"West Coast" Handbook editions

[KD1SH]

  Anyone have the 13th or 14th editions of the "West Coast" Radio Handbook? I'm just curious about the authorship of those editions. My bookshelf is honored to hold the 15th through 23rd editions, with Bill Orr credited as author, and I'm thinking that the 14th edition was also authored by Orr, while the 13th and all previous editions were credited to "Editors and Engineers" only.
  My oldest is the 9th edition, copyrighted 1942; authored by "Editors and Engineers." I believe the final edition was the 23rd, copyrighted 1997. Orr went silent key in 2001, so it's unlikely that there was ever a 24th edition. I treasure all of them, but most of all the Orr editions.

[w9jsw]

13th is not listing Orr as the editor...

https://archive.org/details/radiohandbook13t00unse/mode/2up

Could not find a 14th with a west coast publisher.

John

[ae7db]

I have a copy of the Fourteenth Edition.  It lists "William I. Orr, W6SAI" as the editor.  The Thirteenth does not mention him on the title page, so I guess the Fourteenth was his first effort.  Also, I see that Editors and Engineers had apparently moved a short distance between those editions, from Kenwood Road in Santa Barbara to Summer Land (just to the south as I recall).

Dean

[ae7db]

Out of curiosity, I examined the other early copies that I have. 

The Fifth Edition is credited to "The Editors of 'Radio'", and lists W.W. Smith as Editor-in-Chief, with seven others listed (including Frank C. Jones and Ray L. Dawley).  The publisher was "Radio, Ltd" with a Los Angeles address.

The Sixth Edition is credited the same way as the Fifth, but the publisher had relocated to Santa Barbara.

The Eighth Edition is still credited to "The Editors of 'Radio'" but lists W.W. Smith as Editorial Director and Ray L. Dawley as Editor, with six others listed (not including Frank C. Jones, who I guess had moved on by then). The publisher name had changed to Editors and Engineers, but with the same address in Santa Barbara as listed in the Sixth Edition.

Dean

[w8khk]

My ninth edition, copyright 1942, shows the address of Editors and Engineers moving from 1300 Kenwood Road, Santa Barbara, to 1422 Highland Ave, Los Angeles.

Rather than a single editor, it is "Compiled and revised from previous material", originally prepared by 12 authors, including W. W. Smith, R. L. Dawley, and R. C. Jones.

On my tenth edition, copyright 1946, the address and list of editors is unchanged from edition nine.

Eleventh edition, copyright 1947, they have moved back to 1300 Kenwood Road, Santa Barbara.   R. L. Dawley is the editor, with four associates and five  assistants/contributors.


Twelfth edition copyright 1949, same address, Editor Dawley, and four associates:  W. W. Smith, Gordon M. Kingman, George H. Catlin, and R. A. Ontiveros.

Thirteenth edition, copyright 1951, same address, Dawley editor, with Smith and Ontiveros as associates.  Only $6.00 way back then!

So Orr apparently took the reins at the fourteenth, and was not previously listed as a contributor.

[KD1SH]

  The 5th, 7th, and 15th editions are available in PDF from http://tubebooks.org/, as is an antenna book by Frank C. Jones. It's a great resource, but I'm sort of retro; I like real books that I can hold in my hand.
  Yes, it does seem that the 14th was Orr's first, or at least the first that he was directly credited with, though he may very well have been among the "Editors and Engineers." My 9th edition says, "Compiled and revised from material originally prepared by:" followed by a list including twelve names, none of which is Orr, although the list is followed by an added "and others." One very notable name in the list is Faust Gonsett!
  Back in the 70's, as a kid on 11 meters, one of my most prized books was Orr's "The Truth about CB Antennas." The book cut through much of the antenna advertising hyperbole of the day, and I built many antennas from his designs in that book. He's been a radio hero to me ever since.

[KD1SH]

  I've also got an excellent first edition of Van Der Bijl's "The Thermionic Vacuum Tube," from 1920. To me, those books represent not only a treasure-trove of information, but a wonderful insight into what seems an age of giants. They not only presented their information concisely, but did so while wielding the language with a grace and style that we don't often see today. We probably will not see their like again in our lifetimes.

My ninth edition, copyright 1942, shows the address of Editors and Engineers moving from 1300 Kenwood Road, Santa Barbara, to 1422 Highland Ave, Los Angeles.

Rather than a single editor, it is "Compiled and revised from previous material", originally prepared by 12 authors, including W. W. Smith, R. L. Dawley, and R. C. Jones.

On my tenth edition, copyright 1946, the address and list of editors is unchanged from edition nine.

Eleventh edition, copyright 1947, they have moved back to 1300 Kenwood Road, Santa Barbara.   R. L. Dawley is the editor, with four associates and five  assistants/contributors.


Twelfth edition copyright 1949, same address, Editor Dawley, and four associates:  W. W. Smith, Gordon M. Kingman, George H. Catlin, and R. A. Ontiveros.

Thirteenth edition, copyright 1951, same address, Dawley editor, with Smith and Ontiveros as associates.  Only $6.00 way back then!

So Orr apparently took the reins at the fourteenth, and was not previously listed as a contributor.

