May 1955 Popular Electronics Table of Contents Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Popular Electronics, published October 1954 - April 1985. All copyrights are hereby acknowledged.

Here is an odd mistake I found in this May 1955 installment of John Frye's "Carl & Jerry" teen-techno-sleuth article. When Jerry heard a sound coming from the vicinity of his cohort Carl and did not spy an operating radio anywhere nearby, he learned that it was coming from Carl's pocket. Turns out it was one of the world's first transistorized radios that, according to owner Carl, had appeared in the January 1955 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. Being an owner of that issue, I checked and did not find mention of it there, but I did remember seeing it in the January 1955 edition of Radio & Television News magazine in an article entitled "A New Pocket Radio," that being the Regency TR-1 transistor radio, priced at $49.95 (equivalent to about $480 in 2019 dollars). Why the confusion, you might ask? Simple, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company produced both magazines and there was some cross-over between them. In January 1972, Electronics World magazine was combined with Popular Electronics.

Carl & Jerry: Transistor Pocket Radio, TV Receivers and Yagi Antennas

By John T. Frye

A few minutes ago Carl had dropped into the basement laboratory and thrown himself down on the workbench while he chatted with Jerry, stretched out on the battered old couch across the room. Suddenly Jerry became silent and heaved himself to a sitting position.

"Say," he said, trying to sit quietly so the couch springs would stop their squeaking protest, "do you hear music?"

"Music!" Carl repeated in wide-eyed surprise. "What's the matter with you, old buddy? You flipped your lid?"

"I hear music," Jerry stubbornly insisted as he got up and padded around the room, checking the receivers, hi-fi amplifier, record player, and similar equipment strewn about the room. Every few steps he stopped to listen intently. "It seems to be louder over here by the bench," he observed. "Hey! It's coming out of you!" he exclaimed and began to "frisk" him in the professional manner of a TV whodunit detective.

"Get your cotton-picking hands off me!" Carl shouted as he planted a big foot in the middle of Jerry's chest and shoved him across the room to a sitting position on the couch. "If you must know, this is what you've been hearing," he went on as he unbuttoned his shirt pocket and pulled forth a flat little Bakelite case not much larger than a pack of king-size cigarettes. He turned a small knurled knob that protruded through a slot in the case, and the whisper of music rose to a volume that filled the room.

"Hey," Jerry exclaimed with mounting enthusiasm, "I'll bet that's the transistor radio I saw in the January Popular Electronics."

"Right!" Carl proudly admitted. "You're feasting your blue eyes on the very first transistor radio put on the market. This is the real thing, with a built-in loop, i.f. stages, and even a.v.c. There are no tubes - just four little transistors and a crystal diode to take their place."

"I know all that," Jerry interrupted, "but how does it work?"

"What station you want to hear?" Carl asked confidently.

"Try Chicago; that's a hundred and twenty miles away."

Carl moved the little dial at the top of the case, and one after another five Chicago stations were picked up with ample volume. "And just for good measure, here's Cincinnati, a couple of hundred miles away," he said as WLW rolled in strong and clear.

"I'll be jiggered," Jerry marveled. "That sure is keen reception for the middle of the day. It changes my thinking about those new transistor receivers that are coming on the market. Before hearing this one, I thought they were clever toys. You know, a sort of glorified crystal set that would pick up strong local stations and not much else."

"You ain't heard nothing yet," Carl boasted. "This set came from my uncle in New York yesterday, and he sent a hearing-aid type earphone that plugs into this little hole in the side of the case. When it's plugged in, the speaker's cut out. Last night after I went to bed I was using the earphone to do some DX-ing. It must have been a hot night on the broadcast band. New York, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Dallas rolled in like our local station; but I was really floored when I picked up two stations in Mexico City. I stayed with them until they announced to be sure. It made me feel kind of funny to be sitting there in the middle of the bed, holding in the palm of my hand a complete receiver on which I was hearing Spanish singing commercials from 2500 miles away whooping it up for Coca Cola - especially when I knew the loop antenna was no bigger than a stick of chewing gum."

