QST publishes a column every month towards the back of the magazine that highlights from issues 25, 50, and 75 years ago. Now that the QST archive is online, it’s really worth taking a look at these articles. Here are a few that were interesting to me this month:
- October 1937
- Modernizing the Simple Regenerative Receiver by Vernon Chambers, W1JEQ. This a nicely-designed and built regen using two tubes, a 6K5 pentode and 6C5 triode. I’m going to keep this design in mind if I ever get around to playing with all the tubes I have. As an aside, W1JEQ wrote 87 articles for QST from 1936 through February 1958. This was his third article.
- Concentrated Directional Antennas for Transmission and Reception by John L. Reinartz, W1QP, and Burton T. Simpson, W8CPC. This article describes two different antennas. The first is a half-wave loop antenna that the author says works on 2-1/2, 5, 10, and 20m. The second is a square loop antenna called a “signal squirter” for 14 Mc.
- October 1962
- In the “New Apparatus” item on page 27, a key made by J. A. Hills, W8FYO, of Dayton, OH is shown under the heading, “New Key Mechanism for Electronic Keyers.” The photo clearly shows a key whose design was adopted by whoever designed the Bencher BY-1 paddle.
- The Towering Problem by Jay Kay Klein, WA2LII clearly shows that putting up towers have always been a problem for amateur radio operators. This is a humorous take on the problem. What’s notable is that this type of humorous article almost never appears in QST anymore. Amateur radio seems to have lost its sense of humor.
- October 1987
- Stalking Those Fugitive Components by Doug DeMaw, W1FB. We often complain about the demise of local parts suppliers, but this article shows that this was a problem 25 years ago as well. W1FB gives some advice that I gave not long ago–stock up on parts, especially when you find a good deal on them, and you won’t have to scrounge around for them when you want them.
Elwood Downey, WB0OEW says
Good ones Dan. I too enjoy going back through these articles each month. It’s humbling to realize how many of our contemporary devices and methods are not so new after all. Another example is PID control theory, which I use often in my work, was developed quite thoroughly during WWII for automating gunnery control and has hardly changed at all. I recently read “The Idea Factory”, by Jon Gertner, which describes many of the things invented long ago at Bell Labs, which are similarly regarded as being so modern.
Dave, N8SBE says
I always called my paddle an “FYO” paddle, but most folks didn’t know what I was talking about. It served me faithfully for several decades until recently when someone at the Make Faire squeezed the paddles so hard it bent the mechanism. I’ve never been able to get it to work properly since, so I ended up going with one of those solid brass affairs. Hopefully it will hold up.