The OVRC Newsletter

"Dedicated to the Preservation and Presentation of

Canadian Radio History"

Volume 28 Number 2 Summer, 2020

From the Editorʹs Desk

Disclaimer: Data contained in this and previous newsle ers is
provided purely for the interest of readers. OVRC or the OVRC
executive members accept no responsibility for
consequences of the use of said data for any purpose
whatsoever.

Please contact the editor if you would prefer to receive the OVRC
newsle er by email as a pdf file (roughly 10 mB).

In This Issue:
NEWS A Message from the
President
The Covid‑19 pandemic has seriously affected the
club schedules at this point. Shortly after the March A Radio Play in Florida
11 meeting, the City of O awa, who manages both OK..Now What?
our meeting and auction venues, shut these locations
Li le Known Radio Pioneer
down and cancelled all current reservations.
‑ CFBC

We cannot predict at this time (early June) when Repairing a Sony TR‑72
these sites will re‑open as well as how this disruption Transistor Radio
might affect future meetings and auctions. We are The Enchanter WIP
hoping to have more positive news on this subject
An early radio man
after our summer hiatus.
A Pioneer of the Radio
We are nevertheless carrying on, as well as we can, Time Signal
with regular monthly on‑line meetings. Our web site The Price of Transistors
has the details if you would like to a end.

See the Presidentʹs Message on page 3 and keep an

eye on our web site for future developments.

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 1

 Meetings
Monthly meetings are held at the City of O awa facility described below and normally begin at 7:00 PM.
Auctions are held shortly after noon at the other City of O awa facility described below. See the last page
for planned dates. A endees are advised to check the club website [Link]. for last minute changes.

Monthly Meetings Auction, May/November

The Ottawa Archives, at The James Bartleman Canterbury Community Centre
Center, 100 Tallwood Drive, O awa, ON K2G 4R7. 2185 Arch St., O awa, Ontario K1G 2H5.
On the west side of Woodroffe Ave.; 3 stoplights Arch street is accessed from Canterbury Av. and
south of Baseline Road; turn west onto Tallwood Halifax Dr. off Walkley Road, between St. Laurent
and drive all around the building. The room is the Blvd. and Conroy Rd. It can also be accessed from
first on the right after the entrance. Pleasant Park Dr.
Membership
$15 per year in Cdn.$ for Canadian members, U.S. $ for others. Apply at any meeting or auction, by mail, or
contact the Treasurer below. Visit OVRC at h p://[Link]/ for more details.

E‑Mail Contact
The club occasionally emails information on activity changes, sales, notable events, etc., to a contact list.
Members who do not receive messages and would like to do so, please send an email to the president.

PRESIDENT VICE‑PRESIDENT TREASURER WEB‑MASTER

Gordon Rabjohn Michel Briere
57 Ruskin Street ‑VACANT‑ 8 Bu ernut Court Greg Heppenstall
O awa, ON K1Y 4A8 O awa, ON K1B 4T6
(613) 722‑6973 Applicants welcome! (613) 797‑5214 (613) 825‑5833
ovrcpres@[Link] ovrcvp@[Link] ovrcfinance@[Link] ovrcweb@[Link]

NEWSLETTER AUCTIONS-DONATIONS TUBE SALES MAIL ADDRESS

Paul Guibord Barry Paulson Gordon Rabjohn OVRC
2348 Harding Road 1440 Bourcier Dr. 57 Ruskin Street P.O. Box 84084
O awa, ON K1G 3C2 Orleans, ON K1E 3J9 O awa, ON K1Y 4A8 College Square P.O.
(613) 523‑1315 (613) 830‑ 9755 (613) 722‑6973 1363 Woodroffe Ave.,
ovrcnews@[Link] ovrcauction@[Link] ovrctubes@[Link] Unit B
Assistant: Don Asquin Photos:Richard Kaminsky O awa, ON K2G 1V0

About The Newsle er

Items of interest to OVRC members, including articles, restoration tips, notice of upcoming meetings, want
ads, le ers to the Editor should be sent to the Newsle er Editor. We accept hard copy, CDs, email, WORD
or .txt files and separate images, jpg, tif or equivalent. Your comments on this Newsle er are always most
welcome. Unless separately copyrighted, articles in this Newsle er may be used freely without prior OVRC
permission, provided that proper credit is given to OVRC and permission of the original author is obtained.
The OVRC Newsle er is published quarterly, a subscription being included in the $15 annual membership
dues. The newsle er is also available as an emailed pdf file upon request to the editor. A CD, containing all
editions, from 1993 up to last year, is available for Cdn $12 and individual editions are available for $2 each.

