Do you get excited when you see a shortwave or Ham Radio in your favorite show? Do you watch movies and make fun constantly when the wrong radio is shown in the right scene? Do you watch old movies just for the radios?
Phenonomn (1996) with John Travolta and Forrest Whittiker who was a ham. Forrest used a Yaesu FT-1000 MP as I remember. AND it was a really GREAT movie.
The Kon Tiki expedition was done on a shoestring budget so Heyerdahl used his wartime connection to US military to scrounge various surplus items, also radio equipment. This was 1947 so money was not plentiful but military surplus equipment was still available. Besides the US wanted him to take along various things for testing, shark repellant for example.
Amazing as always! Wow. The radio on "Frequency" is an SB 300 (or 301). The funny thing is it's a receiver. I've got one just like it. Not long after getting my ham license back in 1993 an episode of "Married with children" Al Bundy talked with Peggy's mother using one half of the Kenwood 599 twins. I think it was the receiver as well. The Kenwood twins was my first hf set up and my elmer AK1N (sk) looked just like Al Bundy!
“Broadsword calling Danny Boy, Broadsword calling Danny Boy.....” my favourite radio moment ever from “Where Eagles Dare”. Incredible range from a telescopic whip!
Great video. Thanx! The Andy Griffiths show used the Eico 720 transmitter in he sheriff's office as their comm unit. That was the same Xmtr that I used as a novice back in 1974 as WN9NYI. 73 de WB9NYI
A friend of mine had a Heathkit transceiver with that irritating trans-dimensional QSO fault. He tracked it down to a faulty ruby condenser in the second interrossiter stage. More seriously, the radio room of RA-117s in the Bond movie at 9:53 was equipped by Racal with dummy front panels.
Let's not forget the kids in "Stranger Things" who use Realistic TRC-206, TRC-214 and TRC-219 walkies - probably CB bands. And I believe the Heathkit in the after school club with Mr. Clark, the science teacher, but I'm not sure the model was identified. I think it was a receiver. Also, in "Frequency", I think he's talking into a microphone that has it's cord swagged behind a Heathkit SB-301 receiver.
There was an early 1980s post-nuclear war movie that featured an older man using his ham radio. Can't remember the movie name, but remember the radio part!
One of my favorites is a trip to Mars in which crew walks around normally , no zero G, and talks to earth from Mars orbit, with no delay, and an S40 receiver with a carbon mic plugged into the earphone jack. I was a nove ham in 1950 but knew better.
I seen 3 or so radios of the radios that i have in my private collection like the Hallicrafters S 40B and S 20R and my National NC 173 and the 54 and my Collins KWM2 in Contact. Many thanks for the look back in time and radio lore!! Many thanks for posting these movie clips. 73's from KC2UVN
Hi Michael - lots of fun! I recommend that you check out the 1988 film "Ghosthouse", which features a ham radio operator as the protagonist. We see him with his Kenwood TS-940 transceiver in his Boston loft, and he direction-finds a VHF Yaesu FT-847 (which somehow he receives on his HF transceiver), which is in the attic of the titular Ghost House. Also pictured in his home station is a carved call sign atop the Kenwood TS-940. It's a hilariously bad B horror movie. The amateur radio gear shows up fairly early. Thanks for another entertaining video and 73 from Oregon. Rand N7RLG
Thanks 😊 very much for these memories to an 80 year old ham, first licensed in 1962 as WV2ZPD, Novice. I have memories of W2LVQ, now his son has the call, visiting his Shack in the Bronx with a Hallicrafters SX-101A for use in his VHF station. I first has a Hallicrafters SX-110 receiver in 1961, for $170.00, from the Radio Shack in Stamford, CT. Operating in 1964-65 at K2US at the New York World's Fair in the Coca Cola Pavillion when I was WA2ZPD. Also been WB7EGN, WB1BTO, V25CH in Antigua, 2004. 73 de W2CH Ray and Marylyn KC2NKU, New Hampshire 😊
@MIKROWAVE1 Thanks 😊 Yes, in August 1967, I was a Plattsburgh, AFB, NY for a months summer ☀️ training after my Junior year in college, and while we were close to Montreal, for various reasons, I could go to Expo67 in Montreal directly from NY. So in mid-September, 1967, my parents and I drove up from near New York City to EXPO, and stayed nearby Montreal. We road the Monorail through the Geodesic dome there. I think it was called Man and his World, l'homme de Terre in French, I believe. My wife and I went to Quebec for a trip in 2008, for the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's exploration there in 1608. When we stayed in Montreal after going to Quebec City first, we went to the Casino there, which had been the French Pavillion back at Expo 67. Also, in 1986, my parents and I drove from NY to Toronto, and went by car across Canada 🇨🇦 to Vancouver to see Expo 86 there. We then drove down to Seattle and back east through the Northern US. This was a 3 week. 7000 mile trip from mid-September into early October. It was a long drive, but I was only 42 then.
