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The very first Modern Radio Laboratories advertisement.
Submitted to Short Wave Craft in 1932, it appeared in the
February 1933 issue. |
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Elmer stated that at the time he placed
this advertisement he knew of no other crystal set ad. It
was a gamble that apparently paid off. For 25¢
you got a "Blue print" of a crystal set, not the actual
crystal set. For the same 25¢
you had already obtained the copy of Short Wave Craft, which
was filled with radio diagrams.
25¢ in 1932 had the buying power of $5.10 in the year 2022.
For the equivalent of $5.10 you got a piece of paper!
However, it wasn't the paper that was important, it was what was ON the paper - plans for a remarkable and simple new
crystal set design.
It worked out better than he expected. According to Elmer,
"the floor was covered with letters with 25¢ in them."
In the beginning, MRL didn't carry any crystal radio parts.
The mail order business was almost created by accident. Elmer
had been making and selling hundreds of plug-in coils, but
these weren't designed for crystal radios. Apparently, the
very first (and only) MRL mail-order product that wasn't a
plug-in coil was the blue
print for the MRL No.1 Crystal Set. However, after people
wrote in for the plans they then wanted parts, "So, away we
went!" as Elmer related.
In HB-17 "MRL 20 Crystal Set Circuits," the first circuit is
the MRL No.1 Crystal Set. Under the diagram Elmer wrote,
"This is the set that started us in the mail order
business."
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The MRL No.1 DX Crystal Set, circa 1932. Recreated
set built in 2020. |
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| Advertisement in the May, 1933
issue of Short Wave Craft. |
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Note: MRL Detail Print
No. 63, Two Tube All Wave DX Receiver, seems to be an
update to the
Blueprint advertised above. It is
the only 2-Tube MRL circuit found that picks up shortwave
and uses vacuum tubes available in 1933. Unfortunately, it
is not a copy of the Blueprint. According to Radio
Builder # 25, DP-63 was revised on November 1, 1946.
Click on the icon to the right to view DP-63. |
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MRL ad from Radio magazine June, 1933. |
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MRL ad from Radio Craft magazine,
also from June, 1933. You now get Blueprints for six more
crystal sets.
The last MRL ad with the 23rd Avenue
address appeared a month later. By this time the Great Depression had
wiped out thousands of banks and businesses, and the unemployment
rate was at 24%. Elmer's radio store closed, another victim
of the economy. |
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MRL ad from Radio Craft magazine,
November, 1933. This same ad appeared in the January
1934 edition of Short Wave Craft but the word
TUBELESS was added to CRYSTAL SET. This would have
cost Elmer 10¢ for the
extra word but he omitted the name of the state to
compensate. See similar ad below.
The new address was the location of Mabel's parents
house, which had been converted into two apartments. Apparently, Elmer and Mabel
lived there for
five years during the Great Depression. |
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MRL ad from Radio World magazine
March 10, 1934. The ad now boasts "1800 miles." By
1938 the distance was 4250 miles. However, these
extreme reception reports were made using a
No.2 set, which picked up shortwave. 4250 miles is
the distance between Lansing, MI and Berlin. |
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From Radio Craft March 1944.
The distance is now 5300 miles. The received
transmission may have been "Radio Moscow" on a No. 2
set. The distance between Kansas City, Kansas and
Moscow is 5300 miles. Notice the address is barely
readable. |
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From Radio Craft June 1944.
Elmer may have designated the 'X' to track which
issue was generating sales, since the March issue
had a smeared address. There were no other MRL ads
in Radio Craft for 1944 or 1945. The next ad
appeared in the November 1946 issue. |
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MRL No. 2 CRYSTAL RADIO |
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| The first radio
plans sold by MRL were for the No.1 Crystal Set, described in Hand Book
17 and Detail Print 26. However, the greatest legacy of MRL
is probably the No.2 Crystal Set, which Elmer "invented" in
1932 and eventually sold as a kit. Oddly, the catalog entry
for the No. 2 Crystal Set is just a footnote at the bottom of
page K-1, shown above. |
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Catalog page K-1 is an entire page devoted to the MRL No.