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 2

 A Message from the President
Gord Rabjohn
Hi, Radio Geeks,

I started my last message, 3 months ago, with “We have been through a great deal of change
lately”. I had no idea what “a great deal of change” looked like! There is no need for me to talk
about Covid‑19, enough other people much smarter and much dumber than me have done that.
However, it has directly affected our club. Of course, the May auction has been cancelled, and
our regular meetings have been held on‑line. We expect the fall auction to be on Oct. 14 or 15
and will confirm once we hear back from the City of O awa. I hope that this is not a surprise to
you, we e‑mailed all members for whom we have e‑mail addresses, but some bounced back, and
some members do not have e‑mails listed with us. If you did not receive e‑mails from
ovrcpres@[Link], then please contact me and/or ovrcfinance@[Link] so we can update
our e‑mail list. Please be assured that we never share our e‑mail list, and try to use it sparingly.

May 20 1920 was the first “commercial” radio broadcast in Canada, and one of the first in the
world, over 100 years ago by the time you read this (Please refer to Paul’s excellent article in the
last newsle er). The last major pandemic, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918‑1919, predates this
first broadcast. The world was a very different place, particularly with respect to medical
technology, but also government centralization, transportation, and of course communications
technology. Mass media was in its infancy, which makes me wonder: how has instant mass
media changed the manner in which a pandemic unfolds. In particular, a medium close to my
heart, broadcast radio and TV, which tends to present a fairly uniform message to the public.
Broadcast radio is excellent for “rallying the troops” to a common cause. However, the internet
allows everyone to be heard (though possibly not listened to), so presents a wide range of
opinions, and as much disinformation as information. I see the damage that the internet does
when used for sinister deeds, and the confusion it causes by presenting truth, mistakes and lies
in the same manner and trusting the savvy user to determine the difference. Internet has been
great for our hobby, allowing the searching and sharing of information about our favorite radios,
and creating a world‑wide marketplace. But sometimes, I long for the simplicity of 3 TV stations
and a half dozen radio stations!

I mustn’t be too hard on the internet, though. The internet, “[Link]” in particular, has allowed
us to run our meetings on‑line. Our on‑line meetings have exceeded my expectations; the May
meeting had 41 participants. We discussed 1‑tube radios, and held a friendly “show us your
home‑built 1‑tube radio” challenge. Greg Heppenstall is collecting the 1‑tube radio schematics
and placing them on our web site at h p://[Link]/[Link]. We also discussed the
100th anniversary of broadcast radio in Canada, and as a follow‑up, we want to collect 100 radio‑
related pictures (one for each year) for the newsle er. The early years will be quite easy for us,
but I believe the last 30 years will be much more challenging. Please submit your ideas and
pictures to me or ovrcnews@[Link].

Stay well, stay safe, and please use that self‑isolation to generate great content for our newsle er!

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 3

 A Radio Play In Florida
By Lea Barker

Before we were advised to get home

ASAP, we had the opportunity to
a end a night of radio plays, put on
by an amateur theatre group in
Tarpon Springs, a few miles north of
Cleawater. They call their group the
Bayou Radio Theatre Cavalcade.

The first photo on the right shows

the actors assembled on the stage
awaiting the announcerʹs cue. The
second photo is of the set before the
program began.

They presented several plays over

the space of two hours with an
intermission, including Our Miss
Brooks, The Shadow, The
Bickersons, The Aliens, and that old
baseball routine, Whoʹs On First
(which I never found to be very
funny).

In my humble opinion, our OVRC

radio plays sounded equally
professional, though the Tarpon
Springs group had a very authentic‑
looking set. See the second photo in
this article.

The sound‑effects man (also called a

foley artist) had a good range of
equipment (shown in the last photo),
including a small door, a rain stick, a
wind machine of the type built by
our own foley artist, Ralph Cameron,
and a dial‑type telephone.

It was a very interesting night.

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 4

 OK .. Now What?
(Tales from the un‑initiated)
by Mike and Ryan Parent

Back in the late 60’s I received my first AM – crystal radio. I spent about a week building it with
my father at the kitchen table. I still remember the frustration he had winding that thin copper
strand around the cardboard tube to form a coil. Might have been the earliest time I remember
hearing him swear. I also remember the fascination upon hearing the sound coming out of that
cream coloured earpiece. Being raised in Windsor meant I was at the gateway for AM Band Dx‑
ing into the United States, especially at night.

My love for radio at such an early age led to a 25‑year career in the military as a Communications
Researcher. I still call it my “25‑year hobby”. Out of this came Ham Radio and other radio related
interests. One of them of course was restoration. One thing to remember, I always operated at the
front of a receiver or other technical related equipment. Never under the hood or near the back of
any electronics related piece of kit. Hence the subtitle “Tales from the un‑initiated”.

Prior to bidding on and winning my first OVRC console, I read so much material on‑line that it
seemed impossible to mess anything up. While I traversed the vast expanse of information
offered on the internet, I often wondered how this type of research was done 20 years ago – or
even farther in the past. Everything was readily available to me – almost in an instant. I read Phil
Nelson’s column on [Link] numerous times. If this information from Phil would have
been a book, it would have been extensively dog‑eared. I even emailed Phil on a couple of
occasions and he so graciously replied to my queries. One common theme for all radio restoration
was the simple replacement of all capacitors including the electrolytics. Could I easily do this
without electrocuting myself .. ?

