When 1 Think Back... by Neville Williams Reader comments on the past, and Superregen. receivers in a new light Faced with an assortment of letters and phone calls prompted by past instalments of this column, it is fitting that I should interrupt the present series on vintage receiver design to acknowledge readers' comments and contributions to do with the history of electronics. Of special interest is information about a little-known major wartime role of superregenerative receivers. One thing that stands out from readers' Bob inquired as to whether we could Relevant to Bob Cooper's quest, we letters is that no one writer or source has help. Yes, we could, because Ross Hull had to be careful not to confuse the a monopoly on historical information. had been the first pioneer to be featured various wavebands, which were Mention almost any subject, it seems, in the series, back in February 1989. It so described in different ways during Ross and someone comes up with spontaneous happened because Ross had served brief- Hull's lifetime. personal recollections — or a clipping or ly as Technical Editor of our forerunner Transmissions in the present broadcast article that didn't make it into accessible Wireless Weekly. band were originally classified as 'short reference files. In the absence of any known biog- wave', as distinct from those on 'long It is saddening to contemplate, with raphy, we had been able to piece together waves' — around 1000m or 300kHz. hindsight, how much other electronics a reasonably cohesive story based on They were later redefined as 'medium history must already have been lost with published references to his activities, waves' with 'short waves' then signifying the passing of industry pioneers, along deduction from his articles and the fading HF (high frequency) channels up to with their dusty old books and papers recollections of some who remembered around 10 metres or 30MHz. discarded by relatives in the subsequent his formidable reputation as an ex- As late as 1936 the ARRL Handbook, dispersal of personal effects. perimenter, technician and writer. which Ross Hull edited, did not recog- Maybe we should all take a lesson In getting it together, however, we nise the term 'VHF' (very high frequen- from the 'Talking History' series on ABC could not escape the conviction that a lot cy), which now signifies that part of the Radio, and leave behind a tangible record of other information about him must spectrum between 30MHz and 300MHz. of our one-time way of life. surely have been published, beyond what It arbitrarily classified all frequencies One recently retired electronics en- we had access to. above 50MHz as 'UHF' (ultra high fre- ,. gineer, who has already recorded tapes .54WASVAX9.4}...PKOACORWOXPAMPAVOUPAI quency), which today signifies the range for the ABC archives, told me how he is 300- 3000MHz. (The now internationally writing long personal letters to his Brunswick 78rpm Records recognised frequency terminology dates children and grandchildren about per- I am researching the history of the back officially to the ITU conference in sonal, family and technical matters, American Brunswick Record Company 1959). which he hopes will be retained and re- in Australia. No local artists appeared on the Label, as the Company used Historic broadcast read long after he is gone. American master stampers to press A New Zealand radio amateur, Bob the records. Another amateur operator, Alan Elliott Cooper Jnr. of Mangonui, relates how, in I have a small collection {approx. (VK3AL) of South Melbourne writes to researching the history of VHF/UHF 300) of Brunswick 78rpm records, from say that, in researching the history of the wave propagation, he came up against a classical to comedy. I am interested in Melbourne Club, he came across a refer- blank wall when he tried to find out locating the site of the Sydney press- ence in the minutes to a demonstration of ing plant, and a description of the type about Australian pioneer amateur Ross of equipment that would have been in wireless telephony presented to the Club Hull. He was able to obtain an outline of use for record production around 1924, on August 16, 1923. his service with the ARRL (American I was wondering whether you could Arranged by a Mr Cutler, the broadcast Radio Relay League) and the cir- suggest any suitable magazine/papers included musical items and a talk on the cumstances of his tragic electrocution in from the period that would have advantages of joining a progressive Connecticut in 1938, but the ARRL had profiled the Company in Australia. Any camera club. no record of his prior activities in information would be greatly ap- preciated. Would it have been a genuine broad- Australia. cast, he wanted to know? If so, would it J.D. (Neutral