Leo Meyerson , owner of World Radio Labs, in Council Bluffs, IA.
Leo was a much like person, I've been told that when WRL was still in operation, Leo had
free coffee and donuts on Saturday morning at his show room.
Webmaster comment:
I meet him at aksarben radio club meetings in Omaha in 1977.. my boss and dozens of hams from Omaha partook of the free coffee.. HI HI (free is good)
FYI: aksarben, is Nebraska spelled backwards, a very large ham club in Omaha.
A good friend of mine (W6ZSL) ran one of these mobile out at Edwards AFB in 1970's
that were widely sold in the 1950s and early 60s. The radios could operate from
110 volt AC , or 6 or 12 volt DC from a car battery. The receiver was manually
tuned over the unit's frequency range with an analog dial, while the transmitter frequency
was controlled by a crystal.. The civil defense model was painted yellow with CD insignia, and was available for the 6 and 2 meter bands. Most folks had several crystals,
you would call CQ then tune around searching for someone answering you,
mostly you were NOT on the Same Frequency..
First picture: Communicator model 1
The early model had a Magic Eye tube used to tune the transmitter to
max power
Now are you sitting down, in 1952 these sold for $190,
TODAY thats $2008,
YES
$2000, not $20..
Communicator model 2 (slightly different)
The Communicator III cost back then $270, I'm
not sure what year ""back then"" was?
it had a squelch, but NO push to talk ,,,
CD colors' Comm 3
And heres the LAST of the line, the communicator 4,
cost today $3400
OUCH,,
but hey,,, it had a push to talk on the microphone, still used
Crystals for the transmitter . about 10 watts out, AC DC
supply built in, ALL TUBES.. THESE were AM,
No repeaters. introduced 1962,
1 watt of FM this ad is from about 1980 Today's price $359
6 channels , Crystal controlled.. This came with three sets of crystals for 3 channels, I
presume your choice ?? There were repeaters by 1980, which greatly improved the
range of this low power radio, every time you wanted to add a repeater or simplex channel
it cost about $10 a channel,,
now For those rich hams ?? HI back in the day as in 1965
The basic radio came with ONE crystal, the VFO as shown in the picture was $20 (today almost $179) The radio WITHOUT a microphone was $200 (that's $1787.. today)
This was a vast improvement over the Heathkit TWOER (last week), but only a dream for most hams. This was a superheterodyne receiver, (no squelch) and the TX put out maybe 10 watts. AM, it weighed 18 lbs.. there were NO repeaters, you needed a good OUTSIDE antenna if you planed to talk to anyone or be ready for emergencies .. Hallifcrafters SR-42A
Want to know more .. link TO SR-42 specs
Benton Harbor Lunch Box
This is the six meter radio , the 2 meter one looked
just like this, as well as the 10 meter unit and the CB unit (11
meter).. they were regeneration receivers and if you had it
on,, it HISSED all the time, No Squelch.. they was ONE channel
transmit (crystal) , maybe 3 or 4 watts out. No Push to talk, WELL
yes it was Push to talk , BUT
you had to pushed the lever down to talk.
Cost in my day "say" 1965 was $39.95 today thats $357
OUCH,
and a DC supply was another $9
and shocking it was sold as a kit, with American made parts..
By the way, there were NO HT radios, or repeaters in the 60's
NO repeaters !! ouch,, yes you need an outside antenna if you wanted
to do any
meaningful communications, yes
OUTSIDE,.... THIS still holds true today,,,
Jan 2022