I soaked up everything and quickly learned wiring, how to read a schematic, how to troubleshoot,
learn to find information if something did not look right. The only advice I gave to myself? Don’t
get electrocuted. The only advice from my wife? Don’t electrocute our Son.
During an OVRC Fall Auction – I was the winning bidder of a Stromberg Carlson 335‑L console.
My Son and I took‑off on our first radio repair.

You can certainly prepare by consuming so much information that once you pull the chassis out of
the cabinet – it doesn’t look anything like you’ve previously read up on. That’s where I started.
However, a couple of email exchanges with Paul Guibord and Ralph Cameron provided me with
enough encouragement of where to actually start.

Paul provided me with a copy of the Rider Manual section for this radio. At first glance, it looked
like a minefield of information. I used a yellow highlighter to locate on the schematic all of the
capacitors that would be required for this job. Once identified on the schematic I located them

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 5

within the radio. Items such as the mica capacitors I marked them with a white oil pen to their
corresponding “C” number on the schematic. They would not be replaced, only marked for quick
identification. Once a list was compiled an order was placed with David Cantelon and Just Radios
h ps://[Link]/

While my son Ryan and I waited for the caps, we concurrently tested all of the tubes on our
Amplitrex AT‑1000 tube tester. All were good. With the tubes removed we cleaned the entire
chassis. When the capacitors arrived, I trimmed the wiring from two of the cans and installed the
electrolytic caps inside the chassis itself. For the multi voltage electrolytic, I carefully removed and
opened the can using a dremel tool and stuffed the caps inside the can. I was stuck on where to
a ach the ground wires. Back to the internet and voila, found the answer. The ground is the
actual can itself and all I needed to do was ensure the ground wire actually pressed up against the
inside of the can. Lesson learned!!

I subsequently replaced all of the capacitors with 630v

rated polypropylene units. It actually was a lot of fun,
tracing and re‑tracing to ensure the right capacitor was
being installed in the correct location. It served as a
reinforcement that I was actually “learning” as I went
along.

After about two weeks total time, I had completed my first restoration. The cabinet was already in
good nick so there was nothing that needed to be done with it. There was only one question in my
mind .. how did I do? I probably looked inside the chassis for a good two days before actually
building up enough courage to plug the bloody thing in.

The radio was plugged in with much anticipation. I did not turn it on right away, looking for any
tell tale signs of smoke or worse yet, fire. Nothing. Ok good, onto the next step. I engaged the
“on” switch and the tubes came to life within the dark hollows of the radio. I waited .. nothing,
no sound, no static, no crackling .. nothing. I moved some of the dials hoping to at least get
CFRA. Nothing. Like a driver on the side of the road with the hood up – looking inside the
engine hoping to find the fault – I too looked inside the cavity of the back of the radio and saw –
nothing. I wiggled tubes, wiggled wires. I was defeated – not knowing how to troubleshoot my
first project – after everything was double and triple checked. There was no “Appendix” in
anything I read that said what to do “after” your restoration is complete “and” doesn’t work.
Like the title says – OK .. Now What?

I put the radio back on display in my basement in hopes of giving my mind a couple of days to
clear and then go at it again. I couldn’t – I couldn’t stop thinking of the radio. Going over and
over in my head everything I read, what did I miss?

About two days later it hit me. I recall reading that this was one of the earlier models Stromberg
Carlson put out that you could “upgrade” with a phono. I also recalled that there was a toggle
switch on the side of the radio and thinking out loud that “this was odd – but surely seemed

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 6

periodic for the radio”. Back at the house I
plugged the radio back in and turned it on
to let it warm up. All tubes continued to
glow – as I reached for the toggle switch on
the radio. Click …… like a crescendo back
in music class the radio roared to life. It
worked … well static anyways. A couple of
turns on the tuner and –boom‑ WABC out of
New York was coming through with a bit of
QSB. That toggle switch was used to toggle
between the radio and the phono
(facepalm).

This completed my first venture into radio

restoration. It serves a purpose that proves
this hobby is truly open to anyone. You
don’t need a background in electronics or
restoration. All you require is the desire to
learn, listen intently to those who have
come before you, have fun doing it and
laugh at your mistakes. As long as you
don’t electrocute yourself. Ryan ‑ The Stromberg Carlson 335‑L ‑ Mike

ludwell's hints
A selection of noteworthy radio service tips suggested by Ludwell Sibley.

