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Showing posts with label Amateur Television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amateur Television. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Hugo Gernsback -- Was he Like Wayne Green?


"The Electrical Experimenter" sent to me by Nick M0NTV reminded me of Hugo Gernsback.  Many of the radio books I have on my shelf have his name on them.  He played a big role in early radio and television, and in science fiction. Check out the Wikipedia article on Gernsback:  

I see similarities between Hugo Gernsback and Wayne Green.  What do you guys think?   

Gernsback's TV goggles in 1963 

That's Gernsback watching TV in 1928

Monday, May 30, 2022

A Modern Mechanical Television -- Nipkow Discs and Arduinos Lead to a Mechanical Color TV (video)


I had, of course, heard about the mechanical TV systems that pre-dated the CRT-based "electronic TV" invented by Philo Farnsworth.  But I never really understood how they worked until I saw this Hack-A-Day article by Jenny List.  And wow, I see it now.  Nipkow discs.   Color TV.  Parts made in a 3D printer. Excellent. 


Here's the IEEE Spectrum article by Markus Mierse (the brilliant fellow who built this amazing device): https://spectrum.ieee.org/mechanical-tv

Be sure to watch the video (above).  Take a look at the awesome quality of the 32 line color TV picture. And check out Marcus's amazingly beautiful construction.  (Note:  Built on a wooden base). 

Marcus Mierse's Modern Mechanical Color TV

Saturday, May 7, 2022

SolderSmoke Podcast #237 is available: TV Show! No! W9YEI's 1939 TV. 1712 Rig. HQ-100. New SDR Rig and Book. JF3HZB's VFO Digital Dial. FIELD DAY! PSSST. MAILBAG


SolderSmoke podcast #237 is available:  http://soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke237.mp3


Travelogue -- New York City!  Stickers!
And about that trip to Los Angeles for the SolderSmoke Cable TV show... 

Well, it fit in well with SolderSmoke's UNFORGETTABLE appearance on the Oprah book club.
And TechieTatts? Daughter worried about listeners rushing to get tattoos -- A risk we were willing to take.

https://in.pinterest.com/padmakumar10/techie-tatts/

This episode is sponsored by PartsCandy.  GREAT test leads: https://www.ebay.com/usr/partscandy

Bill's Bench

Tracking down Johnny Anderson's 1939 or 1940 homebrew TV receiver.

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/search?q=Anderson
Working with Joh DL6ID.
Jean Shepherd's January 1973 description.
FlickLives web site and Steve Glazer W2SG have lots of info on Shep and his friends.
Internet allows us to look at TV articles that were being published.
We've concluded: Probably 1939 or 1940, using an RCA 913 1 inch CRT tube. 

Lots of ideas from IRE Journal, QST, and Gernsback magazines.
Quite an achievement! Amazing how much pre-war TV progress there was.  

17-12 rig
All boxed up and working DX!
Figured out how to display both 17 and 12 on the same LED. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAmmFZyFu8w
Drain protector for speaker cover. Copper tape to cover horrible cabinet making.
I think I need a Hex Beam.

Hammarlund HQ-100
Needed some maintenance.
I started to look more closely at it.
Got the Q-Multiplier to work -- it really adds a lot on CW.
Makes me feel guilty about all the QF-1s...
Using the 100kc calibrator with a 455 kc crystal as a BFO,
keeping Q multiplier below oscillation point.
Moved the BFO switch to the front panel. Helps a lot.
Need to fix the S-meter AVC circuitry.
Much more sturdy than the S-38E.
S-38E 1957-61 $54.95 5 tubes.  AC/DC.
HQ-100 1956-60 $169  10 or 11 tubes.  Power supply,  regulator.
You get what you pay for.  

Pete's Bench

Jack Purdum and Al Peter's new SDR rig and book (featured on the SS blog Amazon ad).
JF3HZB's beautiful digi VFO.
Backpack antenna for Field Day?  
Pipsqueak Disaster -- Too simple?
Peashooter Eye Candy.
Build Something Different.