If you want to see a great film featuring radio. Look up the 1938 film King of Alcatraz, the story is about two ship radio operators and communicating with the radio is a big part of the film in dealing with the bad guys on board. There is even spark morris code used to signal for help.
Boy, did that ever take me back when I saw the radio in the opening sequences. When I was first licensed in 1962, that radio, along with a Heathkit DX-40, were the first radios I ever had. They were both loaned to me by a lady ham that my dad knew with the condition that as soon as I got my General license, I would pass them on to another new ham, which I did a number of years later. The radio in the video is an HF transceiver like the one I had. Mine was from a Russian tank. It was modified to run on a 12vdc power supply. The transmitter never did work, hence the reason for the DX-40. All of the labels on the front panel were in Russian so I had to fiddle with the knobs and memorize what they did. It worked very well on CW. Thanks so much for the trip down memory lane.
I have to protest. You have a picture from Hogan's Heroes. That is Colonel Hogan standing next to a "Gonkulator" It wasn't declared to be a radio - it was a "Gonkulator." God knows what a "Gonkulator" does - but they didn't say it was a radio! Still like the video though!
Hey, bud…. I’ve built radios from scavenged parts, including recycled cake pans and bread boards, etc. Just about anything passes under these circumstances… Ok ?
@@danielerdman7543 - Me thinks you doth protest to much about my protest! Mike got the fact that I was kidding - though my statement is correct concerning the device in the picture.
In the 1990 Meg Ryan & Tom Hanks move “Joe and the Volcano” aboard the sailboat “The TweedleDee” you will spot what I believe was an Icom R71 (just watched this last weekend)
I find myself doing this as well. Most of the older gear I don't recognize right away but Kenwood, Yeasu and Icom radios I recognize right away. I also look for test and measurement gear as well, Hewlet Packard, Tektronix and Fluke.
Great video. One of those favorite movies of mine is Frequency. I noted by pausing the movie during a certain scene, that the Heathkit radio was an SB-301, which is a receiver only radio. The companion transmitter is the SB-401. Also, I believe I that i have that BC-375 transmitter used in the John Wayne movie. I am still trying to verify this by trying to fine out how many John Wayne movies featured my BC-375. Once again, great video and radio history. Regards,
Another movie where ham radio was part of the plot was the crime film "The Anderson Tapes" made in 1971 starring Sean Connery. A Heathkit HW-101 was used in that one.
@martincarlisle4200 I was just going to suggest this movie but you beat me to it. A boy in a wheelchair calls for help with his radio when his apartment building in New York City gets taken over by a group of thieves who cut the phone lines and carry out a caper to rob the wealthy tenants.
Excellent video,I was hoping you would mention "Father Goose" I was a child and my stepfather was a Ham , he was a merchant marine and his best friend was the radio operator. I was also glad to see you mentioned Crosby. I'm a relatively recent ham and now have my General class license. I tried to get my license when I was like 12 or so,but CW kind of stymied me. I did however do quite well on old CB SSB and even as a child made contacts all over the world.
Just saw the modern movie "Fortress". Had a good shot of the radio operator's desk showing a BC-348. I own a couple of BC-348's and a GRC-9A, which was featured in "Day the earth stood still" with Micheal Renny in 1950. GRC-9 was also featured in the movie "Them" about giant ants. My choice of addiction is the MFA smell of anti-fungal coating of WWII and Korea boat anchors.
The Wireless 19 with Russian labeling was manufactured in Canada during WW2. Montreal I believe. The story of transporting the circuit plans from Britain to Canada is worth a movie in itself.
