On May 23, 6:08 pm, "TonyC" wrote:
If you look at the H500 dial it is an "airplane" dial. He is looking at the
wrong end of the pointer. When one end is pointing to 14.9-15 the other end
is pointing to 9.4-9.5. VOR definitely transmits in that band at the time
mentioned.

The H500 dial is not the most clearly marked.

I collected antique tube radios for a number of years, and I never
understood how people in the 1930s and 1940s could NOT be driven
absolutely bonkers by many of the "decorative" airplane dials common
on many of those radios. I am not familiar with the radio in question,
but I have seen PLENTY of confusing dials. I never actually tried to
listen to shortwave on any of my stuff, just AM (usually called "BC"
or something similar).

I can't imagine sitting at home in 1940 or so, with huge headphones
on, desperately trying to find Berlin, Tokyo, or London at the same
place on a poorly marked and designed analog dial where it MIGHT have
been the night before, with images galore and tube drift too. Yikes.
Maybe that was part of the fun, and the advent of $50 all digital
appliance radios and reliable station lists took the fun out of
shortwave and led to its decline (along with satellites and the
attendant expectation of static free video from war zones on demand).

Even DXing on the transistorized analog radios common in the 1960s
must have been crazy. I have a GE World Monitor and 6-18 Mhz is
squeezed onto a very small dial-on one band labeled "SW". Not even
Tecsun, which makes the windup analog SW radio, is that nuts.

American Insurgent wrote:

On May 23, 6:08 pm, "TonyC" wrote:
If you look at the H500 dial it is an "airplane" dial. He is looking at the
wrong end of the pointer. When one end is pointing to 14.9-15 the other end
is pointing to 9.4-9.5. VOR definitely transmits in that band at the time
mentioned.

The H500 dial is not the most clearly marked.

I collected antique tube radios for a number of years, and I never
understood how people in the 1930s and 1940s could NOT be driven
absolutely bonkers by many of the "decorative" airplane dials common
on many of those radios. I am not familiar with the radio in question,
but I have seen PLENTY of confusing dials. I never actually tried to
listen to shortwave on any of my stuff, just AM (usually called "BC"
or something similar).


That was a popular style at the time. "Industrial"


I can't imagine sitting at home in 1940 or so, with huge headphones
on, desperately trying to find Berlin, Tokyo, or London at the same
place on a poorly marked and designed analog dial where it MIGHT have
been the night before, with images galore and tube drift too. Yikes.
Maybe that was part of the fun, and the advent of $50 all digital
appliance radios and reliable station lists took the fun out of
shortwave and led to its decline (along with satellites and the
attendant expectation of static free video from war zones on demand).

Even DXing on the transistorized analog radios common in the 1960s
must have been crazy. I have a GE World Monitor and 6-18 Mhz is
squeezed onto a very small dial-on one band labeled "SW". Not even
Tecsun, which makes the windup analog SW radio, is that nuts.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

"American Insurgent" wrote in message
oups.com...
On May 23, 6:08 pm, "TonyC" wrote:
If you look at the H500 dial it is an "airplane" dial. He is looking at
the
wrong end of the pointer. When one end is pointing to 14.9-15 the other
end
is pointing to 9.4-9.5. VOR definitely transmits in that band at the
time
mentioned.

The H500 dial is not the most clearly marked.

I collected antique tube radios for a number of years, and I never
understood how people in the 1930s and 1940s could NOT be driven
absolutely bonkers by many of the "decorative" airplane dials common
on many of those radios. I am not familiar with the radio in question,
but I have seen PLENTY of confusing dials. I never actually tried to
listen to shortwave on any of my stuff, just AM (usually called "BC"
or something similar).

I can't imagine sitting at home in 1940 or so, with huge headphones
on, desperately trying to find Berlin, Tokyo, or London at the same
place on a poorly marked and designed analog dial where it MIGHT have
been the night before, with images galore and tube drift too. Yikes.

Oh man, that is the epitomy of nirvana for an old guy like me.

Maybe that was part of the fun, and the advent of $50 all digital
appliance radios and reliable station lists took the fun out of
shortwave and led to its decline (along with satellites and the
attendant expectation of static free video from war zones on demand).

Even DXing on the transistorized analog radios common in the 1960s
must have been crazy. I have a GE World Monitor and 6-18 Mhz is
squeezed onto a very small dial-on one band labeled "SW". Not even
Tecsun, which makes the windup analog SW radio, is that nuts.

They don't make um like they used to, fortunately/unfortunately.
B

I collected antique tube radios for a number of years, and I never
understood how people in the 1930s and 1940s could NOT be driven
absolutely bonkers by many of the "decorative" airplane dials common
on many of those radios. I am not familiar with the radio in question,
but I have seen PLENTY of confusing dials. I never actually tried to
listen to shortwave on any of my stuff, just AM (usually called "BC"
or something similar).


One of the best tuning systems I ever saw
was on an old GRUNO ( 1930s? ) console radio.
( I think the old ZENITHS used a similar system )

The tuning dial was arranged like a clock face.
There were two pointers.... an "hour" and a 'minute" hand.
..... and it tuned just like a clock mechanism.

On Shortwave, you didn't have to remember a specific frequency.
Just that BBC came in on "twenty to four"...
or that Cuba came in on "five after nine".

Made it easy to keep a log of stations too.

rj

I have a few push button radios.I hate push buttons.(except for
''certain kinds'' of ''push buttons''.
cuhulin

On May 31, 3:55 pm, "RJ" wrote:
I collected antique tube radios for a number of years, and I never
understood how people in the 1930s and 1940s could NOT be driven
absolutely bonkers by many of the "decorative" airplane dials common
on many of those radios. I am not familiar with the radio in question,
but I have seen PLENTY of confusing dials. I never actually tried to
listen to shortwave on any of my stuff, just AM (usually called "BC"
or something similar).

One of the best tuning systems I ever saw
was on an old GRUNO ( 1930s? ) console radio.
( I think the old ZENITHS used a similar system )

The tuning dial was arranged like a clock face.
There were two pointers.... an "hour" and a 'minute" hand.
.... and it tuned just like a clock mechanism.

On Shortwave, you didn't have to remember a specific frequency.
Just that BBC came in on "twenty to four"...
or that Cuba came in on "five after nine".

Made it easy to keep a log of stations too.

rj


Yeah, it was Grunow who made the clock face dial, they called it a
"teledial" or something similar. I've only seen those in ads, not even
in the days when antique stores were loaded with quality old radios
did you ever see Grunows. I don't think Grunow sold very many of those
things, they were just too weird for 1940 America.