"If I remember right," Jerry mused, "that set draws about four mills from a 22 1/2-volt battery. Two thousand five hundred miles on something less than a tenth of a watt of power consumption is pretty good mileage. Say, we could put on a real mind-reading act with that thing. You could wear the earphone under a turban, and I could go out in the audience with a small concealed transmitter. Then you could hear and answer the questions people whispered to me. We gotta work on that."

"Okay," Carl agreed, "but that's not really what I came over to talk about. Get a load of that static. It's building up so bad on 75 meters that I had to QRT on a QSO I was having with W9YVS up in Garrett. Bert was telling me about tornado static. He says that for several years he's been able to tell whenever there's a tornado within three or four hundred miles just by listening to his receiver. He says that when a tornado is doing its stuff, it makes a peculiar kind of static. Instead of individual crashes, he describes it as being sort of a continuous noise, like the sound of loose gravel falling on a tin roof."

"And he's right!" Jerry exclaimed. "That fits in with an article I was reading in the newspaper. A professor by the name of Dr. H. L. Jones at Oklahoma A. & M. has been studying tornado static since 1947. Those high voltage lightning discharges he calls sferics, from the word 'atmospherics.' As a storm goes up in intensity, the frequency of the discharges increases; and the number of them that takes place in any second can be used as a guide as to whether or not a tornado is in the thunderstorm. Fifteen strokes a second indicates hail and that the storm is building toward a tornado. Twenty-three strokes per second means tornado activity is going on and when twenty-six strokes are recorded, the tornado has been spawned."

"How did he count the strokes ?" Carl asked.

"By displaying the lightning discharge on an oscilloscope and taking a picture with an automatic camera every time there was a lightning stroke. At the same time another camera took a picture of a radar scope that showed where the storm center was located. With this gadget going twenty-four hours a day, all Professor Jones had to do was to wait until a cyclone passed near the radar station and then look at the pictures when the tornado was in business. In Oklahoma you sometimes don't have to wait too long; and he got some dandy pictures. One funnel was obliging enough to start forming right over the station!

"He found that not only the number of strokes was important, but also their nature. A tornado turned out a large percentage of high-frequency sferics with scope pictures altogether different from the low-frequency patterns seen during an ordinary thunderstorm. These high-frequency jobs appeared only when there was tornado activity - Hey! You're not listening to me."

"I was just thinking," Carl said slowly. "A thunderstorm is a comparatively small-diameter affair, isn't it?" "

Yes, but what do you have in mind?"

"Did you ever notice that when a thunderstorm is coming on you can see the effect of each lightning stroke as lines across a TV screen?"

"Sure."

"Well, why couldn't we use the directional characteristics of your Yagi-type TV antenna and your antenna rotating motor to get a rough idea of the location of a storm and the direction in which it was moving?"

"Hm-m-m," Jerry said with a thoughtful frown on his round face, "I can't seem to think of any good reason. Let's try it."

In a couple of minutes the boys were upstairs and had Jerry's TV set going. The volume was turned down to quiet the noise and the receiver was set to a blank channel as Jerry swung the antenna about with the rotator.

"You get the best lines when you're aiming south," Carl observed, "but that's about all you can tell. The front receiving lobe is too wide to do any pin-pointing."

"Let's try turning the antenna broadside to the storm," Jerry suggested. "A Yagi antenna has very sharp nulls off the sides. We'll adjust it for minimum noise reception with one side pointed in the general direction of south."

"Hey, now you're in business!" Carl exclaimed. "See; there's just two short periods of time as the antenna swings around when the lines go away down."

