Radio Electronics Magazine
 

I just stumbled across on-line issues of this magazine from 1948 to 1992. It appears that this magazine was geared towards the serviceman and there are a lot of interesting case histories and repair tips on the '40s and '50s TVs. Very interesting reading.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...aster_Page.htm

...and into the color era too:

http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=263159

I strongly suggest also reading Radio News / Radio and Television News / Radio & TV News / Electronics World (title changed to reflect changing times)

It was a competitor to Radio Electronics, and, I think a better magazine. If you want some washroom/bed time reading read Mac's Service Shop in Radio & TV News, it's a monthly feature about a fictional shop where Mac and his assistant Barney run into interesting problems servicing the electronics of the era (more or less fomed on the pattern of Gus Wilson's Model Garage in Popular Science), and is entertaining, corny, nostalgic and educational. I think this is online at the same website as Radio Electronics.

Also, if you can find Wireless World online you will have the UK perspective, and a whole ton of interesting articles.

Agree! The last Radio-TV news issue (before merging with EW), features the Philco Predicta and a then-18 year old that went on to invent the Easy Pass electronic toll system. Tons of great info in those magazines, and their construction projects were first rate. They were into transistors way before the others. The service articles (many by Margolis or Buchsbaum) are also first rate. To have them all in a FREE website is a blessing.

Cheers,

Not to mention just how much they have to offer anyone who is into vintage hi-fi (even norman crowhurst did articles!), ham radio, music (bert whyte who later wrote for audio magazine), and advertising galore!

I think 50s era Radio & TV news is at the top of my list for best and most interesting magazine ever... maybe not all would agree but that's my personal opinion. I like it even better than Popular Mechanics when they actually told you how to do things.

I went through 1950-51 and was amazed that the magazine almost ignored color TV. Only 3 articles over the two years.

They were catching up by 1954, when they ran a nine-part series (Mar-Nov) of articles on color TV by Milton S. Kiver. The series was so popular that they offered reprints.

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

Oh my god yes. This is incredible.
I was always heartbroken when I ahd to dump a stack of the magazines but then boom, here they all are in PDF form.

wow ,awsome iv been trying to collect these for years but its hard to find alot of these issue's and here they are month by month .

That website is an incredible resource! Another relevant magazine I would love to see them archive is "PF Reporter", Sams' monthly magazine aimed at the TV repair tech.

I wonder how that website owner managed to get reproduction rights to all those publications in this age of perpetual copyright and fading public domain....

Good luck with PF Reporter. We have pre-1963 Photofacts on our website, which are in the public domain. Even so, Sams threatened to sue us to remove them.

I found a very interesting article there:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...cs-1953-10.pdf

on P. 60. It is Oct, 1953

Its a list of TV stations is Europe. I count only 27 transmitter locations! Only
the UK has a reasonable coverage. Only Paris had two stations, one 441 line and
one 819 line.

Compare to the station list in the US as of 1953. Sure, we have a larger
area (but not by much, since the Europe list includes Moscow and
St. Petersburg.) In 1953 all even modest size US cities had more than one TV station.
And a (very) few of those, that month, were busily getting ready for
the 1954 Rose Bowl Parade ... in color.

I had always thought of Europe being behind ONLY in color ... I had
not realized it was so behind, period.

Well most of Europe was still recovering from WWII then, and we were in a competition with Russia to grab up former Axis nations' engineers....

This is interesting, in the Oct 1950 issue they have a DX report, lists the name of the person, set and antenna used and distance.
I haven't checked any other issues to see if this was a regular feature or not.
The 630 TS seems to still have been a popular model at the time.

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...cs-1950-10.pdf

TV DX was a regular section IIRC. I seem to recall an issue where they were saying the BBC was giving such strong reception in the states that it could be recieved on basement sets with only a screw driver for an antenna, and other interesting anecdotes.

From 1951:

"Complaints on the quality of TV sets
delivered to the New York City area
continued to increase during the fall.
Several large retailers reported that
practically every set had to be realigned,
and service contractors said
that workmanship was "rapid and
poor" and was getting worse"

David has a quite of a collection there.

I hope you all noticed the clickon to "Radio Craft" magazine in the 1948 listing of "Radio-Electronics" issues. Lots of earlier radio/TV articles going back to 1929.
This cover from Aug. 1938.

-Steve D.

I just used that Radio-Electronics archive link to find the Zenith 29JC20 vertical output transformer supply cap value in the Oct 62 issue. That link is now bookmarked! Thanks!

Dave

The articles on the business side of radio-TV repair are fascinating, too. I look at the ads and can't imagine living in a world where all those great parts and military-surplus equipment were so readily available.

Look at the prices of the 211's and 2A3's, pure Nirvana! :D

New York City had the most TV stations in the VHF spectrum you could have per FCC rules. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. Most small towns, like Syracuse, had only 3 TV stations, 3, 5, and 9. In New York City, the tuner and IF strip had to work well to keep 2nd adjacent stations out of the desired channel. Especially channel 4 and 5 (there's 4 MHz of non-TV related stuff between them, so that's why 4 and 5 could co-exist per FCC rules).

But those prices were in the day when you could wine and dine your girl, and paint the town and have change left over from a quarter... :D

Is 'Radio and Television News' [Radio & TV News] available on line?
I haven't found that one at all.

Regards,

Available on the same website, all the way back to when it was just "Radio News"...

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/...Page_Guide.htm

PF Reporter has joined the other mags available on the American Radio History website:

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/PF-Index.htm

Thanks, was just there and found an article I needed!

Electronic Technician and Dealer was a fine Magazine as well.
IIRC, they would include a few schematics every issue. Many times, before Sams would issue them. Also, at the time of subscribing, they would include a book of schematics, as a bonus. :thmbsp: