@mark The earliest manufactured wireless one appears to have come out in1935, it was the RCA Victor R24 that you would.connect to your record player. A lot of them were already built-in to a record player, the "Spartan" was a popular one around that time. The selection of models began increasing rapidly in 1939-40.
But one I'm particularly interested in was the "Mystic Mike", that came out in 1939,
it went through a few models in a very short time with each an improvement of the last, they had to expand their warehouse to accommodate increases in manufacturing before the year was out -- but what most intrigues me is that I'm pretty sure this was the Olson brothers (who later launched Olson Electronics which was a very successful franchise in the 1960s-70s much like Radio Shack).
In fact I've got sidetracked trying to figure out where the Olsons had been operating from 1930 when they opened up a Electronics company that operated out of their dad's garage.. I lose them there, but I'm pretty sure they were the Magic Mike company in 1939-40, then they seemed to disappear again till the 1940s with Olson Radio Shop.. then I lose them again till the 1960s when they launched Olson Electronics.. I just got so curious because it seems such a mystery.. It drives me nuts that I havent been able to figure it out, but its causing me to get off course of my primary objective of part 15 history.
Alied had kits out in their catalog by 1940, by the mid 40s they started puttting them in jukeboxes for the portable units that were right at your table in diners and such...
To clarify about the "Mystic Mike Company" that is what they called themselves when it first opened in 1939, then only a month or two later they changed the name to "Olson Manufacturing" or some ads used the short form "Olson Mfg", then within months of expanding their warehouse, they seem to have just disappeared.
I forgot to mention that the 1949 Allied catalog includes the "Knight Wireless Broadcaster" - which surprised me because I didnt think it came out untill the mid 1950s.
Also in the 30s and 40s are lots of ads of radio shops which specifically mention their wireless phono-osscilators, and all through the 1940s you find plenty of mail order kits as well.
The 1940s also marked a large increase of kids using them, which the both newspapers and the FCC themselves called "Pee Wee broadcasters"
Amazing History. Good find.
Here's one by Heathkit that along with the DX 100 was an AM besides the ham band.
But I remember a small one a kid could have to be DJ around the house.
http://boatanchorpix.x10host.com/DX60.htm
@rugster In spite of what I called as just a "legend", I do suspect Philco, which was a very predominate company, decision to manufacture a wireless remote control did help to bring the issue more to light and helped to prompt an FCC reaction, but Cheif Engineer Jett made it clear that it had been an issue for years - and the only devices he could have been referring about as being around several years, would have been the wireless phono-occilators. Nothing else fit the bill.
@mark Oh that's much later in the 1960s. But it says the DX-40 was designed for the 80 to 10 meter ham bands. How would a kid use that to broadcast around the house?
@richpowers That one plus the 100 also says AM also. But I remember a simple one for around the house being your own little radio station. Early sixties. Can't find it.
I'm not quite sure how the Heathkit DX-60 fits into this discussion. It was capable of putting out 90 watts of AM on the ham bands from 3.5MHz thru 28MHz. You'd have to modify it to get it down to the AM BC band and even then, you'd be broadcasting a lot further than around the house. That's some serious pirate activity!
I must have misunderstood something. I'm quite good at missing points in conversations 🤣
EDIT - sorry @mark. We cross-posted.
I remember a simple one for around the house being your own little radio station. Early sixties. Can't find it.
I wonder if you're thinking of the Knight Broadcaster -
https://wa3dsp.org/KnightBroadcaster/
Someone is selling a reproduction kit of it on eBay. There's also a tribute site, with photos, the downloadable manual for $4.99, and other info related to it -
..., the downloadable manual for $4.99, and other info related to it -
I had about 5 different Knight Broadcaster manuals until I lost access to my old google drive. I know two or three of them came from somewhere on Carl's site. Theres also a download of it at the bottom of this page:> https://wa3dsp.org/KnightBroadcaster/
Yeah the Allied Knight Broadcasters were probably the more popular ones, Lafayette also had a few models too. The Remco Caravelle (that Russ Limbaugh grew up using) might have come out in the 60s, I'm not sure.
There was the "Radio-Vox", in the 60s, who had manufactured about 20,000 units, but they weren't worth a damn. They got so many complaints that the Federal Trade Commission got involved, thry had the FCC test the unit in their labs. In the end after a few court hearings, the Federal Trade Commission fined the living crap out of him. He appealed for a reduce fine but lost.
Other than that I'd have to look again, but there were mail order kits in every decade, however there are multiple news stories in the 60s about teens home broadcasting, a few of them got busted. -
@rugster Yeah that could be it. Did Radioshack back in the early to mid sixties have anything like what I am thinking? Maybe they sold that Knight Broadcaster in the 60s?
You know it's crazy, but I don't think I ever looked to see what Radio Shack had. Olson Electronics at one point had more stores than Radio Shack (you know there are still Radio Shacks today?), I havent look through their catalogs yet... But I had a Tandy base station, it was a plastic thing but it worked well, but not AM, but certainly they must have carried models.
Omg. I forgot all about the Graymark transmitters, they were out in the 60s and they had all kinds of models. They were popular with both hobbyists and schools. I forgot all about them.
This guys got a museum of them: http://www.ka2c.com/graymark/
Didn't someone say that Heathkit made a part 15 transmitter kit? I just blew a whole hour scrolling through Heathkit stuff on Ebay, but found nothing.
This it? Heathkit SK-10 AM portable transmitter
It's been talked about here before
https://www.part15.org/community/temp/does-anybody-remember-the-heathkit-wireless-broadcaster/