Bay, NSW) Prompted, however, by mention of his have been a commercial station — 3AW name in 'Think Back' for January 1991, for example? If not, when did that station 40 ELECTRONICS Australia, December 1991 commence broadcasting? Who was the away, it could be a near-hopeless task. know more about their sourcing in Mr Cutler referred to in the minutes? Alt the best for your retirement anyway, Australia. In an effort to help, we contacted S.M. Jim! In other days, I would have been able (Syd) Newman, a long retired AWA Mel- Good wishes aside, there was one ref- to pick up the phone and raise the matter bourne identity featured in our January erence in the letter that caught my atten- with EMI's chief recording engineer R.V. 1991 issue. Syd had no recollection of tion. I quote: (Reg) Southey, or with two or three other the broadcast, having been on assign- From information gleaned from Jim, it pioneers, still working hi the industry; ment in Britain during 1923. appears that he was involved with out- men who had refined their skills in the 78 He confirmed, however, that AWA had side broadcasts when announcers were era. But that generation has long since a small transmitter in Melbourne which required to hold specific rating certifi- disappeared from the everyday scene, to could have been used for a demonstration cates authorising cad Jibbing' or pre- be replaced by younger engineers who broadcast The broadcast could alterna- prepared announcing. know the 78 era only by repute. Indeed, tively have originated from the coastal What gives? I've lived through the era the analog record industry itself is being radio station VIM, under the callsign of radio broadcasting, I've read about it ushered out by competition from tape 3ME. and written about it, but I've never heard and the digital compact disc. Syd remembered Cliff Cutler as a mention of radio announcers having to According to EMI's one-time company general engineer attached to the hold any kind of licence. Nor have any of publication The Voice (August 1954), Australian navy when it operated the my friends to whom I've mentioned the Reg Southey had been responsible for coastal radio service. When AWA took matter. setting up Australia's rust recording over the service, Cliff Cutler transferred We've all simply assumed that people studio in Sydney's Homebush, in 1926 to the AWA Melbourne staff. got to be announcers if their employer — coincident with the adoption of 3AW could not have existed in 1923, considered that they had an acceptable electrical recording. As to prior activities he said, but came into being much later voice and presentation, an appropriate in the way of disc processing, it is silent. (the actual year was 1931). background and so on, and were in the I've read about old-time disc process- There the trail ended, but Allan Elliott right place at the right time when an ap- ing, and discussed it verbally and in had learned enough to reason that the pointment had to be made. print, but failed completely to find the broadcast in question would probably Was Jim McBride referring to an in- kind of reference material that Jim Dan- have been the first in Melbourne, and house certicate used by 3AW — and pos- garfield is looking for. It is most likely to perhaps in Australia, to promote a sibly by other stations — to facilitate be found, I would think, in science/tech- camera club — of which he is a member. program planning and rosters? Or was it nical books and magazines from the early Unfortunately, there as no point in an accreditation required by the authority 1920's, and/or in early copies of the encouraging him to inquire further from administering radio broadcasting at the English Gramophone magazine, which AWA. I gather that, in the current time? began publication in 1926. scramble for productivity and minimal If the latter, then it's a spot of history The book From Tin Foil to Stereo by overheads, one-time institutional indul- that I (and others) seem to have missed Read and Welsh (Howard W. Sams Inc., gences like a captive historian have dis- out on. Some reader should be able to set New York, 1976) includes brief mention appeared, along with a generation of the record straight. of the Brunswick Company, with par- AWA-bred executives with memories ticular reference to the era when the stretching back to that era. Brunswick records American record industry was dominated Speaking of records, I wonder whether by local 'pop' music and heavily depend- Announcer's licence? the name 'Brunswick' stirs any ent on trans-Atlantic imports for more 3AW features in another letter, this memories. For me, it served as a substantive material. time from an officer of the Salvation reminder of a stack of surplus 78rpm On that basis, a fair proportion of the Army in Fremantle, WA.