The Radio Month: John T. Frye, Giant Picture Tube, Television Sets
September 1950 Radio Electronics

September 1950 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Unlike many awards that are presented more for the publicity sake of the presenting entity than for the benefit of the recipient, when the Indiana Radio Council named John T. Frye the state's outstanding amateur radio operator of the year, it was because he truly deserved it. He performed communications operation during weather-related emergency scenarios. For many years, Mr. Frye would further indirectly promote Indiana through his technodrama "Carl & Jerry" and "Mac's Radio Service Shop" series of stories published in Radio & Television News and Popular Electronics magazines. Also mentioned in this instance of "The Radio Month" column in Radio-Electronics magazine is how TV sets owned by students attending the Valparaiso Technical Institute (Indiana, ironically) must register their TVs so they can be confiscated if their studies were being neglected. And, if you think large screen televisions are a relatively new idea, dig the 30" CRT shown in Du Mont's "Club 30" set.

Radio Month: John T. Frye, Giant Picture Tube, Television Sets

John T. Frye, regular contributor to Radio-Electronics ("Fundamentals of Radio Servicing") and a number of other radio publications, received an engraved plaque from the Indiana Radio Council as Indiana's outstanding radio amateur of the year.

Mr. Frye already has a citation from the Amateur Radio Relay League for relaying messages during the Ohio River flood between the flood area and Washington, D.C. He works with the emergency disaster committee of the American Red Cross and is a member of the River Forecast Net, a group set up recently by the Weather Bureau of the Department of Commerce to speed communication of data on the rivers of the Ohio watershed.

He was a member of the Army Amateur Radio System (a group connected with the Signal Corps) before the war, and now belongs to the Hoosier Emergency Net.

Television Sets owned by students at the Valparaiso Technical Institute must be registered with the school authorities. If a student's grades fall below normal, the school checks the register to see if too much TV is the trouble. If so, he must either send the set home or put it in storage with the school.

Giant Picture Tube with a diameter of 30 inches and more than 536 square inches of picture area is used by Allen B. Du Mont Laboratories in their "Club 30" receiver. The picture tube's 90° deflection angle makes it shorter in length than in diameter, so it can be housed in cabinets of conventional proportions.

The receiver is designed for public places such as schools, hospitals, clubs, hotels, and restaurants. Besides TV it has full-range AM and FM radio and a plug-in attachment for a record player. Production on the model will start this fall.

The Du Mont company has announced they intend to make the 30-inch tube in rectangular as well as round form.

Posted February 13, 2020