In North America most commercial radio was located in the AM band (730-1200 khz) until the much more interference-resistant FM band rose in popularity during the sixties and seventies. Longwave and shortwave broadcasting was more popular in Europe. When we were kids in Canada, the expensive and exotic European radios that occasionally appeared were a curiosity with all those other frequencies and bands available, but inoperative.
There was a great deal of development going on in radio during the thirties, and Eugene F MacDonald of the Zenith radio company was promoting shortwave as well as the more commercial frequencies. He was an avid yachtsman and wanted better reception of AM as well as shortwave frequencies while cruising the more remote areas of the Great Lakes.
He appears to have been an impressive guy, having risen through the ranks in the military to Lieutenant Commander, he kept the title Commander throughout his life, apparently well deserved as he and his company were was held in high esteem. Wikipedia here.
After several years of work Zenith R&D completed the design of what became the "Clipper" portable radio. Production started in 1942 but only 35,000 were made before WW2 put an end to production. After the war, a successor model, the Trans-Oceanic model was released, and then the world's first fully transistorized model in 1957.
The Trans-Oceanic series was probably Zenith's most famous product and was in production till 1982. The accompanying pictures come from a European reader who says;
This radio has graced the family kitchen for all my life, but unfortunately long wave broadcasting is being terminated by more and more stations, so its useful life is not for long.
It's a Zenith Transcontinental-D, one of the first all-transistor domestic radios, and with a retail price of more than $250, it was top-of-the-line stuff.
The nine D batteries are good for several years of operation at a couple of hours per day.
There are three antennae: one built-in "Wavemagnet", one three-feet telescopic built into the carrying handle, and another "Wavemagnet" equipped with rubber suction cups to be stuck, for example, to a railroad carriage window.
Inside the front cover is a "computer" for figuring out time zones, and a compartment for the user's booklet (28 pages) explaining operation, use of the 9 different bandwidth selections, and a listing of stations from Aden to Zanzibar and their broadcasting hours.
A socket is provided to use it as a phonograph amplifier (dancing around the jungle campfire ?)
The radio's genesis and the story of its creator, "Commander" E F McDonald, are a good read.
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| Thanks, JP! |
5 comments:
Wow, what a blast from the past. I grew up with one of these in Caracas Venezuela. I remember staying up late at night in order to listen to voices from far away places I could only dream of.
And, interestingly, one of these just came up for sale (about 10 pm on Saturday) in Hamilton.
An older cousin was extremely into radio and had one of these. He could pull in any kind of signal.
Had one as a farm lad. We briefly picked up the BBC once or twice.
Now it is so much easier to click on a web link and listen to BBC Leeds.
If short-wave disappears, then how will the numbers stations operate?
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