SUBSTITUTING A PM SPEAKER FOR AN ELECTRO‑DYNAMIC

When a customer is anxious to have his set back quickly and you do not have the necessary
filter choke to do a good job, you can keep him satisfied by fastening the field coil and pole piece
in some out‑of‑the‑way spot as a temporary measure. It may make it more convenient to mount
the coil and pole piece if you remove the cone and cone bracket. Most of us have an assortment
of PM speakers on hand, so that there should be li le delay in making the necessary repairs.
(Sylvania News, Feb. 1950)

ALIGNMENT SUGGESTION
Any radio can be ʺhopped upʺ considerably by placing the antenna wire or loop near a
fluorescent tube and se ing the gang to a non‑station spot near 600 kHz. Turn the volume well
up and adjust the IF trimmers and LF padder for maximum noise. Shift the gang to a non‑
station spot near 1400 kHz and trim the RF trimmers, only, for maximum noise. It is necessary
that the IF and oscillator frequencies be approximately correct before employing the above
stunt. (Sylvania News, Oct. 1946)

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 7

 Li le Known Radio Pioneer‑ CFBC
by Ralph Cameron

This quarantine period has permi ed time to review radio related articles collected over several
years of my interest in radio communications. One item, I thought would be of interest to
members of the OVRC, was the accomplishments of a personal friend for many years. His name
was Michael J. Caveney.

Mike lived on Byng Avenue in the Willowdale section of Toronto and I first heard him before I saw
him, which may sound strange. While studying for my amateur radio licence in North Bay in 1947,
our instructor, who was Michael Cutsey, local manager of the CN Telegraphs office, held a
schedule in Morse code, with a fellow amateur Percy Bernard in Powasson (20 miles south of
North Bay) and Mike Caveney in Willowdale. While studying code as well as theory, Mr. Cutsey
let myself and Mike’s son Paul, listen to the sounds of the two friends keying their transmi ers. At
that point, I could only grasp the odd le er, but there were many stories passed from each of the
participants.

Mike Caveney was an Irish immigrant and was born in 1908. He found interest in the new science
of radio in 1916. Mike was a contentious person who was full of old country yarns, as well as
poetry; although, his schooling was less than complete. When he arrived in Canada at a young age,
he worked for a farmer at $6 a month, until he transferred to a steel mill in Welland and became
superintendent, within 18 months. He was fired after six years and was convinced it was because
of his speeches in favour of Workmen’s Compensation ‑ at that time a frightening prospect for
industry.

He then took a train, to “the end of the line” and relocated to Timmins ON. For many years he
worked in Hydro generating plants in Northern Ontario. It was here his amateur radio station
permi ed communication with another hydro employee, Percy Bernard, the same Perc I had heard
during my studies for the amateur licence. At that time, Perc was at a station called Cameron Falls,
14 miles in the bush, remote from everything. His pal Mike was at a site called Rat Rapids. Perc
and Mike pioneered much of the Ontario Hydro’s communication in the very early days of radio.
Perc also became a personal friend and I frequently visited him at the Bingham chute generating
station in Powassan. Bingham chute was a one man station with one penstock and one generator,
right out of the history books. On driving to the station, I vividly recall the plumes of water
springing from the leaks in the penstock, which was made of shaped wooden slats about four feet
in diameter, much like barrel staves. Perc introduced me to pickerel fishing on Lake Nipissing and
used to refer to Powassan as , “The ambitious village”.

In 1916, Mike tinkered with his radio hobby and by 1923, became owner, operator and disc jockey
of CFBC, Timmins On., as well as radio salesman to those within range of his licenced broadcast
station. He started CFBC one year after CFCA, Canada’s first station,was set up by the Toronto
Star. CFBC lasted only six months, for reasons unknown ( probably finances) and seemed to have

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 8

never hit the record books , but he still retains his place as an early Canadian radio pioneer.

Mike was practically an invalid as he had broken leg bones many times from driving a motorcycle
and wore a steel brace. His other misfortunes were the loss of his only son at an early age and then
his grandson, in a car [Link] final loss
of his wife in the late 60’s was more than he
could take and in December 1971 he took his
own life. His death was relayed by amateur
radio to me by Perc, the day it occurred. I
talked by radio with Perc for another 20 years
and remember how forward we all looked to
the nightly entertainment we shared.

(I am indebted to the late Rev. Paddy Sellars,

VE3MK and an obituary in the Toronto Daily
Star for Dec.23, 1971 for much of the above
content. ) Mike Caveney VE3GG (1958)

Seen on the web

Gord Rabjohn suggests the following site for lots of free vintage electronic books:
[Link]
and the following 1963 publication on the design of "HiFi" audio amplifiers from theory to
construction:
[Link]

Mike Nevin has a few suggestions for projects,

Get out your old Sound Blaster card, rip out the main chip and and turn it into a radio:
[Link]
Try building a radio or an amplifier with this "new tube" (Is it really a tube?):
[Link]

Ralph Cameron points out this well organized site where you can download all issues of Hugo
Gernsback's electronics magazine "Radio News" from 1919 to 1959 for free:
[Link]

Alain Dufour (SQCRA pres.) supplied the following link to a recording of the pianist Rex Battle
broadcast from the Mont­Royal in Montreal in 1924. It is thought to be the earliest recorded
radio broadcast in Canada.
[Link]

