Saturday, Jun. 28, 2008

Waves of the past: Museum exhibit features old radio equipment

Special to the Sun-Star

The magic of radio will be explored in a new exhibit opening July 3 at the Merced County Courthouse Museum, 21st and N streets. "Radio of the Past" will showcase the radio receiving sets used in the 1920s and early 1930s, the pioneering years of commercial broadcasting.

Before the solid-state transistor radios of today, most receiving sets employed from one to a dozen or more glass vacuum tubes that glowed in the dark and amplified signals plucked from the air by a wire aerial.

It also was possible to receive radio signals without vacuum tubes or electrical power. These "crystal set" receivers required nothing more than a tuneable wire coil and a piece of natural Galena crystal that was probed with a short bit of wire called a cat's whisker. Just add earphones, antenna and a ground connection for radio reception. It was truly magical.

Largely drawn from the private collection of Atwater's Harry Bohl, crystal sets and tube radios from the dawn of broadcasting will be displayed at the exhibit.

Bohl was not a lifelong fan of radio. After acquiring his father's collection he joined the California Historical Radio Society and began researching the receiving sets and other radio gear that now fill several rooms of his large home.

Bohl proudly states, "Keeping this part of American history alive ... is pretty awesome," adding that he's glad he was "able to keep this old stuff" in the family.

The era of commercial broadcasting is considered to have begun with station KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pa., which debuted on the airwaves in 1920. Ten years later the government included radio ownership in the census questions asked of householders.

Merced's first broadcast station launched regular service in October 1936. The station's call sign, KYOS, was comprised of a "K" that designated its location in the western half of the country and "YOS" in honor of the city's status as Gateway to Yosemite National Park.

The McClung family, publisher of the Sun-Star newspaper at that time, owned KYOS from 1936 to 1954, followed by various owners in the years thereafter.

The KYOS audience's attention was really captured in 1937 when Army airplanes conducted a mock attack on various Merced landmarks and the station reported details of these maneuvers from one of the planes.

KYOS eventually added a three-antenna array and Quonset hut transmitter site on Old Lake Road. Competition for a share of the listening audience increased after World War II as new AM and FM stations joined the local mix. Callsigns commonly heard here in later years included KWIP, KAMB, KUBB and KLOQ, among others.

Although telegraphy and Morse code began with landline use in the 1830s, wireless telegraphy took a great leap forward with Guglielmo Marconi's highly publicized "spark gap" transmission success in 1901. This new mode of communication gained public awareness in its use to summon help during the sinking of the luxury liner Titanic in 1912.

The year 1914 saw the founding of the American Radio Relay League as a support organization for those experimenting with two-way radio. These so-called radio "amateurs," perhaps better known as ham operators, are granted federal licenses after passing exams on operating procedures and electronic principles. Morse code tests were recently dropped.

Hams take pride in their ability to contact distant stations and then verify these feats by exchanging postcards, called QSLs. Many broadcasters on both AM and shortwave bands also use QSLs to confirm reception reports sent in by faraway listeners.

In addition to the display of early radio receivers in the exhibit at the courthouse museum, the Amateur Radio Service will also be represented by examples of typical entry-level ham stations, one representative of the 1950s and another more modern basic setup from the 1990s.

The ham stations are from the collection of Mercedian Rick Albright, first licensed in 1956 as KN6TBX and presently operating with the callsign KD6DKC.

Albright became hooked on radio as a youngster listening to his family's 1938 Silvertone multi-band, 10-tube console radio. He graduated from shortwave listener to ham operator while in high school.

Although he left active hamming as education, career and family responsibilities took precedence, persistent urgings by his wife and an office colleague caused Albright to resume his role as a radio telegrapher. He presently holds a general-class license.

At the opening reception on Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m., Bohl will show the audience how to put together a homemade radio, Albright will demonstrate straight key telegraphy and longtime ham radio operator Grady Williams will show how shortwave radio communicates with others around the world.

The exhibit can also be seen during the museum's regular hours, 1 to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, until Sept. 14. Admission to the museum is free. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. The museum is located on the corner of 21st and N streets in the Courthouse Park. For additional information, visit the museum's Web site at www.mercedmuseum.org or call (209) 723-2401.