MAILBAG

James W0JKG CBLA -- Others are building MMM too!
SM4WWG // Jörgen  Wonderful message.  Joined GQRP.  No longer "wrong."
Dennis WC8C Libraries for Max2870 board.
Jack NG2E  Progress on the Right to Repair movement. 
Jim K9JM  Someone cutting into our business with Solder candles!  
Chuck  WB9KZY Correctly identified the location of the IBEW sticker.  As did Dan Random.
Dave Bamford (who lives nearby) suitably impressed. 
Farhan wrote to us about a video on Don Lancaster.  Homebrew keyboards!  Yea!
Dean KK4DAS  QRP to the Field.  HB2HB 40 SSB   QRP  I feel virtuous.  
Todd K7TFC likes my ingenious use of the drain screen as the speaker protector on the 17-12 rig. 
Todd  had good thoughts on granular approach to homebrewing as seen in the Don Lancaster video.
Lex PH2LB HORRIFIED by my reverse polarity protection circuit.  This is a touchy subject! (as is WD-40!)
Rogier PA1ZZ sending great info on SWL and numbers stations.
Jesse N5JHH -- The guy who made the IBEW stickers -- Liked the NYC stickers. 
Steve N8NM has a new antenna article on his blog: https://n8nmsteve.blogspot.com/
Randy AB9GO Agrees -- Can't GIVE old 'scopes away. 
Dino SV1IRG Liked the 17-12 rig videos. 
Steve Hartley G0FUW Murphy's Law of Enclosures. 
Ralph AB1OP FB on the 17-12 Rig. 
Roberto XE1GXG --Our correspondent in Guadalajara. Petulant, irritable people on the computer scene.

Have some gear looking for a good home:   Tek 465 'scope from Jim AL7R W8NSA.   SBE Transceivers.  Windsor Signal Generator.  Let me know if you are interested and can either pick up or arrange shipping.  



John Anderson W9YEI Homebrew Hero

Saturday, April 23, 2022

Looking at the World Through a 1 inch Cathode Ray Tube (the RCA 913) (videos)


Joh DL6ID sent me the above video.  We have been e-mailing each other about the W9YEI Television Receiver built in 1939 or so.  We have kind of concluded that the builder used an RCA 913 tube as the CRT.  This was an oscilloscope tube and was often described as looking like a metal 6L6 with a tiny screen on top.   This is kind of neat -- like using something from the old days to peer into the new world of video.  

We wondered about the image persistence of this tube.  Fortunately for us, we found several YouTube videos showing recent builds or repairs of oscilloscopes with RCA 913 tubes.  

Of course, Mr. Carlson has a video on one of these devices (and -- as expected -- has another in his junk box.  Mr. Carlson has at least two of everything.) 

Here are a few other videos showing RCA 913 tubes in action. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfN2mmEIfTE   (with Men at Work audio)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJF22Ra2kIM    (Summertime.... And the Livin' is Easy)

Here's a nice video from Tektronix on CRTs: 

Friday, April 22, 2022

1942 (?) RCA Film on Tubes, Radio, Research, and Television


Here is a very interesting video from RCA.   It was released in 1942,  but it looks to me as if it was produced BEFORE the Pearl Harbor attack and the U.S. entry into World War II.   There is no mention of the war nor of RCA's support for the war effort.  All films like this that were produced during the war have a lot of material about how the company was contributing to the war effort.  So I think this is really a pre-war film. 

Early in the film they link the origins of RCA Labs to a decrepit "radio shack" at Riverhead, Long Island (NY) in 1919.   Here is some background on this: 
and

In this film we see Vladimir Zworykin (boo, hiss) of TV fame (no mention of poor Philo Farnsworth),  and we also see Harold Beverage, the creator of the antenna that bears his name.   There is what must have been one of the first "electronic clocks."  

At the end, the segment on television is really interesting.   It is amazing how far they had gone with TV before the war.  