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 9

 Repairing a Sony TR‑72 Transistor Radio
Gord Rabjohn

The Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo company (which translates to Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering
Corporation) was founded in Japan in 1946. They designed and manufactured tape recorders. In
1955, they entered the burgeoning “Transistor Radio” market. Their first model, the TR‑55, was a
direct response to the world’s first transistor radio, the Regency TR‑1 introduced in the US the
previous year. The TR‑55 is very rare in North America. Their second model (there were some
smaller earphone‑only models in‑between), the TR‑72, was introduced in December 1955, and is
the topic of this article. Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo had a marketing name for their radios, first used on
the TR‑55: “Sony”. The company changed its name to Sony a few years later, and the rest is
history! The TR‑72 was marketed internationally (though, apparently not in the US; Americans
would have to wait for the TR‑63, a “Shirt Pocket” transistor radio introduced in 1957. By the way,
the TR‑63 was very successful, millions were made, and it introduced the “9V ba ery” to the
world) and is not uncommon. In Canada, the TR‑72 was imported by Gendis, and my version has
“Gendis Sony” printed on the frequency knob.

The TR‑72 is a substantial 7‑transistor portable radio in a wooden cabinet with a

large speaker and (unlike the Regency TR1) has good sensitivity and good
fidelity. It uses germanium NPN transistors that were fabricated by TTK. This is
rather unusual, most radios made over the following 10 years used germanium
PNP transistors. The TR‑72 must have been one of the first radios to use this now
common line‑up: 1 RF converter, 2 IF amplifiers, and 3 stages of audio
amplification, the last stage being a transformer coupled push‑pull stage.
(apparently, the earlier Raytheon 8‑TP‑1 was the first transistor radio to use a
push‑pull output) The schematic of the TR‑72 looks similar to more recent transistor radios,
though the AGC circuit is quite strange. The TR‑72 is powered by three D‑cells, and operates for
hundreds of hours on one set of cheap ba eries. In fact, this radio takes about 10mA, significantly
less power than the filament of just one tube in a typical 4‑tube portable radio that were popular at
that time.

The TR‑72 was in production for about 5 years (estimates vary), and it went through several
different iterations, with several different schematic diagrams. There were roughly 50000 made.
The size of the transformers changed, the transistors used changed, the layout of the circuit boards
changed, parts values changed, and this complicated the repair job.

I acquired my TR‑72 it in the late 1980’s from my Grandfather’s estate, and it sat on a shelf until
recently. It was fairly early in the production run, with a serial number 12120. My TR‑72 is in
rough condition, having suffered some external water damage. Inside, there was corrosion, a
missing transistor (The RF/IF transistors have sockets, the first IF transistor was missing), and the
usual grunge of age. See Figure 1. I powered it up slowly, and it took too much current. I quickly
determined that one of the audio output transistors was shorted (using the clamp‑on ammeter on
the supply lines). Unfortunately, I had only one NPN germanium transistor in a case style that

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 10

would look right in this radio, and I had already used it in the IF socket. These transistors are in a
case style popular at that time (similar to TO‑22, but you are forgiven if that designation is
unfamiliar to you), and I did not want to put a modern‑looking transistor in this radio. The output
is push‑pull, so one transistor cannot be replaced unless the replacement is very similar. So, I
opted to replace both output transistors (and the associated bias diode) with standard silicon NPN
transistors (2N3904) disguised as old transistors (I left the old transistors in the radio for future
owners to appreciate).

Figure 1 The radio (one output transistor was removed)

I used epoxy and a mold to disguise the modern transistors. I started by shrinking some heat‑
shrink tubing around one of the old transistors. I slid this tubing off of the old transistor, and this
tubing became a li le mold. I placed the smaller modern transistor in this mold and filled the
mold with 2‑part epoxy. When the epoxy hardened, I cut the mold off and trimmed off excess
epoxy. Painting it grey results in a pre y good‑looking replica. See Figure 2

Figure 2 Four silicon transistors in disguise, and one original.

Now the current was under control, but I did not have enough audio gain. I discovered that many
of the electrolytic capacitors were in rough shape. In particular, by injecting audio into various

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 11

places in the amplifier, I found that the stage 1 and 2 input coupling capacitors were open. I left
them in place (for looks) and mounted small caps in parallel with them under the board. Now the
amplifier worked, but there was still no RF sensitivity. The three RF/IF transistors were biased up
about right. An oscilloscope showed me that the LO worked, and I could inject a 455kHz signal
into the IF strip and hear a faint signal. I discovered that the detector diode had very high series
resistance, so I soldered a 1N34 in parallel with it. This radio (confusingly) has two ground nodes,
with the “RF ground” (on the variable capacitor among other places) held positive relative to the
negative ba ery terminal with a voltage divider. This voltage was wrong, and the cause was a
missing resistor; there was still the stub of a lead remaining. Why someone decided to cut out one
resistor remains a mystery to this day. Replacing this resistor brought the radio to life. The AVC
diode seemed to be open, so I added another 1N34 in parallel. The volume is still quite loud even
when the volume control is at its lowest se ing. According to a Japanese web site h p://
[Link]/G/tr‑radio‑repair/TR‑[Link] this is quite a common problem. I did not
have a replacement pot that would look correct in the radio, so I left it at that. Aside from the
limited volume control range, the radio works well, offering be er than average sensitivity and
sound quality.

