Here's a question. Back in the late 1930s-early 1940s many homes had
big console radios with standard broadcast AM and a couple of shortwave
bands. Table radios with shortwave bands were abundant too. Was there
really a lot of shortwave listening going on in that time period?
Or did manufacturers put shortwave into radios as sort of a "luxury"
feature? (or way to one-up your neighbors)
--

jhaynes at alumni dot uark dot edu

Was there really a lot of shortwave listening going on in that time period?


I recall in the Thirties that the people with real jobs had serious aerials on
their roofs. But I also recall that all I heard, from out on a sidewalk, were
MW stations broadcasting Stella Dallas and other soaps. G In the evening, we
kids would take over and listen to The Lone Ranger, Captain Midnight, et al.

When I was 15 (1945), I sometimes substituted on my sister's baby sitting job.
The homeowner had a big floor Zenith. My ex-WU op mom had already taught me
wire Morse, so I became fascinated by the radio code I heard thumping wartime
stuff on shortwave. (Sigh...) That got me interested in going for my ham
ticket. (I got it in 1947.)

73,
Bill, K5BY

This reminds me... The speakers in those old radios had electromagnets. The
larger coil around the cone's coil doubled as a filter choke in the power
supply.

Replacing one of those speakers with a perm mag jobbie required also installing
a smoothing choke for the power supply.

But those old speakers did have punch.

Bill, K5BY