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Conclusions About W9YEI's Early (1940?) Homebrew Television Receiver

It may have looked something like this.  Recent build of the Scozarri receiver by Jack Neitz

Joh DL6ID and I have been exchanging e-mails in which we compare notes on the early homebrew television receiver of Johnny Anderson W9YEI.   In 1973 on WOR New York, Jean Shepherd described a very memorable demonstration of TV  conducted some three decades earlier by Anderson for teenage friends in Hammond, Indiana.  Shep provided a lot of detail, but some of his recollections seemed a bit off;  Shep was known for exaggerating or changing details to make a story better.   

We have arrived at some conclusions about this project (but if anyone has more info, please let us know): 

DID ANDERSON ACTUALLY BUILD A TV RECEIVER?  

Yes, he did.  This was a homebrew project, not a kit build and not the use of a receiver built and loaned for test purposes by the transmitting station.  Anderson was an accomplished homebrewer whose basement, according to Shep, was filled with devices he had built.  A QSL card sent by him in 1938 shows him using a "9 tube superhet" as a receiver.  Shep describes Johnny -- over a period of perhaps six months -- gathering components  in Chicago's electronics parts market, and building something in his basement.  That sure sounds like a real homebrew project.  A TV receiver kit was available, but it was very expensive, and Shep would have immediately denounced it as a non-homebrew project.  Anderson homebrewed the receiver. 

WHY DID HE DO THIS? 

Why would a ham build a TV receiver at a time in which there were only a few experimental transmitters on the air, and no possibility of using the receiver to "work" other amateur stations?  We tend to think of TV as a post-war commercial phenomenon.  But in fact there was a lot of "buzz" about TV in the 1930s.  Magazines were filled with TV articles, and with ads for courses that promised to prepare people for what seemed to many to be "the next big thing."  The World's Fair in Chicago in 1933 and 1934 featured a demonstration of television -- Anderson, who lived in a close-in Chicago suburb,  may have seen this demonstration.  Television must have seemed like a do-able but difficult technical challenge, and would  have attracted the interest of an advanced homebrewer like Anderson.    

WHEN DID ANDERSON BUILD THE RECEIVER? 

Shepherd describes a demonstration of TV in which Anderson tuned into experimental transmissions of WBKB in Chicago.  WBKB's experimental transmitter W9XBK did not go on the air until August 1940.  And Anderson told Shep that he had been calling in reception reports for a month or six weeks.  That would push the date of the demonstration to September 1940 at the earliest.  In September 1940 Anderson was 22 years old, and Shep was 19. (Here is one area in which Shep's recall is questionable -- he claims that the event took place when he -- Shep -- was 16 or 17.  In fact he was older, but having the protagonists a bit younger made the story more intriguing.)   If we assume that it took Anderson six months or so to build the receiver,  that would push the start date of Anderson's build to around March 1940.  

There was another experimental station on the air in Chicago: Zenith Corporation had W9XZV doing experimental transmissions starting on February 2, 1939.  If Anderson had built the receiver a bit earlier, he could have been tuning into W9XVZ before W9XBK went on the air.  But I think it was more likely that he started building in early 1940.  I get the feeling that the Scozzari articles of October/November 1939 influenced his build.  

WHAT PUBLICATIONS GUIDED ANDERSON? 

Shep, in extolling Anderson's advanced, self-taught knowledge of electronics tells us that Anderson was at his young age already reading the IRE Journal, the monthly publication of the Institute of Radio Engineers. Joh DL6ID notes that Shep said that this publication was being sent to Anderson, indicating that he had some form of subscription.  He may have also had access to back-issues in a Chicago library.  Anderson was a serious consumer of technical material. 

The IRE Journal had many articles about television, but they were highly theoretical.  Typical of this was the December 1933 issue.  Anderson probably also benefitted from more practical, build-related articles that appeared in publications like QST, Shortwave and Television,  and Radio and Television. 

In December 1937 QST began a series of articles on television my Marshall Wilder.  