The varnish on the wooden cabinet was in rough shape, and parts needed gluing, so I re‑glued
joints and lightly sanded and shellacked the wood. The metal had been varnished as well, and the
varnish was flaking, but I left it alone. I had to fabricate a latch for the back door. There is quite a
lot wri en about this radio on the web and I refer interested readers to the references.

Figure 3. Sony TR‑72 after cleaning up.

References:
h p://[Link]/uploads/THE_SONY_GENDIS_TR‑72_TRANSISTOR_RADIO.pdf
h ps://[Link] [Link]/[Link]

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 12

 THE ENCHANTER WIP
Gord Hamilton
Most of us have some WIP (work‑in‑progress) jobs. One of
mine is a cone speaker. The restoration started with a Jodra Mfg
Co “Enchanter” frame (1926 vintage). Both the driver and the
cone were missing. The frame is cast aluminum with a large
sailing ship and is (was) beautifully painted. In addition to the
ship having sails with Spanish crosses in red and yellow, it also
has green flags and some green foliage adorning it. The
remainder of the casting is a dark brown (see Figure 1). Such a
rare speaker should be restored and displayed. The missing cone
could be recreated but the driver, with its large “U” shaped
permanent magnet and driver coil, proved to be more difficult.

I decided to test whether a standard earphone would drive

the twelve inch cone and provide a substitute for the more robust
original driver. Early tests indicated that it could, so I have
installed an earphone until a proper driver could be found. To mount the earphone, I cut a
triangular bracket, from some scrap aluminum, and bolted it to the three mounting points on the
back of the casting. Another “U” shaped bracket was formed and fastened to the triangular one to
hold the earphone and place it at the centre of the cone. The earphone was secured with two
screws (4‑40 size) threaded through the bracket and going into the headband pin holes in the
earphone. To provide the driver rod, I first affixed a 2‑56 threaded rod to the earphone
diaphragm using two‑part epoxy. This worked well for the early tests but, mainly because of my
clumsiness, I managed to break the bond on a couple of occasions while trying to install or remove
the cone. I then fixed the rod directly to the earphone diaphragm by drilling a small hole (.080“) in
the diaphragm and used nuts to hold the rod to the diaphragm (See Figure 2). With the earphone
assembled, this rod goes though the hole in the screw‑on‑cap and does not interfere with the
normal operation of the earphone.

I was unable to find construction paper [1] in the correct size or

colour, so the cone was made from a sheet of 0.012” thick poster
paper and dimensioned using the appropriate formulas (See Figure
3). For my cone I needed a 12.25 inch width [W] and a 3 inch height
[H]. This worked out to be a 13.64” diameter circle so a 22” X 28”
inch sheet of paper ($2.50 from Staples) is adequate for two cones. It appears that the cone is fixed
to the casting rather than being of the free‑edge type. To adapt the cone periphery to the casting
shape, I drew a faint line about ¼ inch from the edge of the cone and, using an electric iron, I
pressed along this line to create a flange on the edge of the cone. This provided a flat surface for
securing the cone to the casting and strengthened the cone somewhat. Although gluing would
probably be the best method of securing the cone, the cone would then be difficult to remove to

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 13

 get at the driver and make any changes or
adjustments. For that reason I first held the cone in
place with a few pieces of painters tape. After all
adjustments were made I then used some double‑
sided tape (the kind supplied with shrink‑plastic
storm windows) to finally affix the cone.

Figure 4 shows the rear of the speaker before the

cone was mounted and Figure 5 shows the
completed rear view. It is now a functioning
speaker and sits beside my other prized radios and
speakers while waiting for that elusive driver that
will complete its restoration.

Reference [1]: Lea Barker’s articles in OVRC

Newsle er, Volume 26, Number 1, (Spring 2018)
and also Volume 24, Number 4 (Winter 2016)

Jim Stephen, an early member of our club, died on February 23, 2020. Jim
previously ran an electronic service shop in Winnipeg before moving to O awa.
He was often consulted by other members for his thorough knowledge of early
radio operation and repair before we could get it all on the internet. Thanks Jim.

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 14

 An early radio man
By Lea Barker

The main part of this article is from Isabella Shawʹs book, ʺQuest for Goldʺ published by Essence
Publishing, 2000.

I grew up near the li le village of Eldorado, half‑way between Belleville and Bancroft on highway
62. My brother and I scrounged old radios from the dump in order to get some usable parts. So we
became interested in electronics.