I get a kick out of the huge transceiver used in "Flash Gordon, Space Soldiers". It looks like a souped up crystal set. Plus they ask that all the power in the USA be turned off so they can land their rocket ship.
Love your video Mike, and your incredible knowledge about these old jobs. In many ways I find these "OLD" radios far more sophisticated than all the "DIGI"-stuff. In fact... I'm revolted by most of the "DIGI" stuff. (More dirty computer, than radio)! Jeff (the tech-ie license only)!
The Collins ART13 featured autotune with 11 preset memories. So once programmed, the pilot could go to any channel between 2 to 18 MHz with the radio from a control box located in the cockpit.
Great video! I remember in one of Gilligan's Island episodes, the professor was using the S-40 as a transmitter which he could have done with the 6F6 tube but it would have only been good for CW though.
In the second or third Jurasic park movie they used a ham radio for rescue, though the guy that knew enough of how to operate the radio called cq instead of break and declaring an emergency. In The Day After, after the bombs fell, there was the "this is lawrence Kansas, is anyone out there" line, that I can't recall if they showed the radio or not.
These are so many examples. The book "All the Light we Cannot See" featured a radio and DF theme and the new series just dropped on Netflix. The German Sets on screen are fantastic. They are getting expert help.
Enjoyable. Thanks. Have you ever marveled at how effective low power AM communications were in World War II aviation movies? Even if you're 300 miles away from the carrier there is no need for CW.
Well not so much when you consider path loss and that the HF antennas were oriented badly - inline with the outgoing bird. But...Figuring 0 gain antennas - and 100 dB of path loss at 4 MHz at 300 Miles - and with a 5 Watt Transmitter and a normal Receiver with say a sensitivity of -100 dBm, it should actually work with margin over water if the bird is up in the air a few hundred feet.
It’s a fun pastime and have been doing it now and then since becoming a Ham in the late 1960s. Hey what can I say? Some of us were nerds before the term even caught on in the later high tech days. Or before the movie ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ made it a common household term. 73s
There's radios in Oppenheimer. They are appropriate for the period but they're aircraft units that likely would not have been used as depicted. (There's also equipment with nixie tubes)
LOL. This was great. I never realized until I was much older why my dad got so mad about radio "jargon" in movies. Everything from gibberish, nonsense CW to his most maligned expression "Over & Out."
In “Mr Popper’s Penguins,” Popper as a child talks to his dad using a ham radio. I was watching the movie and thought, “hey, he’s using my radio! That can’t be accurate, this is supposed to be sometime in the 1970s!” I did some research and sure enough, I think he was using a Kenwood TS-120, late 1970s vintage. Mine is a hand-me-down TS-130, late 1970s to early ‘80s. I had no idea my radio was that old.
I once spotted a Yaesu Mobile rig in a 90s anime called gunsmith cats. It was a "Vaesu" FT-212RH or FT-712RH being used for a police radio. What was neat in the scenes using the radio they replicated realistic repeater sounds with light receive noise and even a PL-Tone!
Father Goose had a genuine Navy Onan generator. Memphis Belle.. both movie and documentary, had real on air reception. Midway had a Japanese airborne set. Duel had a Chrysler car AM. Sweet.
Great video sir, like diehard films, I noticed that all the series in the film use ham radio devices as one of the characteristics, in diehard 1 it uses handytalky it looks like a Kenwood TH41, diehard 2 looks like a Kenwood TH45, diehard 4 shows a scene about using a CB radio as a "insurance for the future".. 😄
Hi Excellent video just you know the eddystone radio from Dr Know was a eddystone 840A the one in your photo was a eddystone 888A ham bands only radio but you have still made a excellent presentation all the best from the UK,
During an episode of 'Young Sheldon' where he locked the principal out of his office and grabbed a microphone to make an announcement on the PA system. I noticed that the PA system is actually a Uniden 'Washington' CB radio base station. I have the same base station and microphone.
@@MIKROWAVE1 I'm sure you're right! I have an old National Radio NC-98 general coverage receiver. Years ago, I spotted the same model an old B&W war movie, but all these years later I cannot remember what movie it was.
