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November 1942 QST
 Table
of Contents
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles
from
QST, published December 1915 - present (visit ARRL
for info). All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Most of us have heard about the neighborhood
collections for tires, glass, newspaper, cans, and cloth in order to help support
the war effort. Probably not many have also heard about the Signal Corps' call for
milliammeters! That's right, the huge, rapid build-up of electrical and electronic equipment
for radios, vehicles, and factory equipment. Many meters were needed for monitoring
status and making process adjustments. America had an ample supply of meters in
the hands of Amateur radio operators; all that was required was to separate the
Hams from their meters. Fortunately, an appeal to patriotism was sufficient motivation
back then. Numerous ads were placed by companies and special interest groups like
the ARRL encouraging milliammeters owners to part with their cherished instruments.
Here, from the November 1942 edition of QST magazine, is a printed plea from the ARRL,
and a couple examples of companies looking to collect milliammeters. At the bottom
are two ads, one from Raytheon, and one from Hatry & Young, with pleas for meters.
One must wonder whether such cooperation from the public would be met with the
same level of enthusiasm today. Back then, the government was not already
saddling its productive citizens with excessive taxation, so there was some room
left in the hearts of most people to sacrifice a bit for the good of their
neighbors. Now, statistically I'm subsidizing the half of the people in the
country who pay no income taxes at all, the people receiving 99 weeks of
unemployment checks, laptop computers for everybody's kid in school, and public
employees getting paid rates 50% or more higher than the equivalent average
private sector employees*. Sorry, but that's the way it is.
Your Milliammeters Desperately Needed!
Pleas for Meters by Raytheon
Pleas for Meters by Hatry & Young
The Signal Corps is in acute need of thousands of milliammeters. They are most
urgently required in connection with the production of other radio gear. Lack of
them is retarding the manufacture of important military apparatus. The situation
is realty critical.
Amateurs have thousands of milliammeters and the Signal Corps wants to buy them,
but regulations would require formal contracts with every selling armature and would
delay the procedure beyond endurance. ARRL has leaped into this situation at the
request of the Signal Corps and, to speed things up, will purchase and pay for meters
in their behalf and turn them over as fast as they can be collected.
This is a clarion call. fellows. Send in your milliammeters to ARRL! On behalf
of the Army we will pay $3 for every d.c. milliammeter of up to 500 ma. full scale
which is sent in to us, of whatever make, the amateur list price of which exceeds
$3 and which is accepted by t he Signal Corps. Meters not accepted will be returned.
Only milliammeters and only d.c. May be either (1) in good working- condition or
(2) burned out but otherwise OK - movement, glass, scale, pointer must be OK. The
crying need is for low values, preferably 0-1 ma., 0-5 and 0-10, but we'll take
everything up to 0-500. Don't hold out your Weston 301s; this is for Uncle Sam and
everyone of these meters wilt do a most important job, the details of which we can't
tell you. Three dollars for a burnt-out dog may be big money but it isn't much for
a 301; everybody admits it. It's just a token payment, not representing value returned.
We must count on your patriotism, your appreciation of the criticalness of the need,
your acceptance of a flat average price of $3 for all your milliammeters, good and
bad, which are accepted. Reimbursement by ARRL.
This is a case or dire necessity. Much depends upon this drive. Remember, too,
that a favor to the Signal Corps now is a favor to hamdom later. Your meter will
help cement a friendship that will last a generation. Besides, it's your country.
The hell with the holes in the panels; you can get more milliammeters when you need
them. Come on with them., you fellows! At once! Pack carefully in shock absorbing
material, mark package "Meters," be sure to show your name and your own complete
mail address clearly, prepay charges, ship any way you like, to:
American Radio Relay League
38 LaSalle Road
West Hartford, Conn.
* Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, "Comparing the Compensation
of Federal and Private-Sector Employees, 2011 to 2015." That does not include
non-salary benefits like insurance (health, disability, life), retirement contributions,
etc. I have a relative who is a double-dipper government employee receiving two
retirement checks from We the People, and also has collected Social Security since
age 64 because unlike my SSA payments that would be reduce on a 1:2 basis depending
on my continued work income, government employees' payments are not reduce no matter
what additional income they earn.
Posted July 21, 2023
(updated from original
post on 3/28/2011)
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