Notes from the September 16, 2006 meeting

President Jim Sargent opened the meeting of about 20 with a reminder to get our reservations for the November convention. Jim welcomed new members to the club and meeting.

Program director Mike Grimes announced that next months meeting will consist of a panel that will answer (or attempt to answer) questions from the audience (or even from each other). The idea will be to share tips and tricks, benefiting both new and experienced collectors. One topic will be reading capacitor values in the old and new formats. Mike showed an AWA video production by the late Bruce Kelley. The video is very interesting – photos of the covers of various publications from the early days, each illustrating a radio-related theme, along with discussion by Bruce Kelley. The cover illustrations were really humorous themes. They were from such magazines as Radio News, RADIO magazine, and (especially) QST. One cover shows pranksters faking an SOS into someone’s radio antenna just outside his window. Another cover shows a young man leaving a crystal set as a Valentine ’s Day gift to his girl friend. Still another shows a homemade set made out of a huge wooden crate, with a tap-switch right on its outer surface. (This might have actually been done – you could wrap a loop antenna right around the crate!). An artist named Clyde Darr was the artist for many QST covers. You might say he was the Norman Rockwell of Ham Radio.

Jon Butz Fiscina told us about his collection being videotaped and put on a program by TV station WFAA, channel 8, in John Frock’s "Texas Tales". It aired on TV on MAR 5 this year. The group viewed a DVD of the broadcast. Out of 1-1/2 hours of taping, the video showed only a few highlights of Jon’s collection, including an Edison floor model Radio that is very rare (Edison made radios during only a 1-1/2 year period).

The program topic for this meeting was Radio and Phonograph Related Ephemera. Members brought their collections of advertising, news items and artifacts for show-and-tell. Mike Grimes began the program with a discussion of books and publications that he has found very useful. Some of the books that he recommends we watch out for and obtain copies are: "Elements of Radio" (a theory book) by Markus & Horton; "Fixing up Nice Old Radios" by Ed Romney (for specific radios); "Radiotron Designer’s Handbook" by RCA (known as "the RED BOOK" – rumored to be available on-line in PDF format from Pat Jankowiak’s website); books by author, professor THURMAN; "Practical Radio Servicing" by Marcus and Levy. Book sales websites can yield many sources and titles. There are individual websites that let you "mine" in a single search through hundreds of bookstores that post what they have in the site.

Rich showed us some Philco advertising brochures and the cover of a ‘20’s Radio World with an illustration of a golfer learning to play golf by radio – the radio, with horn speaker, including a huge loop antenna. He showed a compilation of most (if not all) Zenith brochures published over many years, bound in a large format and offered by Great Northern Antiques in Minneapolis, MN. This is something that all Zenith collectors should have (don’t we all have at least one Zenith?)

Jim Sargent showed many interesting items from his collection, including headphone boxes from Western Electric, Baldwin, Frost and Tower Scientific. He showed a deck of Atwater Kent playing cards from the ‘20’s and a key chain with two tiny "records" promoting the new 45 RPM records.

Eric Kirst showed a very interesting metal sign that came from a drugstore in Cadillac, Michigan. He has framed the sign, which he has had since 1965. It promoted the new Edison Diamond Disc phonograph. The sign had been preserved as part of a roof since about 1913-16.

Jon Butz Fiscina showed us a large MOTOROLA RADIO metal sign, a PHILCO RADIO SERVICE sign, a big metal SYLVANIA RADIO TUBES thermometer. He also showed a SEARS Electrical Apparatus and Radio Goods catalog from 1924 and a "Radio Trouble Finder" book. Other items included advertisements using the name "RADIO" (as in "Radio Flyer"), such as RADIO Pickle Relish and RADIO Pickles. A "Marconi Cigars" box is one of his prized possessions. The box has a picture of Marconi on it (Apparently a cigar endorsed by Guglielmo himself).

Gary Reeves showed us a plaster Zenith Radio and Television counter-top advertising display. He showed some really early RCA and Philco hand-held fans (of the type you fan yourself with). His matched set of Zenith advertising and one of the actual Zenith "Flash-Matic" flashlights for changing channels was very interesting. These remote-control sets were known for changing the channel when someone opened a drape.