It's 1961 and you're in an underground bomb shelter. You have a battery-operated radio. Do you get reception in the bomb shelter?

What would you need to get television reception underground? I guess they didn't have battery-operated teevees then, so how would the television be powered?

Sorry to be so ignorant, but I'm like the German sergeant on Hogan's Heroes. I know nothing!:no:

Thanks.:banana:

It's 1961 and you're in an underground bomb shelter. You have a battery-operated radio. Do you get reception in the bomb shelter?

I would hope one would be able to hear the local Conelrad alert station on 640 or 1240 kHz and at least one local broadcast station (the latter to advise when to tune to the Conelrad station), even if he or she heard nothing else.

Thanks, Jeff. That makes sense. I'll do a search on Conrelrad and see if I can confirm that.

There was battery operated TVs in 61'. The first genuine portable was mabe by philco in 1959 more info on it can be found here http://www.earlytelevision.org/philco_safari.html Other companies may have gotten into the batery operated portable game soon after. I know Sony entered that game at least as far back 1964 because I have one from that year, and from reasearching it I learned it was the smallest production TV set in the world up to that time (which blew me away as it was a childhood impulse buy long before I collected TVs).

Wow. That's great. Perfect! Now I just need to make sure the battery-operated
radio and teevee get reception underground in a bomb shelter. In my story, there won't be an atomic incident. They'll just be underground.

You know what would work for my story? The small bunker is accessed from a ground trap door and you need to climb down a metal ladder. If something heavy was on the trap door, the people inside couldn't get out. If the portable teevee/radio could be made to explode up by the door, thereby opening it, without harming the people inside down below, that would help my story. I know that's not likely. If it depends on having some other stuff in the bomb shelter, I can arrange that. I can always use something like dynamite (I think), but it would be cooler if the portable teevee or radio did it.

Thanks!

There was battery operated TVs in 61'. The first genuine portable was mabe by philco in 1959 more info on it can be found here http://www.earlytelevision.org/philco_safari.html Other companies may have gotten into the batery operated portable game soon after. I know Sony entered that game at least as far back 1964 because I have one from that year, and from reasearching it I learned it was the smallest production TV set in the world up to that time (which blew me away as it was a childhood impulse buy long before I collected TVs).

Motorola came out with the " Astronaut" 19" portable around late 1960. Like the Philco, it was considered to be a hybrid, because it had a HV rectifier tube. Sony came out with a 8" metal cased portable around the same time. It was the one that had the three push buttons, on the bottom front. That too, was a hybrid design.

Thanks. I'll look those up, too. What do you mean by "hybrid" design? I know what the word hybrid means but not in the context of televisions.

Motorola came out with the " Astronaut" 19" portable around late 1960. Like the Philco, it was considered to be a hybrid, because it had a HV rectifier tube. Sony came out with a 8" metal cased portable around the same time. It was the one that had the three push buttons, on the bottom front. That too, was a hybrid design.

At this link, it says to test radio reception in the bomb shelter, so it looks like it's possible!
http://www.atomictheater.com/familyfalloutshelter.htm
I guess if radio reception is possible in this 1960 film, television reception in 1960 might have been possible, too! This is way cool.

"Hybrid" meant it had both tubes & transistors.

Doh! Thanks. I should've figured that out, huh?
"Hybrid" meant it had both tubes & transistors.

Not necessarily, but it is obvious once its explained. But how else would you learn if you didn't ask ? "Hybrid" construction lasted in color TVs til about 1975 or so.

1975? Wow. I thought once "solid state" came into being the tubes were gone.

Not necessarily, but it is obvious once its explained. But how else would you learn if you didn't ask ? "Hybrid" construction lasted in color TVs til about 1975 or so.

Tubes were cheaper than transistors at that time, so there was some overlap. The top of the line sets would be solid state and the cheap ones would have tubes.

I haven't come up with a perfect idea to blow up a TV/radio. Will keep thinking :)

I have a sealed can of crackers on the shelf from about '61, put out for civil defense. They were made by Sunshine Biscuits. The guy who I got them from bought several cans, and opened one (this was about 15 years ago). Him & I tried them and I guess the best thing I can say is, they were edible!

The last few years of hybrid sets were wierd. For instance I have a 71' Zenith Chromacolor that uses several tubes, a bunch of transistors, and one IC chip (these later replaced individual transistors). I've also read about a Sharp set that uses tri-generational technology like my Zenith only it had a freaking OSD (On Screen channel Display)!

I recall some 50's electronics magizine that ran a section on TV DX(DXing is long distance reception) where they claimed that some european stations had enough power that under the right conditions they could/were be recieved in a basement with only the blade of a screw driver as an antenna! VHF stations would be most plausible for extreme reception situations as UHF stations were on higher frequencies, and the higher a radio frequency gets the more it behaves like light, and starts to require a line of sight to the transmitter.

My college is using a large CD can as a recycle bin in one room, and has a fallout shelter sign at one stairwell. It is so cool to go to an older school!