One of our inspirations was a local man, Gordon. Pigden, who had established a radio repair shop
in Madoc, 6 miles to the south. Around about 1950 he built a television set based on the RCA type
630 design, and displayed it in his shop window. This was the first TV that anyone in the area had
seen, and even if the picture was snowy due to the distance from the transmi er in Rochester,
NY, it was very impressive to a couple of young would‑be engineers. A bit of early background on
Mr. Pigden was published in the referenced book in 2000:

Seventeen~year~old, Gordon Pigden opened a radio repairʹ business in Eldorado in 1934. Gordon,
born on January 28th, 1919, in Belleville, was the son of Charles Pigden and Keitha Rose. He
became interested in electronics when he built his own crystal set at the age of ten years. He set up
the repair business after his father started selling radios. He would travel for miles to repairʹ
radios, which needed repairs. At Eldorado, Gordon set up shop in the back of a ʺjunkedʺ bread
truck that was si ing behind his fatherʹs garage. He would later move to a ʺshackʺ across the road
from his fatherʹs garage. This ʺshackʺwas the small garage on the John McClintock property
formerly used as a shoe repair shop and later as a barbershop.

Here in this shack Gordon built a transmi er that was capable of picking a frequency in the A.M.
Radio Band and began broadcasting local radio programs. Every Saturday night, Gordon would
sign on the air with the words: ʺThis is Radio Station G.P.E.S., broadcasting from Bachelor ʹs
Paradise Hall, on the beautiful shores of Mud Lake, in Eldorado Ontario. ʺ The le ers stood for
Gordon Pigdenʹs Electronic Shop. The station became known as the ʺBootleg Stationʺ as a result of
his overnight success. Gordon never received any pay for his broadcasts. The programs were live
with a similarity to a ʺMiniature Grand Old Opera.ʺ Many square dances were held in the li le
shack, (about the size of a single‑car garage) even though there was room for only two squares.
Other dancers had to wait their turn outside.

On Sunday, there would be a Devotional Program aired. Gordonʹs future wife, Mary Thompson,
usually provided the music at the station. A reporter from ʺLife Magazineʺ came to Eldorado,
wanting to do a feature tory on this amazing li le Radio Station. Although the station was a hit for
the locals, the Federal Authorities were not very happy about this, but they were unable to catch
the young entrepreneur. In those days, Radio inspectors had to travel a long distance, to arrive at
Eldorado, generally making a stop at the Madoc Hotel on the way North. The hotel clerk, an avid
listener and a personal friend of Gordonʹs, would always manage to get a warning to Gordon to
give him time to shut the radio down until the coast was clear. The station operated until 1940.
The photo on the next page shows the 17‑year‑old Gordon in his radio shack.

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 15

 Gordon Pigden

A Pioneer of the Radio Time Signal

by George Schuthe ‑ VE3DMC

On March 2nd of this year, one of O awa’s most distinguished radio pioneers celebrated his 90th
birthday. An alert and fluent member of the small band of nonagenarian radio amateurs, J.P.
(Judson Pulford) Henderson, VE3AF, will soon have held the distinctive call le ers “3AF” for sixty
years.

J.P. started his radio career at Riverdale High School, Toronto, in 1909 when he transmi ed
damped waves from a spark‑gap apparatus the length of the school corridor and received them on
a coherer detector. He pursued his interest in radio and electricity while at the University of
Toronto, using his vacation to gain proficiency in Morse code by engaging as a Marconi wireless
operator on the Great Lakes.

After post graduate work in astrophysics at U. of T., J.P. came to O awa in 1919 to take up an
appointment at the Dominion Observatory. He increasingly turned his a ention, with the approval
of his superiors at the observatory, to the application of radio communication to time‑keeping
problems, such as the determination of longitude in topographical position fixing and the
dissemination of accurate time signals. In 1921 and 1922, he was a member of a survey party sent

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 16

to the Mackenzie River valley where oil had been discovered at Norman Wells. Using radio
equipment to receive radio signals from existing long wave sources, he made wireless time
comparisons from signals received in O awa in order to establish the longitudinal difference
between his position in the field and the known position of the observatory.

In 1922, J.P. was issued the amateur call sign 3AF which, with the addition of the national prefix,
he holds to this day. The call sign 3VO was also assigned to him.

From 1923 to 1924, “10AP” was established at the observatory as the club station of the O awa
Amateur Radio Association. The station actually engaged in radio broadcasting, with the time
signal introduced at the beginning and end of its transmissions. Having initiated the time signal
broadcasts, 10AP yielded to a local broadcasting station of the C.N.R. system , whose nightly
program carried the Observatory signal at 9:00p.m. Later, VE9OB was assigned to the Observatory
for operation on 40.8 metres and it became the precursor to CHU in 1938. Thus J.P.’s work came to
full fruition.

During the 1920’s, J.P., as an active member of the O awa Amateur Radio Association, gave
lectures on and demonstrated his results in short wave investigations. Some of his experiments
were conducted on wavelengths around 5 metres.

There can be few Canadian radio amateurs who have held the same distinctive call le ers, in the
same city for close to 60 years. J.P. is one of our few pioneers and we wish him good health and
happiness as he looks back at a long, productive career.
At its April 1981 meeting, in recognition of his long service to amateur radio and in particular his
contribution to the development of the Canadian radio time signal, the O awa Amateur Radio
club, Inc. proudly extended to Mr. Henderson VE3AF and Honorary Life Membership.

