Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Robert, who shares the following:
Hi Thomas – I visited the President Truman Library today and noticed an interesting item in their Oval Office recreation. It appears that not only did Mr. Truman have the first television inside the Oval Office, he apparently also had a Hallicrafters model SX-28 right behind his desk.
One wonders what stations he would specifically listen to, and what type of antenna was installed at the White House for this radio?
Cheers,
Robert
Our current POTUS thinks a HAM is something you eat
Our current POTUS yhinks a HAM is something you eat
When I was about 10 years old in 1952 I discovered my father’s Hallicrafters SX-28 receiver “hidden” behind a curtain inside of an antique wine cabinet in our house near Ft. Jackson, SC . He said that he had bought it to listen to foreign broadcast during the war, but it hadn’t been turned on in five or so years. Long story short, I became fascinated with it and what I could hear on it, and that led to my obtaining my novice ham license 2 years later, and I used that receiver along with various transmitters for the next 5 or 6 years. I moved up through the ranks to extra class license as quickly as possible and I’m still active today at age 83, and I still have the old Halicrafters receiver.
If only we could have persuaded the current occupant to listen to VOA.
Thanks for posting that.
A lesser known part of Harry Truman’s life is that he worked in the late 1920s and early 1930s for AAA (American Automobile Association) and drove all over the mostly rough roads of the USA. I wonder what vehicle radios he might have had?
In 2006 my mother was put on the blood thinner drug Warfarin and very quickly had a brain bleed that put her in an ICU for over a week.
I needed a book to read, and someone had left the thick and heavy hardback
“Harry Truman” by David McCullough in her house.
This book blessedly gave me something to read that was written in such an engaging style that it lessened emotions while I did long shifts in her hospital room.
The great old big and heavy “Boat Anchor” or “Shop Heater” tube radios deserve admiration.
Much lesser known, but highly admirable and consequential, were literally millions of tiny and light tube radios:
https://www.wlwt.com/article/cincinnati-crosley-corporation-world-war-secret-weapon/62871318
I guess if you e-mail the library they could find in the archive related documents.
There surly was a communication officer to tune and work the radio.
When was the last time it was ON and alive?
If the museum would buy one of the “Talking House AM transmitters” they could locally transmit select parts of Truman’s speeches
such as
atomic bomb drop,
WWII surrender,
seizing ownership of all the USA coal mines {aka why no gov national healthcare}
firing General McArthur,
and so forth…..
In the “in our dreams” situation,
they could transmit at either 520 khz or 1730 khz
like a “Ham Propagation Beacon”
a few minutes at 100 milliwatts,
a few minutes at 5 watt,
a few minutes at 50 watts (TIS station power)
They could have an automated email QSL service….
Thanks for sharing this! This is fascinating and does make one wonder what President Truman would have listened to in those days…
I’ll had a Hallicrafters SX110. Loved it
It’s sheer speculation, but Truman was known to love listening to live concerts on the radio, and the BBC Third Programme, which broadcast many classical concerts, made its debut in 1946. I’ll bet he caught a few of those and shortwave was probably the only way to do so back then.
Now that’s what the Oval Office should look like! However with the radio sitting so low, Harry would have to get down on his knees to tune in Radio Moscow and other SW stations back then.