In March 1938 CW Palmer launched a series of build articles on TV receivers in the Gernsback magazine "Shortwave and Television." See photo below. 

In October 1938 QST started a series of practical build articles on TV by J.B. Sherman.  This series provided circuit details on how to use three different sizes of RCA oscilloscope CRTs, including the small 1 inch 913 tube. 

In December 1938 QST continued with the television theme,  presenting the first in a series of build articles by C.C. Schumard. 

In October 1939 Peter Scozzari launched a good series of build articles in Radio and Television magazine.  See photo below. 

WHAT CATHODE RAY TUBE DID HE USE?  

Many of the publications of the era carried projects using 2 or 3 inch CRTs.  But it appears that Anderson had a smaller, 1 inch oscilloscope CRT in his project.  In his 1973 broadcast, Shep repeatedly called the CRT "tiny" and refers to it as a 1 inch tube.  Shep said the image produced was green, indicating a tube built for oscilloscopes.  He may have used a 1 inch RCA 913 CRT Tube. See the Sherman article in the October 1938 QST

THE DEATH OF ROSS HULL

In the middle of all this, on September 13, 1938 radio pioneer Ross Hull was electrocuted while working on his homebrew television receiver. 

The Palmer Receiver

The Scozzari receiver -- Power supply on separate chassis

Previous SolderSmoke Daily News posts about this project: 

Friday, April 15, 2022

TV Homebrew 84 years ago -- Tracking Down W9YEI's 1939 Television Receiver -- The CRT He Probably Used -- Please Help Find More Info

A recent Hack-A-Day article about early television receivers got me thinking about the receiver built by young Johnny Anderson in 1939 and described by Jean Shepherd on WOR in 1973.  In the 1973 program (skip to the 18 minute mark),  Shep gives a good description of the device.  It sounded a lot like the receiver from Peter Scozzari's October 1939 "Radio and Television" article:  Shep described a big chassis with angled pieces of aluminum one of which had a tube socket brazed onto it.  Anderson may have bult the power supply on the same chassis as the receiver.  Shep said that a 1 inch CRT was in this socket.  Tellingly, he described the picture as being green in color.  

Peter Scozzari wrote that oscilloscope tubes produced a "greenish hue."  One month after his first article, in November 1939 Peter Scozzari published another article in which he changed the CRT to to a tube that would produce a black and white (not green) pictures.  See below for the part of the article that describes the shift to the larger black and white tube.  This supports the idea that Anderson was using a tube built for oscilloscopes.  The picture above shows what images from the three sizes of RCA oscilloscope tubes would have looked like (absent the green hue -- this was a black and white magazine).  I find them kind of eerie, considering that the person in the picture was probably born more than 100 years ago.  And in that bottom picture we see an image (absent the green hue) very similar to what Shep saw in 1939, and described so vividly in 1973. 



Scozzari's receiver started out with a 2 inch tube, then a month later, he went with a 3 inch tube.  But Johnny Anderson may have only had the 1 inch tube described by Shep.  The Sherman QST article provided circuit details for all three sizes of RCA tubes. This information would have been very useful to Johnny Anderson. So my guess is that when Shep saw TV for the first time in 1939 in Johnny Anderson's basement workshop, he was looking into an RCA 1 inch 913 CRT. 

Here's a great EDN article on the 1 inch CRTs available in the 1930s: 

Here's a fellow who recently built a TV receiver using an RCA 902: 
Here's the YouTube video of his 902-based receiver in action: 

Previous SolderSmoke blog posts on this topic: 


This is all pretty amazing:  We are gathering details on a television receiver built some 84 years ago by a teenager in a basement in Hammond, Indiana.  

Does anyone out there have more information on what Anderson built?  Can anyone dig up more information on this? Any more info on Peter Scozzari?  Anyone have info on Jack Neitz of California (he recently built the Scozzari TV receiver)? 

Thursday, April 14, 2022

W9YEI's Homebrew 1939 TV?