"Let's see now," Jerry said. "Our antenna indicator says the antenna is pointing about ten degrees north of due east; so that should mean the side of the antenna we're interested in is pointing about ten degrees to the east of south. That would put the storm center somewhere along a line from here through a point a little to the east of Indianapolis -"

"Listen!" Carl interrupted as he suddenly noticed the little transistor receiver grinding away in his shirt pocket. The crashes of static it had been giving off suddenly merged into a continuous roar that sounded very much like the interference created by an old-fashioned electric razor or a food mixer. "Golly!" he exclaimed; "that sounds exactly like the kind of static Bert was telling me about."

"Can you get any broadcast stations ?" Jerry asked.

Carl moved the little dial to the frequency of the local broadcast station, and it came in clearly with only an occasional weak scratching sound heard under the powerful signal. Jerry returned to his TV rotator control and found that now the continuous lines across the face of the tube made it comparatively easy to find a very sharp null; but he also noticed he had to keep nudging the antenna to the north to maintain the null.

"That storm must be moving to the east," he remarked over his shoulder to Carl, only to find that he was no longer standing there. "What are you doing over there at the window ?" he demanded as he caught sight of Carl holding the curtains aside and peering out to the south.

"Well, it's thisaway," Carl drawled; "tracking tornados is all well and good, but I just want to be sure the tracks don't get too fresh. If I see anything out there that looks the least bit like a funnel-shaped cloud, I'm going to break the sound barrier getting back into that basement. Just don't get in my way."

"Pooh!" Jerry scoffed. "Bert has your imagination all fired up. We've just been hearing a bad thunderstorm. Even that seems to be subsiding. I notice the grinding noise is quieting down in the TV set, and all I hear are isolated crashes of static again -"

He was interrupted by the announcer breaking in on the musical program coming out of Carl's shirt pocket: "Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this program to bring you a special bulletin. A small tornado has just been reported by a pilot flying near Indianapolis. He reports when he first sighted the tornado it was about eight miles due east of that city and was travelling in an east-northeasterly direction. When he was watching the funnel, it was clearing the earth by an estimated five hundred feet, and he could observe no damage in its wake. After a few minutes it disintegrated and was not seen to reform. Keep tuned to this station for further news as it develops. We now return to our program of recorded music."

"Holy cow!" Jerry breathed, "that was a tornado we heard."

"Well, anyway, we've learned two things," Jerry remarked as he switched off the TV set and pulled the line cord from the wall as he always did when there was danger of a thunderstorm. "First, a TV set and an antenna rotator can be used to determine the general direction and progress of a thunderstorm or tornado. Secondly, a tornado does put out a special kind of static that is easy to recognize once you've heard it."