The best is when a guy with a VHF portable radio is talking with another guy with a portable CB radio (sometimes with the antenna completly down).....😂😂😂😂 Talk about network inter-operation....😂😂😂😂😂
Ah that 19 radio you got in the video. I once owned one as a teen in the later 70s. Both it the power pack and the cables. I was told it was fresh out of the original crate and it looked it. I had no immediate use for it or even actually plans so it sat in a shed at my parents. The interesting thing was all the radium markings on the face that would glow brightly if you went into the darkened shed. Eventually I was told it had to clear out so I got in contact with some mil vehicle collector who happily took it away.
Sheriff Andy Taylor and Barney of Mayberry apparently used a EICO 720 AM/CW transmitter to communicate to the squad car there's one featured in the scenes of the courthouse where the jail is. Also a Hallicrafters S-108 appears in episode of The Andy Griffith Show from the Sixth Season entitled “The Gypsies".
Thanks for making this Video. I enjoyed it! I have become interested is spiderweb coils in the context of crystal radios and ham radio. If you get lost for ideas maybe consider spiderweb coils. Can you use spiderweb coils instead of toroid or antenna loading coils? I like how they can be made flat and made easily.
Well done identifying the version of FT-101B in 'The Bank Job', except the film was set two years before that version was released, and in any case as an HF radio it wouldn't have been able to receive the bank robbers using early Pye Pocketfone VHF radios. :-). Nor would he have been able to record it on the Revox B77 shown as it wasn't manufactured for another ten years. Rather like the Motorola GP340s used in 'Everest'. In 'High Heels and Low Lifes' Minnie Driver overhears a heist being plotted over mobile phones, only she's using a Kenwood 2/70 mobile rig. On the other hand in a late episode of 'Leverage Redemption' they use a Yaesu FT-1000mkV Field to make a CB call and that's doable if it's widebanded.
If you look on the back shelf in the apartment on The Big Bang Theory you can see what looks like a Yeasu with the tuning knob removed. Also on NCIS Tim sets up a ham shack in the evidence garage and then uses CB handles to contact the bad guy.
The one I always wanted to identify was in "Lost in Space (2018)" cant access my dvd's of it right now but the radio Will Robinson used in season 1, looked almost like a mobilt in a carry case
I got one of those novelty Herman Munster "ham" QSL cards somewhere. I don't expect to see much technical accuracy in movies about anything, and now with all being CGI that looks fake, I avoid movies alot. Lot of people obsess with identifying old broadcast sets in movies but they are used usually as decorations and usually insignificant as all the other decorations.
While not a "movie" per se, I always laugh when I think about how, on the series Hogan's Heroes, they'll be speaking with the mic keyed while the viewer can STILL hear the receiver! LOL😂 😃🇺🇸
Oh the Motrac. Now that is a real radio. Changed many of those out when I worked part time at an old Motorola shop - serious. The were still flipping them from cruiser to cruiser in the 80s.
In one B-movie about a volcano (don't remember the title) a ground station used a CB radio to communicate with people on the volcano. For a brief moment the back of the radio was shown, and I immediately noticed that the SO-239 connector wasn't connected to anything. 😅
@@MIKROWAVE1 I always figured that AR rigs have more lights, buttons, and knobs and are thus more visually interesting. Most military radios don't even look like radios.
Take a deep breath and tell yourself, “It’s just a movie”. And remember that not every movie has a budget big enough to allow for technical consultants.
What I noticed in "The Flight of the Phoenix" when viewing it recently was that the ART-13 was in the cockpit, but I'd understood that one of the reasons for its elaborate tuning mechanism was so that the pilot only needed a small control box to operate it, and so the bulky TX could be placed somewhere in the back of the plane. Does anyone happen to know if it would have ever been placed in the cockpit? The thing that makes me think the movie would have gotten this right is that Stewart surely had direct experience.
I've often seen the EICO 720 in many episodes of the Andy Griffith Show.(It's depicted as a police transceiver at the jail; although it's a CW transmitter in reality.)
I haven't paid that much attention to the radios, but the one thing I notice the most has been the Reel to Reel tape recorders, in the TV shows and movies. Seen some in one of the pictures Mike showed. Has anyone seen a SX-62 Hallicrafters radio in the TV shows or movies? I heard that JFK own a SX-62 while he was president. I just bought a SX-62 Hallicrafters from a friend.
Well Mike I have a score of 2. I have the Valiant and the National. Very surprised no SP -600 or the Collins 75a-2...lol both would look good in any movie IMHO.... Good fun Mike! Thanks for posting!