I am indebted to a former colleague of Mr. Henderson my friend Malcolm M. Thomson (ex

VE3MA) for the information from which I have drawn. Mr. Thomson is the author of “The
Beginning of the Long Dash”, University of Toronto Press, 1978, which tells the story of the Time
Service in Canada.

Note: The above article was reprinted, with permission of the O awa Amateur Radio Club from
their bulletin the “Groundwave,” April 1981,

Note; I met J.P. as he was called around 1948, on a trip to visit the Ontario QSL manager, W. Bert
Knowles, VE3QB. Bert knew J.P. through an interest in a female friend of J.P.’s and invited me to
meet J.P. at the observatory. J.P. not only gave me a personal tour of the observatory, but explained
to me how he had hand made the first observatory time piece from shining brass and enclosed in a
glass case si ing on an office table dedicated to the task.
Michel Briere of the OVRC has some items from J.P.’s estate in his impressive collection related to
antique radio.

Ralph Cameron

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 17

 The Price of Transistors - Gord Rabjohn
The Electrosonic catalogue (Toronto, Canada) listed RCA germanium transistors for the first time in
1954, at a price of $14 to $40 (1954 Canadian Dollars) each. The average Canadian blue‑collar
worker made $2,853/year (Stats Canada) in 1954. Imagine, 2 or 3 transistors would cost a weekʹs
pay. Today, a 2N3904 silicon transistor (with vastly be er performance) is available to
experimenters for $0.09 CAD each (Sayal Electronics, for example), so 3 transistors would cost
about 1 minute of pay at the current minimum wage. If you consider the transistors in a 32Gbyte
USB memory key, available for about $10 CAD (Canada Computers, for example), then 3
transistors cost about 30ns of pay. In other words, we can afford to buy about 100 million
transistors per second, working at minimum wage.

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 18

 CLASSIFIED ADS
Classified ads are available at no charge to OVRC members.
Please limit ads to a reasonable number of words and photos of radio‑related items.
Send your ads to the Editor at the address on page 2.
Unless the originator advises us otherwise, the ad will run for one issue only.
We reserve the right to refuse or to modify any ads submi ed.

WANTED: A member is looking for a tuning meter for a

Stromberg‑Carlson models 62, 63, 68, 82, 83 or 84. If you have
such an item, please contact the editor.

WANTED: Jim Eadie of Coe Hill Ontario is looking for an RCA A23
4 band receiver in good cabinet and, working or repairable
condition. You can contact Jim at 1‑705‑656‑3950 or at
ve3dcx@[Link]

WANTED: 4 pin chassis mount octal tube sockets, 6 or less. The following tubes 32, 32E or
232, 33, 34, 36, 38, 1A6. Any good audio interchange xfmrs, single or push‑pull. Chassis for
Radiolas 60, 64, 66 and Westinghouse 89, 90, 99, 110, 120 and a Brunswick 5NC8.

FOR SALE or TRADE: Stromberg Carlson multi‑band console, 10 tubes on 2 chassis. Good
cabinet. Circa 1934. Contact Bob Breuls at 613‑549‑6537.

FOR SALE or TRADE: Grigsby‑Grunow ʺMajestic 7ʺ console, 7 tube Neutrodyne. Pot metal
problem. Good cabinet. Contact Bob Breuls at 613‑549‑6537.

FOR SALE or TRADE: 3 dial TRF homebuilt with 4 peanut tubes and 1 DX235. All audio
xfmrs bad. Cabinet good. Contact Bob Breuls at 613‑549‑6537.

FOR SALE or TRADE: 2 cylindrical Atwater Kent audio xfmrs. One is good other has 1
open winding. Bakelite strip of 3 tube sockets for R.F. section. Contact Bob Breuls at 613‑
549‑6537.

Can you guess the model of the radio on the front page?

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 19

 OVRC 2020 Meeting Program
Important Notice
Monthly meetings are held at the City of O awa facility described on
page 2 and normally begin at 7:00 PM. Auctions are held shortly after
noon at the other City of O awa facility described on page 2. The
planned dates and events described below may change for reasons
beyond our control and those planning to a end are advised to check
the club website h p://[Link]/ for last minute changes.

Date Planned event Presenter(s)

Weds., Jan. 8 Addison Radios Members

Weds., Feb. 12 Brand & Millen, Toronto Radios Members

Weds., Mar. 11 Flea Market, radios, tubes, parts, etc. Members

Weds., Apr. 8 ONLINE meeting Members

Wed., May 13 ONLINE meeting Members

Weds., June 10 ONLINE meeting ‑ Stewart Warner Radios Members

No meetings in July and August

Weds., Sept. 9 The Dawning of Wireless : Spark Technology Rick Patch

mid‑Oct. Fall auction ‑ Date to be confirmed, see Web site OVRC execs

Weds., Nov. 11 Letʹs share our radio books and literature Members

Weds., Dec 9 AGM ‑ Elections ‑ movie OVRC execs.

Spring, 2020 OVRC Newsle er Page 20