Carl & Jerry Episodes on RF Cafe Carl Anderson and Jerry Bishop were two teenage boys whose love of electronics, Ham radio, and all things technical afforded them ample opportunities to satisfy their own curiosities, assist law enforcement and neighbors with solving problems, and impressing – and sometimes toying with - friends based on their proclivity for serious undertakings as well as fun. Carl & Jerry, by John T. Frye Carl and Jerry Frye were fictional characters in a series of short stories that were published in Popular Electronics magazine from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. The stories were written by John T. Frye, who used the pseudonym "John T. Carroll," and they followed the adventures of two teenage boys, Carl Anderson and Jerry Bishop, who were interested in electronics and amateur radio. In each story, Carl and Jerry would encounter a problem or challenge related to electronics, and they would use their knowledge and ingenuity to solve it. The stories were notable for their accurate descriptions of electronic circuits and devices, and they were popular with both amateur radio enthusiasts and young people interested in science and technology. The Carl and Jerry stories were also notable for their emphasis on safety and responsible behavior when working with electronics. Each story included a cautionary note reminding readers to follow proper procedures and safety guidelines when handling electronic equipment. Although the Carl and Jerry stories were fictional, they were based on the experiences of the author and his own sons, who were also interested in electronics and amateur radio. The stories continue to be popular among amateur radio enthusiasts and electronics hobbyists, and they are considered an important part of the history of electronics and technology education. This content was generated by the ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) engine. Some review was performed to help detect and correct any inaccuracies; however, you are encouraged to verify the information yourself if it will be used for critical applications. In some cases, multiple solicitations to ChatGPT were used to assimilate final content. Images and external hyperlinks have also been added occasionally. Courts have ruled that AI-generated content is not subject to copyright restrictions, but since I modify them, everything here is protected by RF Cafe copyright. Your use of this data implies an agreement to hold totally harmless Kirt Blattenberger, RF Cafe, and any and all of its assigns. Thank you. Here are the major categories. Electronics & High Tech Companies | Electronics & Tech Publications | Electronics & Tech Pioneers | Electronics & Tech Principles | Tech Standards Groups & Industry Associations | Societal Influences on Technology
Lie Detector Tells All - November 1955 The Educated Nursing - April 1964 Going Up - March 1955 Electrical Shock - September 1955 A Low Blow - March 1961 The Black Beast - May 1960 Vox Electronik, September 1958 Pi in the Sky and Big Twist, February 1964 The Bell Bull Session, December 1961 Cow-Cow Boogie, August 1958 TV Picture, June 1955 Electronic Eraser, August 1962 Electronic Trap, March 1956 Geniuses at Work, June 1956 Eeeeelectricity!, November 1956 Anchors Aweigh, July 1956 Bosco Has His Day, August 1956 The Hand of Selene, November 1960 Feedback, May 1956 Abetting or Not?, October 1956 Electronic Beach Buggy, September 1956 Extra Sensory Perception, December 1956 Trapped in a Chimney, January 1956 Command Performance, November 1958 Treachery of Judas, July 1961 The Sucker, May 1963 Stereotaped New Year, January 1963 The Snow Machine, December 1960 Extracurricular Education, July 1963 Slow Motion for Quick Action, April 1963 Sonar Sleuthing, August 1963 TV Antennas, August 1955 Succoring a Soroban, March 1963 "All's Fair --", September 1963 Operation Worm Warming, May 1961	The Electronic Bloodhound - November 1964 Great Bank Robbery or "Heroes All" - October 1955 Operation Startled Starling - January 1955 A Light Subject - November 1954 Dog Teaches Boy - February 1959 Too Lucky - August 1961 Joking and Jeopardy - December 1963 Santa's Little Helpers - December 1955 Two Tough Customers - June 1960 Transistor Pocket Radio, TV Receivers and Yagi Antennas, May 1955 Tunnel Stomping, March 1962 The Blubber Banisher, July 1959 The Sparkling Light, May 1962 Pure Research Rewarded, June 1962 A Hot Idea, March 1960 The Hot Dog Case, December 1954 A New Company is Launched, October 1956 Under the Mistletoe, December 1958 Electronic Eraser, August 1962 "BBI", May 1959 Ultrasonic Sound Waves, July 1955 The River Sniffer, July 1962 Ham Radio, April 1955 El Torero Electronico, April 1960 Wired Wireless, January 1962 Electronic Shadow, September 1957 Elementary Induction, June 1963 He Went That-a-Way, March1959 Electronic Detective, February 1958 Aiding an Instinct, December 1962 Two Detectors, February 1955 Tussle with a Tachometer, July 1960 Therry and the Pirates, April 1961 The Crazy Clock Caper, October 1960
Carl & Jerry: Their Complete Adventures is now available. "From 1954 through 1964, Popular Electronics published 119 adventures of Carl Anderson and Jerry Bishop, two teen boys with a passion for electronics and a knack for getting into and out of trouble with haywire lash-ups built in Jerry's basement. Better still, the boys explained how it all worked, and in doing so, launched countless young people into careers in science and technology. Now, for the first time ever, the full run of Carl and Jerry yarns by John T. Frye are available again, in five authorized anthologies that include the full text and all illustrations."

Posted August 27, 2019