2-A single dial set. Elmer states that both sets have been
made and improved upon since 1933.
At the bottom of the catalog page it states that HB-2 (or Hand Book
2) "MRL No.2 Long Distance Crystal Set" is 50¢ extra. It has a
copyright date of 1945. In the back of HB-2 there are five
pages of testimonials in a closely typed small font. Elmer
claimed to have hundreds of reports in a stack six inches
thick.
Later, he published Detail Print 22, "MRL No. 2 LONG
DISTANCE CRYSTAL SET". In this DP Elmer wrote that the size
of the stack of testimonials was then 12 inches thick. The date
of DP-22 is not known, but it was included in the MRL DETAIL
PRINT FILE, dated 1958.
The stack must have at least doubled again by the time of
his death in 1987. |
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This is the top of
Detail Print number 22. In typical Elmer Osterhoudt fashion,
the drawings are made face on or a side view without the
slightest angle. The drawings in HB-2 are the same; squares,
circles and lines.
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An MRL No. 2 Long Distance Crystal Set.
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MRL No. 2 front panel. |
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The drawing suddenly comes to life once you know
what you are looking at! |
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The front panel is 5 1/2" by
7". The radio was not sold with a base.
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This No. 2 was built into a plywood box. |
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This radio was
built by a Bob Dildine of Santa Rosa, California in the early
1970s. He did a nice job on the radio and on
the box. The bottom and sides
of the box are kerfed so everything slides together without fasteners
or glue. You just slide the bottom off and both the radio and
back panel slide out.
Because it was housed in the box it is pretty much pristine
inside. |
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Coil connections to the switch taps. |
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Another MRL No. 2, also in a wooden box. This was built in 1977
by Sloane Freeman. |
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Replica built from scratch by Vic Rodriguez in 2022. |
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Another MRL No. 2. These are getting rare. Only three
have appeared on ebay in the last few years.
Want to see something REALLY rare? |
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An unbuilt MRL No. 2 Long Distance Crystal Set from
1980. |
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The switch points, front and rear. The panel is
actually jet black but doesn't come out well in photographs due to
the sheen. |
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The variable capacitors came wrapped in this paper. |
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The back and front
of the panel where you attach the variable capacitors.
Everything is countersunk. Elmer called the panel material
"compo." There are many references to compo panels in his
handbooks. It's probably short for "composition board." I've
often wondered if the compo panels are Masonite.
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The screws are
inserted into the capacitor, the shaft has been cut, a wire
joins both sections. There is a big honking solder lug on
the capacitor body. This is how Elmer sent both capacitors.
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The coil, hand made by Elmer. If he had hundreds of
testimonials about this set in 1945, how many of these coils did he make? |
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| Many
MRL sets use those brightly colored pin
jacks on the left. They came in white, yellow, orange,
red, and blue.
Despite these parts being 40 years old, they still
look new. The brass on the MRL switches is still
shiny. |
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Now let's
think about this set for a minute. Elmer made the
coil form, then wound the coil on the form. He cut
out the "compo" panel, then drilled the
holes, countersunk them and
painted the panel. Then he riveted the switch points onto the
panel.
He made the two MRL switches. He printed the dial
scales. He prepped the variable capacitors, then he
added two knobs, a knocked down crystal detector,
a mounted crystal which he made himself, two pin jacks, two Fahnestock clips, hookup wire, and solder. He put the crystal,
cat whisker, and dial scales in envelopes, which were printed
on the outside with what was inside the envelopes.
He had to purchase the material to make the coil
form. He bought the variable capacitors, crystal stand, knobs,
headphone jacks, parts to make the switches, rivets,
solder lugs, screws, wire, solder, paint, envelopes,
etc. Then he hand printed a copy of Detail Print
#22, which he authored himself.
Elmer sold this kit for $7.50 in 1980. That's
equivalent to $25.00 in 2020. MRL (under Paul
Nelson) sold the same kit in 2020 for $92.85! In
2020, the price of the variable capacitors alone
exceeded $25. Unfortunately it was "Temporarily Out
of Stock" for years, and was removed from the MRL
website in 2021. |
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Handbook
Number 2 or HB-2, copyright 1945. It is 24 pages printed in a tiny font in a
pamphlet about 9.5 x 6.5 inches. This HB is
a different size than all the others. All of Elmer's
handbooks were lithographed by Elmer, except HB-2,
which was printed on a printing press. The print is
actually pressed into the paper, as shown above on
the right.
