Editor, QST:

Not knowing just how many years it takes to be classified as one the fraternity of “Old Timers,” I won’t make any claims, but at least I have been through several periods of wild forecastings and dark forebodings.

I was just perusing some of my old radio magazines and noting some of the sets and new (?) hook-ups of that time. What memories they recall! I can still picture myself poring over the latest hook-up, critically appraising it, noting a new way to connect a coil or a new place to squeeze in a resistor. It mattered not whether the results were anywhere near what was claimed for the set. So long as the hook-up presented a different way to connect the parts, it made little difference how rotten the set worked.

I used to build crystal sets until I had exhausted about every possible combination of parts. When the magazines offered nothing new, I invented my own connections. Such experimenting was comparatively harmless and inexpensive. A good crystal set could be built in those days for around $15. But the tube sets were different! A stage of r.f., detector, and two stages of audio delved into the pocket-book to the tune of about $150. I’ll always remember that sinking feeling when I blew nine WD-11’s at a cost of $6.50 each and dropped the tenth one.

A service kit, in those days, consisted of a pair of ‘phones and a B battery. A loud click on a transformer meant the primary was O.K. A soft click was ditto for the secondary. And so it went. Everything had to click. ‘Phones were tested by noting the loudness of the click when the tips were touched to the tongue (incidentally, a good way to test ‘phones).

Now, what do we find? Complicated, semi-automatic receivers that only the makers know how the wheels go around. With new types of tubes being incorporated every day, automatic bias, automatic volume control, automatic muters, no wonder so many of us throw up our hands and shy off touching up the neighbor’s sleep-killer. There are two types of radios I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. One is the old reflex and the other is the latest thing out. One was too tricky to do anything with, and the other is hidden behind tin-can shielding, metal boxes, and “hands off” signs.

Harsh as this letter seems, I hold no grudge against the makers of modern receivers. They are certainly doing some fine engineering as is reflected in the high quality receivers in present day use. But who can help sighing for the good old days when a tube wasn’t ashamed to show its face, and coils and condensers were above-board and handy?

Well, maybe I’m wrong, but that’s what comes from digging through old magazines. Yep, it’s a great life!

Letter to the Editor (‘Sigh With Me’) from W6EIJ of Los Angeles appeared in the November 1932 edition of the magazine…