 

I've been thinking about Jean Shepherd's 1973 description of the homebrew TV receiver built by his friend Johnny Anderson W9YEI in (probably) 1939.   Shep said Johnny got the info on this receiver from the IRE Journal.  But I was thinking that there had to have been "how to build" articles in circulation around that time, and -- if located -- these articles might provide some insight on what Johnny Anderson built. 

Asked for info on early TV's Google will send you to lots of sites about early commercial sets.  But you have to dig a bit and refine your search to find articles about the kind of receiver that Shep described as having been built by Johnny Anderson.  

The picture above shows one such possibility.  It comes from an article in the October 1939 issue of Radio and Television magazine.  The author was Peter Scozzari.  


The picture tube seems to be about the size that Shep described;  Shep said it was a 1 inch tube, and this schematic shows a 2 inch tube, but the image must have been smaller, so this seems consistent with Shep's recollection.  The article presents this as a "Low Cost" project -- that would have been what Shep's teenage friends were looking for.  And we KNOW that Anderson was capable of building something like this:  we have a QSL card from him from the same time period in which he notes that he was using a "9 tube superhet."  Someone who could build a 9 tube superhet in 1938 could certainly build this TV receiver.   

Can anyone find more of these kind of articles from the late 1930's? 

Three cheers for Johnny Anderson and for Peter Scozzari. 

More Googling revealed that a Californian named Jack Neitz more recently built the receiver described in Scozzari's 1939 article.  Here is Neitz's build: 


This is really amazing.  We need more info on Jack Neitz!   The only info I have is from: 

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

John Stanley Anderson W9YEI -- Shep's Friend Who Homebrewed a TV Receiver in 1938

 

John Stanley "Johnny" Anderson -- son of John E. and Beda Klarin Anderson, natives of Sweden -- was born on July 19, 1918, in East Chicago, Indiana. He grew up at 6813 (formerly 1439) Arizona Avenue in Hammond, and graduated from Hammond High School a couple of years ahead of American humorist and writer Jean Shepherd. In his WOR radio broadcast of January 24, 1973, Shepherd told of how Johnny was an expert ham who was way ahead of the other kids in town, and how he first saw television demonstrated by Johnny in his basement. Johnny in fact held amateur radio license W9YEI at the time.

After graduation from Hammond High, Johnny went to work as a chemist at the local steel mill. On April 11, 1941, Johnny enlisted at Fort Benjamin Harrison in the U.S. Army, serving through WWII until November 27, 1945. On June 4, 1955, he married Jane H. Vanstone.

Johnny later moved to Munster, Indiana, and continued working at Inland Steel, where he held a variety of technical positions. He passed away on January 29, 1984, at the emergency room of Hammond's St. Margaret Hospital after suffering from neurogenic shock. At the time of his death, Johnny was an electrical technician at Inland Steel's quality control center. He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Hammond.  From: 
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/173124396/john-stanley-anderson

The Flick Lives web site has an interesting letter that Johnny wrote to his friend Paul Schwartz (W9KPY) in mid 1941.  Schwartz is frequently referred to by Jean Shepherd.  Schwartz was killed in World War II.  

In the letter, Johnny also references another mutual friend who Shep often mentions:  Boles (W9QWK). 


Dorothy Anderson was Johnny's sister and was for a time Shep's girlfriend. 

Rcvr: "9 tube Superhet"  FB OM

Monday, April 11, 2022

Early Television, Jean Shepherd, Homebrewing, and Hack-A-Day

It may have been something like this 1947 receiver.  But with a smaller CRT.

Hack-A-Day has an article about early (1930s) television.  I was immediately reminded of a January 1973 Jean Shepherd show on WOR New York in which Shep talks about a kid in his neighborhood who built a very early television receiver.  You can skip to about the 18 minute mark for the homebrew radio and television stuff. 

In the 1973 show, Shep identifies the builder as John Anderson.   The Flicklives web site lists the hams who lived around Shep in Hammond Indiana.   Among them is John Stanley Anderson W9YEI.  That's him. 

Shep was born in 1921 and in the show he says this all took place when he was 16 or 17.  So that would place these events around 1938.  We see that on February 2, 1939  W9XZV -- the experimental station of Zenith Chicago -- went on the air with television.  In August 1940 W9XBK, the experimental TV station of WBKB Chicago went on the air.  That station was the one Johnny Anderson used to demonstrate TV to Shep and other friends.   

Once again, Shep really captures the spirit of homebrew radio and the way it really captivates teenagers. He also explains -- very well I think -- the difference between true homebrew radio and kit building.  

I really wish we had more details or pictures of W9YEI's TV receiver.  I tried looking in the IRE Journal, but I couldn't find anything.  Anyone have more info on this receiver or ham homebrew TV projects from the late 1930s?

EXCELSIOR!   73   Bill  

https://hackaday.com/2022/04/10/retrotechtacular-a-diy-television-for-very-early-adopters/

https://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2008/07/best-jean-shepherd-ham-radio-episode.html

http://www.flicklives.com/index.php?pg=318

https://www.earlytelevision.org/w9xbk.html



Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Taking Care of an Old Analog Machine -- The Scanimate


Of course, I understand and sympathize completely.  

Thanks for Rogier PA1ZZ for sending this.  

Thursday, June 18, 2020

You must join the CONSTRUCTOR CRUSADERS


Wow. This 1934 front-page presages so many things that we talk about today. 

"The Constructor Crusaders,"  reminds me of "The Color Burst Liberation Army."

"Wear the badge and be in fashion," is clearly just another way of saying "chicks dig it," and brings to mind Pete's beret. 

Finally, "Constructor Crusaders will get the best out of radio!"  Well, that's what we've been saying all along.  

Note that as early as 1934 they were talking about TV:  "Radiovision."

Thanks to Scott KA9P for passing this to us. 

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Happy Birthday Philo Farnsworth!



Thanks to Bob Crane (and Garrison Keillor):  

It's the birthday of Philo Taylor Farnsworth, the inventor of the television, born in a log cabin in Beaver, Utah, in 1906. He conceived of the basic elements necessary to transmit a visual image while he was still in high school; later, at Brigham Young University, he began his research in earnest. He co-founded Crocker Research Laboratories in San Francisco when he was just 20 years old, and the following year, in 1927, he transmitted his first image: a straight line. Investors wanted to know when they would see financial returns, so at his first demonstration for the press in 1928, he transmitted the image of a dollar sign. This earned him the first of about 165 patents.
Farnsworth appeared only once on his invention: He was the mystery guest "Dr. X" on the game show I've Got a Secret in July 1957.
.......

I liked Paul Schatzkin's book on Philo:  "The Boy who Invented Television": Here you can read chapter one for free: 
http://soldersmoke.blogspot.com/2008/08/philo-t-farsnworth-radio-hero.html

Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Monday, August 8, 2011

The Picture You Heard in SS 136 -- FROM SPAAAACE!

In the last podcast I played a recording of some 2 meter signals picked up by my handheld transceiver from the new amateur radio satellite ArisSat-1. Included in the transmission were some tones that were obviously SSTV. Mike, K2MTS, ran the audio through some SSTV software and got this! Pretty good! From space to my HT, across the room to the SolderSmoke mic, out over the internet in podcast form, back to me in an e-mail, and now, on the blog. Thanks Mike!
Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics"http://soldersmoke.com/book.htmOur coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmokeOur Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Saturday, July 12, 2008

UK Amateur TV: KNACK TO THE MAX

You will really like the video archive of the British Amateur Television Club. Start out with the "Bob and Brian" show. It is as if "60 Minutes" did a segment on THE KNACK. Don't miss the excellent antenna lecture by Dud Charman, G6CJ. He used small-scale antennas at UHF to demonstrate the principles behind directional antennas. All of the videos in the archive are very good. Thanks BATC!

Here's the link: http://www.batc.tv/channel.php?ch=1
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