so bring in anything from an early portable radio of the twenties to a zenith transoceanic of the fifties or sixties 20a horn speakers any sound reproduction device can be entered here as long as it employs a horn or bell for amplification 20b cone speakers when radio sets attained greater power output levels the magnetic speaker unit was designed with large cone surface areas for better sound reproduction there are many fine examples of this type of speaker i.e tower adventurer western electric 21 test equipment there were many makers of test gear a short list would include supreme superior hickok weston read-rite general radio simpson rider rca so bring in the unusual or the common 22 tubes you can display a single tube or a collection there should be a common theme such as historical significance technological breakthrough etc 23a mechanical television bring in a scanning disk or a mirror screw set it can be original or a modern replica 23b electronic television enter any television set black-and-white or color kit or factory 22 the awa journal april 2010

[close]

p. 5

the amateur radio categories 24 spark transmitters and artifacts 25a homebrew and 25b commercial vacuum tube transmitters and receivers some of the sets for this class are old some not so old while the predominant entries have been amateur-constructed commercial equipment is welcome the craftsman categories 26 restoration of appearance the purpose of this category is to display examples of rebuilding and refinishing the cabinets and containers that were used to house radio receivers there is no requirement for a particular kind or size of set to be entered a description of the work done will be considered an important part of the entry the critical element is the appearance of the radio including woodwork escutcheons dials knobs and other visual details 27 restoration of operation this is the category for those craftsmen who artfully substitute modern components for old failures the new electrolytic in the old can is an excellent example another is the transistorized tube perhaps the replacement of pot-metal parts by silver-gray-colored epoxy castings has been accomplished by one of us if so please bring in the set that incorporates that restoration an entry should be accompanied by documentation showing the basis of the update that preserves the quality of the original 28 new or rebuilt previously we have encouraged entries that showed the conference attendees how substitutions and reconstructions would provide vital parts or pieces we also encouraged craftsmen who had made an old function come alive again to bring their work for review do you remember the federal receiver that was entered several years ago and the operating marconi coherer detector from a few years later we want to continue that tradition so bring in your retrospective designs and your reconstructions there is no requirement for particular devices or circuits 29 open category enter any item that does not fit into the listed categories the contest awards elle craftsman given in memory of bruce elle to a builder of a high-quality radio receiver of an old or new type matlack transmitter given for excellence in constructing or restoring transmitting equipment ralph o williams display recognizes the informational value and quality of an exhibit in the contest at the awa conference thompson best of show awarded in honor of early amateur eunice thompson w1mpp for the top entry in the old equipment contest at the annual conference people s choice awarded to the entry that receives the most favorable votes from attendees and visitors to the contest all entries including displays are eligible for this award april 2010 the awa journal 23

[close]