A radio disguised as book – ‘The Listener’ by E. R. Fone. c.1920s.
I discovered a photo of the The Listener by E.R. Fone via Dan Wilson’s Twitter feed. What a fascinating piece of vintage gear!
Post readers: Any other radios in disguise that you’ve discovered? Please share links, photos and/or details in the comments section!
Czech Radio’s main headquarters in Vinohradská street in the centre of Prague, photo: Lenka Žižková
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Iurescia (LW4DAF), who shares the following news items from Radio Prague regarding the 95th anniversary of Czech Radio’s first broadcasts:
Listening Sessions at a Prague Cinema: Czech Radio’s First Broadcasts Recalled, 95 Years Later
A historic moment occurred at 20:15 on Saturday May 18, 1923 when the first ever broadcast by Czechoslovak Radio was made from a tent at a military air base in Prague’s Kbely district.
After the United Kingdom, Czechoslovakia was the second country in Europe to launch regular radio broadcasting.
Zuzana Foglarová is communications manager at today’s Czech Radio. Speaking at a new exhibition of radio technology at the station, she describes the scene in May 1923.
“Above all it was very simple. There was one tent, which had been borrowed from the scouts. On the floor in the tent was a piano and stool. There was also a table for the presenter, technicians and so on. There was only one microphone, and the story goes that if somebody was playing the piano and somebody else was singing, the latter had to sit under the piano so the microphone could pick up all the sounds.”
Many of the first listeners 95 years ago were waiting to hear the signal come through at a cinema just off Prague’s Wenceslas Square.[…]
Click here to download recording.
Click here to read the full article at Radio Prague.
The spectacular Rudgers?v Palace built in the Neo-Classicist style is home to Czech Radio’s Ostrava studios, photo: Daniel Martínek, Czech Radio (Source: Radio Praha)
Past and Present: A Gallery of Czech´s Radio Buildings
Czech Radio is celebrating its 95th anniversary this year. The Czech national radio broadcaster has come a long way since its pioneering days. Today it is the biggest radio broadcaster in the country with 9 channels, manned not only by its Prague staff but 14 regional branches providing news and reports from around the country. The station’s buildings are also an important part of its history. On the occasion of Czech Radio’s 95th anniversary we have prepared a photo gallery of its buildings, some of them valuable architectural landmarks.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor John with TheReportOfTheWeek who writes:
Since our last update, a few additional time and frequency changes have been made to our shortwave airings of VORW Radio Int. Each broadcast features a fun hour of misc talk and commentary as well as a wide variety of listener requested music!
The full schedule is below, with changes being highlighted.
Thursday 1000 UTC – 5950 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Western North America
Thursday 2000 UTC – 7780 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Eastern North America
Thursday 2100 UTC – 7490 kHz – WBCQ 50 kW – Eastern North America
Thursday 2200 UTC – 9955 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – South America
Friday 0000 UTC (Thu 8 PM Eastern) – 7730 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Western North America
Friday 0000 UTC – 5950 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Central America (ex. 9455 kHz)
Friday 0000 UTC – 9395 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North America
Friday 0100 UTC – 7780 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Eastern North America & Europe
Friday 0100 UTC – 5850 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North America
Friday 0400 UTC – 7730 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – Western North America (new. Test transmission for West Coast Listeners)
Sunday 2000 UTC – 9395 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North America
Sunday 2100 UTC – 7780 kHz – WRMI 100 kW – North AmericaQuestions, comments, reception reports and music requests may be sent to vorwinfo@gmail.com PayPal donations are also welcome at that email as this is a listener funded broadcast.
Reception reports will receive a QSL!
All the best,
John
From the Isle of Music, May 27-June 2:
This week we re-broadcast a conversation that we had with Arturo O’Farrill in the Iris Jazz
Club in Santiago de Cuba in December 2015 and listen to some excellent Cuban Jazz and dance music.
1. For Eastern Europe but audible well beyond the target area in most of the Eastern Hemisphere (including parts of East Asia and Oceania) with 100Kw, Sunday 1500-1600 UTC on SpaceLine, 9400 KHz, from Kostinbrod, Bulgaria (1800-1900 MSK)
2. For the Americas and parts of Europe, Tuesday 0000-0100 UTC on WBCQ, 7490 KHz from Monticello, ME, USA (Monday 8-9PM EST in the US). This has been audible in parts of NW, Central and Southern Europe with an excellent skip to Italy recently.
3 & 4. For Europe and sometimes beyond, Tuesday 1900-2000 UTC and Saturday 1200-1300 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany.
Uncle Bill’s Melting Pot, Sun, May 27 & Tues, May 29
Episode 64 presents the music of the delightful singer Irina Sarbu and the Ethnojazz Project, an award-winning ensemble that fuses Romanian music and Jazz.
1. Sundays 2200-2230 UTC (6:00PM -6:30PM Eastern US) on
WBCQ The Planet 7490 KHz from the US to the Americas and parts of Europe
2. Tuesdays 2000-2030 UTC on Channel 292, 6070 KHz from Rohrbach, Germany for Europe. If current propagation conditions hold, the broadcast should reach from Iceland to Western Russia, Scandinavia down to North Africa and the Middle East, AND a long bounce to parts of New Zealand.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who discovered a very rareHammarlund SP-600 JX21A on eBay. Dan writes:
Collectors of classic boatanchor gear know what has been probably the rarest of tube sets year after year, decade after decade. That set is the Hammarlund SP-600 JX21A.
While there have been numerous JX21s on eBay, there has not been, to my memory, a single JX21A appearing. This particular model was a version of the SP-600 that was produced in small quantities in the 1960’s, and according to one writeup was the only one with a product detector and switchable sidebands. According to Radiomuseum it was the last model in the SP-600 series, and was recognizable for its knobs which were different because the silkscreen information was printed directly on the front panel rather than on the edge of the knob skirts.
According to Les Locklear’s excellent history of SP-600 models, the JX21A was produced between 1969 and 1972.
Now, an ultra-rare SP-600 JX21A has appeared on eBay. Like other models in the series, this would likely require replacement of numerous capacitors and a thorough refurbishment. The seller in this case has started bidding at a very low level, but if history is any guide, a rare model like this one may indeed go for thousands of dollars when all is said and done at the end of the auction.
Click here to view the Hammarlund SP-600 JX21A on eBay.
Amazing! Thank you for sharing, Dan! What a gorgeous set. Though the seller states it’s in need of restoration, I’m pretty sure this one will get snagged up at end of auction. I’m very curious where the final price will land.
Are there any SWLing Post readers who own an SP-600 model–or the JX21A? Please comment!