1961, huh ? I'm blasting out to the Club in my pale-yellow '61 Lincoln convertible sedan, w/black/white leather interior...Si Zentner's "Up a Lazy River" is on the TRANSISTORISED radio, there's this young guy JFK in the White House, the Sixties look like they're gonna be a GREAT decade...

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I recall some 50's electronics magizine that ran a section on TV DX(DXing is long distance reception) where they claimed that some european stations had enough power that under the right conditions they could/were be recieved in a basement with only the blade of a screw driver as an antenna! VHF stations would be most plausible for extreme reception situations as UHF stations were on higher frequencies, and the higher a radio frequency gets the more it behaves like light, and starts to require a line of sight to the transmitter.

<snip>




I would imagine it was a reference to UHF stations then being installed in Europe (especially in West Germany).

The shorter wavelength of the UHF signals could be more efficiently absorbed by an undersize antenna (such as the blade of a screwdriver). Too, UHF signals can fit through windows more easily, and are stronger close to the ground, than VHF.

Major reasons so many OTA viewers in large cities are complaining they can't get local stations that transmit their digital signals on VHF.

See if the prop department can get hold of a GE P-807. It strikes me as the quintessential bomb shelter radio...however it won't blow up by itself.

http://www.radioatticarchives.com/images/g/GE_P-807E_(1962)_Colson.jpg

Thanks, everyone. I'm gonna let your ideas percolate in my head. I've read that some bomb shelters are set up with electricity, so I might just have it wired with a regular console teevee and she can have her transistor radio on the side. While they'll be down there, it's not like there'll be an emergency or anything. She's just feigning being kidnapped and hiding out down there. My main character tracks her down and she ties him up. She has trouble with the tv but won't let my guy fix it. She'll have a gun on him as he directs her on how to fix the teevee. His goal will be to electrocute her unwittingly. Then he can hop to the phone (still tied up) and use his tongue to dial the operator for the police to rescue him.

But that's not going to be the climax. It would be nice to have a teevee explode. Maybe busting the picture tube so that it shatters into the bad guy. As you guys have explained, I'll need to get it done with the hero out of shatter range. The old burning candle under the rope holding the hammer over the picture tube trick might work. Ha!

Thanks again.

Intriguing premise, venivdvici.

Sounds a lot like a movie I once saw.

Thinking about it, early 60s history has a unique feel to it even though i was not alive for it. then again all history has its interesting parts.

and yes, Mr. Electronic M, i recall the Sharp set with OSD and hybrid chassis,,, was it not a VK member who posted about it a few months back?:scratch2:

I was raised in a house with a bomb shelter. That's what we always called it, even long after it became just a low-level store room. There was a single porcelain light socket with AC receptacle high on the wall, so as long as power was still supplied there would be light down there and power to whatever you plugged in.

I had a neighbor that had a bomb shelter built into the dirt wall of his basement. It went out under the front yard of the house. They were digging to plant a tree (rather large one) and hit concrete about 4 feet below the surface.

In the basement, the entrance had been walled over many years ago. Now, it's re-opened. It has a floor drain system in case water builds up in there.

We figure that it was built around 1952. The light bulbs are labeled GE Mazda! The wiring for the room was disconnected many years ago at the old fuse box.

There's an old water tank in there, too. I guess the owner was planning to stay in there awhile, if necessary.

If you want to read a fascinating, yet chilling, "Armagedden" type book, check out "Warday" by James Kunetka & Whitley Strieber. Its about a "little" nuclear war USA vs. Soviets, c. 1988. Not giving anything away, but the "Nuclear" part turned out to be not nearly as bad as some of the OTHER things that happened-EMP pulse, f'r instance.

1975? Wow. I thought once "solid state" came into being the tubes were gone.

I have to ask, who is that amazingly hot woman in your avatar?

We found a shelter from the 60s that was still almost fully stocked with food, medicine, water, beds, reading material etc. It was several miles underground. Not someones home panic deal but one designated for the 'select few'.
The radio was a westinghouse 3 band transistor set. The most sensitive radio I have ever seen.
Not that any radio would work underground or there would be any stations on the air if there was a real attack. There may be some shortwave from other countrys.
Every time I think about that place I cant help think of the episode of the simpsons called barts comet.
Who wants to rot in a damp hole for a few years, lets go up on a hill and go out in style with a bang.
The emp pulse threat is fairly real. I dont know how much damage it would really do though. A big solar flare could set us back a few years...

I have to ask, who is that amazingly hot woman in your avatar?

You don't recognize Mommy Dearest herself??



http://www.who2.com/sites/default/files/blog/crawford1-thumb-300x387-1345.jpg

In some of the classic home construction books they include plans for bomb shelters and I've seen where provisions are made for an external antenna and twin-lead setup through the concrete wall, more for radio than anything.

Of course, a lot of those shelters were intended for refuge from fallout rather than survival within the blast zone, so it's conceivable an exterior antenna might still be there after the blast. Hmm.

Only problem is... CONELRAD required TV (and FM) to stay off the air. I seriously doubt that the small and medium market stations back then which might have physically survived (EMP being a not completely unknown factor back then...) would've "invested" the bucks (even with CD assistance) for backup power.