April 1957 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.

In this Carl & Jerry, our familiar two young electronics enthusiasts are experimenting with a peculiar atmospheric phenomenon during a spring thunderstorm. As usual, the story takes place at the time of year in which it appeared in Popular Electronics magazine - Spring. Jerry has constructed a sensitive audio setup in his basement laboratory specifically designed to detect "whistlers" - eerie, descending-toned sounds created by very-low-frequency radio waves from lightning strikes that travel along Earth's magnetic field lines to the southern hemisphere and back. Using a homemade loop antenna wound with speaker wire and a multi-stage amplification system, they successfully capture a faint whistler after a lightning flash. However, while adjusting the antenna's orientation, they begin picking up strange, unexplained signals - first a faint, pleading female voice repeating "Come you back!" followed by bizarre, unrecognizable music with a wild rhythm. This unexpected reception leads them on an investigative hunt to determine the source of these mysterious transmissions interfering with their scientific experiment.

Strange Voices

By John T. Frye

A spring thunderstorm was going on outside as Carl burst into Jerry's basement laboratory.

"A great day for ducks!" was his unoriginal observation as he tossed his dripping slicker into a corner and walked over to where Jerry was listening on a pair of earphones plugged into a tape recorder.

"Hey, what are you up to ?" Carl demanded, rudely lifting one earphone and shouting into his chum's ear. And, what's that crummy-looking loop antenna got to do with it ?"

"I'm listening for 'whistlers'," Jerry announced, with a teasing grin on his face.

"If you think I don't dig what you're talking about, you're off the beam," Carl retorted. "I read those articles back in the December, 1956, issue of Popular Electronics. I'm a little hazy on the whole thing now, though. Refresh my memory. What are whistlers ?"

"Whistlers are sounds produced by detecting the echoes of very-low-frequency radio waves emanating from lightning strokes in the vicinity of the detecting device and being returned from some point in the southern hemisphere," Jerry recited in a monotone. Obviously he had given considerable thought to this definition and was proud of it. "When there's a flash of lightning, the electromagnetic pulse produced describes a high arc into interplanetary space, following the curve of the earth's magnetic lines of force, and comes down somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Then it immediately starts retracing its exact path and returns to the vicinity of the lightning stroke. On the return trip, it produces a weak audio signal which - when tremendously amplified - is heard as a spooky sliding-down-scale note."

"What kind of a setup do you need to hear whistlers ?"

"According to the article in Pop'tronics, the one I have here should do it. That loop is wound with fifty turns of wire taken from an old dynamic speaker field coil. I wound it over nails driven into the four corners of a door, just as described, and stiffened the loop by wrapping Scotch tape around the turns every few inches. Hanging the loop from the ceiling allows me to turn it about.

"As you can see, the loop leads run into this preamplifier which has a voltage gain of 1000. The output of the preamp goes into the input of the tape recorder amplifier, where it is amplified another 500 to 1000 times before it is put on the tape, and then it comes out of the monitor speaker."

"Hold it!" Carl interrupted. "You skipped over something. What's this little jigger with a couple of capacitors and resistors doing here in the cable between the preamp and the recorder ?"

"Oh, that's a filter to cut off all frequencies below 800 cycles or thereabouts. Without it the 60-cycle a.c. hum picked up by the loop would mask the weak sound of the whistlers. I've also rotated the antenna loop for minimum hum pickup."

"Well, if we're going to hear any whistlers, now sounds like the time, "Carl observed, as there was a sudden sharp clap of thunder followed by a rolling echo.

Jerry turned on the tape recorder, removed the earphones, and switched on the monitor speaker. They heard the rushing tube sounds accompanied by various clicks, pops, and scratching static sounds.

"Listen especially hard for a second or so right after a lightning flash," Jerry instructed. "That's when the whistler should be arriving back from its round trip to the southern hemisphere."