On page 9, Elmer references an article in the
February 1934 issue of Radio magazine, so
even though the copyright date is 1945, it may have
evolved from an earlier publication, possibly the
"blueprint" he sold in the 1930s.
The last original copy of HB-2 was sold sometime in
1983.
A customer of MRL named Sloane Freeman related this story in June of 2020:
"In 1983 I put in an order for
some things over the phone, among them a HB-2
handbook. Elmer told me he was totally out of them
and would not be printing any more. This was a couple
of weeks after Mabel died. Five or six months later
an envelope comes in the mail and there is my HB-2.
Elmer had found one copy in a stack of stuff and
remembered I wanted one. So unless he found some
more somewhere, mine is the last."
Paul Nelson
printed a batch of duplicates in 2003 on Elmer's lithograph
machine. They are available today on the MRL
website. |
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Here's a nice MRL No.2
from the 1990's.
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The switches and crystal detector were made by Paul
Nelson. |
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END OF THE MODERN RADIO LABS RADIO SHOP |
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| In 1938
and 1939 the address for Modern Radio Labs was 7700
East 14th Street in Oakland, CA. From 1940 to 1943 the address was
1406 77th Avenue, both of which are in this building
at the corner of 14th and 77th. The
entrance to 1406 77th Avenue is behind the pickup
truck and utility pole. The storefront faces 14th
Street. The actual address of the
building (in the year 2018) is 7700 International
Blvd. |
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| 1939 Oakland Yellow Pages ad. |
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| Why did
the MRL address change in 1940? The 1940 US Census
shows they did indeed have a radio store here. Perhaps the
Osterhoudt's just switched the MRL mailing address
for convenience. Maybe the days of the radio store were coming to an end. A lack of
inventory during the rationing of WWII would have
put them nearly out of business, anyway. In 1942,
consumer radio production was halted by the US
government, as was nearly every other appliance. |
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1940 phonebook entry. 7700 E 14th was the
storefront. |
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1940 and '41 entry, but the phone number is
not the same as the MRL number in 1939. |
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1941 phonebook entry. The store is no longer
listed, but Elmer is a salesman.
There is no listing in the 1940 or 1941 Yellow Pages for the
store name or either address. |
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According to an article by Dick Mackiewicz
in Radio Age magazine, during WWII Elmer was an instructor for
wartime radio technicians and operators. His draft
card shows that in 1942 he was employed by the US
Navy at the US Naval Air Base in Alameda, CA. If this was
the case, the shop may have
been closed for the duration, and never reopened.
Modern Radio Labs did carry on during the war, as
evidenced by advertisements in Radio World
and Popular Mechanics in 1943. However, an ad in the March 1944 edition of
Radio Craft has the MRL address in Hayward, CA, so
the Osterhoudt's had moved out of this building by
then. Hayward is about 10 miles south of Alameda. |
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1406 77th
Avenue entrance. Above the mailbox next to the door
can be seen the address (right-hand photo.)
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The building is a "2-Story Mixed Use Commercial/Residential
situated on a ±3556 Square Foot Lot". The street level
section is zoned "Commercial - Retail/Office".
Upstairs is zoned "Urban Residential" and is a
"4 bedroom/2bath Residential..." It was
built in 1923.
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According to the 1940 census, Elmer and Mabel
Osterhoudt owned this property, lived here and
operated a radio store.
This is how it looked 80 years later, in 2020. |
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| A year after the
Osterhoudt's moved to Hayward, they moved to San
Francisco, to this house at 2610 18th Avenue.
According to ads placed in Popular Science, they
were here from May to December 1945. A note on
Elmer's draft card says they had actually moved out
by November 1945 to San Carlos, California. The
house above was built in 1931. |
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In late 1945 the Osterhoudt's moved to this house
in San Carlos, CA. and lived here until 1950. |
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