[W7TFO]

I have all the Radio Handbook editions 1 to 15.

Overall, a much better reference for builders than the League books.

And not a bunch of useless contest crap to wade thru.

73DG

[KD1SH]

  I'd have to say that the 15th is my favorite. A lot of good AM content, including some great screen-mod and cathode-mod tech. Later editions, like the 22nd and 23rd, don't have as much AM content, but really shine with their amplifier projects—8877's, 3-500's, and 4-1000's take center stage.
  Yeah, the later "East Coast" League books have much less value to the home-brewer. I've got a few post-2000 editions, including the recent 100th Anniversary hardcover—because I won a League gift certificate at a hamfest—which suffers from a painful case of hollow-state constipation: managing to squeeze out a few meager pages of tube amplifier info; one can visualize the editors grimacing as the editorial orifice reluctantly extruded those few gems.
  There are a few diamonds amid the League rubble, though: my very favorite is the 1963 edition, with lots of great AM info, including the honored ancestor of everyone's favorite K1JJ 813 rig, the famous "One Band Kilowatt." (Love the construction: two horizontally mounted 813's in a 4U rack enclosure) The covers and binding of the '63 are better than most, too; I've got newer ones that almost fall apart in my hands.

I have all the Radio Handbook editions 1 to 15.

Overall, a much better reference for builders than the League books.

And not a bunch of useless contest crap to wade thru.

73DG

[Tom WA3KLR]

 "first edition of Van Der Bijl's "The Thermionic Vacuum Tube," from 1920".

I forgot I had a copy of that. I acquired it in 2003, must be a reprint, it's like new. I drooled over it when I got it and read through it.

Thanks for reminding me Bill.

[KD1SH]

  It is a great book, but not for the mathematically faint of heart. The technology may have evolved since 1920, but the mathematical acuity of guys like Bijl—not to mention wizards like Maxwell—is amazing, and humbling as well.

"first edition of Van Der Bijl's "The Thermionic Vacuum Tube," from 1920".

I forgot I had a copy of that. I acquired it in 2003, must be a reprint, it's like new. I drooled over it when I got it and read through it.

Thanks for reminding me Bill.

[KD1SH]

  Well, I went to a hamfest this morning, and in one of those marvelous serendipitous coincidences, I came home with this: "Cathode Modulation for Economical Radiotelephony," by the previously mentioned (by AE7DB a few posts upstream) Frank C. Jones, in a magazine-like format of 86 pages, published in 1939, and full of cool stuff!

[Opcom]

I have all the Radio Handbook editions 1 to 15.

Overall, a much better reference for builders than the League books.

And not a bunch of useless contest crap to wade thru.

73DG

same here. and there's not a lot of special obsolete unobtanium microprocessors and other solid state stuff in there to mess up the fun.

[KD1SH]

  Well, some of the oldest Radio Handbook editions feature tubes that are pretty much unobtainium these days, but it's a lot easier, and a lot more fun, to compare tube data and find modern tubes that will work, than to find substitutes for obsolete microprocessors. There are plenty of resources out there for obtaining all but the most esoteric tubes, if you want to pay for them, but it seems that once semiconductors go obsolete, they become silicon unicorns almost overnight.

I have all the Radio Handbook editions 1 to 15.

Overall, a much better reference for builders than the League books.

And not a bunch of useless contest crap to wade thru.

73DG

same here. and there's not a lot of special obsolete unobtanium microprocessors and other solid state stuff in there to mess up the fun.

[K8DI]

Folks here have pointed me towards the west coast handbooks a couple times, after reading this thread I finally did a little looking around.  You don’t have to wait for a ham fest, there’s lots of them on eBay.  I spent $53 and the mailman brought me the 14th, 15th, and 17th edition, along with an “Interference Handbook”, an Orr paperback that showed up in my searching.  Even a brief perusal verifies what’s been said above.. there’s hundreds of pages of useful tube learning contained within, for less than the cost of a couple 6146’s. Highly recommended!
Ed

[w1zb]

The Frank Jones Cathode Modulation handbook is an excellent reference on the topic. I found a copy about 20 years ago and enjoyed reading it. I did find some NOS cathode modulation transformers at hamfests with the idea that I would use them in a homebrew AM transmitter one day. It's on my bucket list.

73 Jerry W1ZB

[KD1SH]

  A curious observation on the "East Coast" League handbooks: I've noticed that at some point they stopped providing class C plate modulated operating parameters for the 813 tubes. I don't have a contiguous series, but my 1968 edition shows those parameters for the 813, while my 1973 edition shows only conditions for Ab1, Ab2, and "Class C amplifier-oscillator." They still provide plate modulated info for other tubes, though. Likewise for my 1984 edition.
  I was surprised to find that my 2014 edition still presented tube data, although sparse, and even class C plate modulated parameters for many (but still not for the 813).
  I'm wondering if this was a League decision, or if the tube manufacturer who provided the data stopped giving specs for plate mod?

[KL7OF]

It's all in the handbook..
Betelgeuse

[w9jsw]

PDFs of the ARRL handbooks up to the 80's here

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Bookshelf_ARRL.htm

John