As he finished speaking, there was a brilliant flash of light followed by a moment or so of silence; then, just before the boom of thunder, a faint eerie sound came from the tape recorder speaker like a sigh of air escaping from a bicycle tire.

"Hey!" Jerry said excitedly, "that was one! That was a whistler!"

"Yeah," Carl agreed dubiously, "I guess it was; but it certainly sounded pooped. Let's try turning the loop a bit and see if we can't get more moxie into the next one."

Jerry loosened the strings that held the loop in position and slowly rotated it. As he did so, there came from the speaker, along with the crackling and popping of static, the sound of a human voice. It was a thin, weak, and high-pitched voice, but it was definitely human and feminine.

"Come you back! Come you back! Come you back!" it was begging.

"Holy cow!" Carl gasped in awe, "Whistler's mother!"

"Shut up and listen!" Jerry commanded.

But the voice was gone. In its place, the boys now heard faint and outlandish music. Neither Carl nor Jerry could recognize a familiar instrument in the cacophony of clanging sound, although it did have a definite rhythm and a sort of wild beauty. Suddenly this, too, terminated in the middle of a bar, and nothing more was heard except the crackle of static. Even the thunderstorm had passed over, taking with it the likelihood of hearing any more whistlers.

"What do you make of it Jerry demanded as he switched off the tape recorder.

"Don't look at me," Carl said. "It's your whistler-listener. But I don't mind telling you that the whole thing sounds mighty, mighty spooky to me."

"Take your finger off the panic button!" Jerry commanded impatiently. "This thing's got to have a sensible, logical explanation, even though I'll admit I never heard any music like that before."

"What could be happening ?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure. This very sensitive setup would respond to any faint magnetic field producing signals within the range of the audio amplifier - which in this case is from about 800 to 14,000 cycles. But what kind of apparatus would produce a field that could be intercepted at some distance ?"

"Have we anything else to go on?" Carl questioned.

"Well, I guess the directional characteristics of this very low frequency loop are the same as those used on higher radio frequencies; that is, the null points are on a line perpendicular to its plane while maximum reception is had from points in the plane of the loop. When the loop was parallel to the street, we didn't hear the strange sounds; but when I turned it at right angles to the street, they came in. That would seem to indicate that the mysterious signals are coming from in front or in back of the house."

"Yeah, but how far in front or back?"

"I might know you'd run me out of answers," Jerry admitted with a sigh. He switched the tape recorder back on and, as the tubes warmed up, a hot rock-and-roll number came faintly but clearly from the speaker.

"If that's Mars, Elvis has already landed!" Carl said. "Let's see if we can run this down while it's still going on. I'll go back across the alley and keep listening for that cool tune. You go across the street and do the same thing. If either of us finds something, he can let out a yelp."

Fortunately the rain had stopped, and the two boys skipped up the outside basement steps and went in opposite directions. Carl didn't hear the music as he went out the back gate and looked up and down the deserted alley, but he did notice a light in the large cement-block garage just across the alley from Jerry's place. Without the least hesitation, he walked over to where he could see through a small window and took a long, astonished look. Then he turned around and motioned violently for Jerry, who was standing across the street, to join him.

Soon the two boys were standing shoulder to shoulder, peering through the window into the large room of the garage. In the middle of the floor, a boy of about their own age was dancing wildly about. Going round and round over in the corner was a record player feeding into what looked like a pretty husky audio amplifier; yet the two boys outside could not hear a bit of music although they could plainly hear the boy's shoes scuffing on the cement floor. The youthful dancer was wearing a pair of earphones different from any Carl and Jerry had ever seen. A shiny metal band came down from each hearing-aid type of earpiece and joined in a "V" beneath the boy's chin; at no point was any cord attached to the phones.

"We've gone deaf; that guy has flipped; or he has something we ought to know about," Carl whispered hoarsely.

"Let's find out which it is," Jerry suggested, starting toward the garage door.

They had to knock several times before the boy inside heard them and opened the door. He had removed the strange earphones and was holding them in his hand, smiling at his visitors in a friendly but questioning manner.

"My name is Jerry Bishop, and this is my friend, Carl Anderson," Jerry explained as he held out his hand. "We live right across the alley. I guess you folks just moved in last week. Carl and I thought we'd like to get acquainted."

"Fine!" the boy said, shaking hands with both and waving them inside. "My name is Bob Mallon. I've already heard about you two and have been wanting to meet you. From what the kids at school say, you boys know all there is to know about electricity. I'm interested in electronics, too, but I don't know much about it. Just now I was playing with these wireless earphones I got for a birthday present."

"Wireless earphones ?" Carl questioned. "How do they work ?"

"See that loop of copper wire running clear around the room about five feet from the floor ?" Bob asked. "The output of the twenty-watt amplifier over there feeds directly into that loop. Magnetic flux from the loop is induced into the laminated high-permeability pole pieces that form the V-shaped band of these earphones. The induced magnetism drives special magnetic-type earphones at the top of the 'V.' Here, take a listen for yourself," he said, extending the phones to Carl.

Carl put them on and instantly began to sway to the music coming from the spinning record. He found he could walk anywhere in the room and still hear the music.

"Hey! That's all right!" he exclaimed, handing the earphones to Jerry to try. "Where can I get some dope on those ?"

"Let's see," Bob said as he picked up a cardboard carton; "they're distributed by the Fenton Company, 15 Moore Street, New York 4, N. Y."

Bob," Jerry said with a shamefaced grin as he handed back the earphones, "they say honest confession is good for the soul; so I want to tell you how Carl and I really happened to drop in on you." He went on to explain their strange experience with the whistler-listener, and when he had finished, Bob laughed until the tears ran down his face.

"I'll bet you really did think you'd tuned in on Mars or something!" he exclaimed, "but I think I can clear up everything. Let me switch the amplifier into a speaker and change records."

He did so, and soon a woman's voice came from the speaker singing On The Road To Mandalay. It was unusual enough to hear a woman singing a song that usually is delivered in a rich masculine baritone, but when she came to the line, "Come you back, you British soldier," a defective groove in the record made her repeat, "Come you back, come you back, come you back," until Bob lifted the needle.

"And now for the out-of-this-world music," he announced with a broad grin, lowering the needle on another record. Instantly the weird music the boys had heard filled the room. It sounded much different now without the low-frequency filter taking out the lows as it had done on their whistler detecting arrangement - not nearly so spooky.

"That's a record of a novelty band on an island down in the Caribbean," Bob said. "Most of the instruments are made up of empty steel drums; so it's no wonder you didn't recognize any of them."

"Well, that certainly clears up the mystery," Jerry remarked. "This arrangement of yours puts out a strong enough field to be heard on our very sensitive arrangement over in the basement. By the way, Bob, wouldn't you like to come over and let Carl and me show you our lab? It may not look like much, but we're pretty proud of it, and we have a lot of fun there."

"I most certainly would," Bob answered promptly as he switched off the amplifier. "After all, you are my DX!"

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. I have posted 81 of them as of October 2025. p.s. You might also want to check out my "Calvin & Phineas" story(ies), a modern day teenager adventure written in the spirit of "Carl & Jerry."
The Hot Hot - March 1964 The Girl Detector -  January 1964 First Case - June 1961 The Bee's Knees - July 1964 A Rough Night - January 1961 Wrecked by a Wagon Train - February 1962 Gold Is Where You Find It - April 1956 Little "Bug" with Big Ears - January 1959 Lie Detector Tells All - November 1955 The Educated Nursing Bottle - 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 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 Improvising - February 1960	Togetherness - June 1964 Blackmailing a Blonde - October 1961 Strange Voices - April 1957 "Holes" to the Rescue - May 1957 Carl and Jerry: A Rough Night - January 1961 The "Meller Smeller" - January 1957 Secret of Round Island - March 1957 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 1954 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."