The Australian Womens Weekly Christmas Special (2013)

Building Mind Power - The Ben Sweetland System (Nocturnal Education/RCA Custom, 1956)

Ben Sweetland was a motivational speaker. Similar to Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, Zig Ziglar and the late Robert Schuller. He was a godfather to the self-help craze that continues to lure in desperate people to this day.

A pioneer in "sleep training", he published this 22 record ‘system’ as a way for average people to improve themselves via conscious and subconscious education.

These records look like 45 RPM discs. But they actually played at 16 RPM with an average playing time of 20-30 minutes per side.

Are you sure this is something that ought to be played during daytime hours?

On top of this MAMMOTH 22 record set, Sweetland also offered a special phonograph changer with a timer. So users of the program can select when certain talks were to be heard during the night or day.

The Bell & Howell Language Master

First post of the year, I hope this finds you well (or at least better than I've been with a fever and head cold.)

The Bell & Howell Language Master was a language teaching system used by language and speech therapy instructors in the 1960s and '70s. It used 3 1/2" x 9" inch cards with a strip of magnetic tape that ran near the bottom of the card with two tracks that ran for 3 seconds. One for the instructor, the other for the student. It allowed switching between tracks to compare instructor/student pronunciation. 


*Guitar effects pedal (as shown in the video) not included.

Picking Up Girls Made Easy! (Symphony Press, 1975)

If there's one product that illustrates the very lengths of what some men will do to keep from being lonely, it's mail order records like this.

Now I'm not sure how many copies this sold, but I would love to hear some 2014 female critiques of this record. For example, I imagine "The Women's Clothing Store Pick-up" would send sirens going off in the minds of store employees alone before he even got within 50 feet of you.

"Huh-uh-huh-uh-huh....Hey Beavis....We're gonna score....."

And when was the last time you met an, ummm, persuasive (and presumably straight) guy at the ballet.... 

Listen to it here (from 365 Days Project.)

Disco Noel

("Disco Dance Step Lesson Enclosed!")

How To CB (1976 Pickwick Records)

 

Click to enlarge

Listen Here

1980s Soviet Aerobics Record

You Americans and your '80s Jane Fonda workouts.......

......THIS is a workout. Soviet Style!

Click here to play Side 1

Sexing All Fowl

Exactly the kind of book you want to fall out of your backpack in public........

Homemade Records

You know? There's a part of me that's REALLY kicking myself for not buying a similar Presto K-10 in Eastern Washington for $40 14 years ago. If I only known you could use disposable plastic plates as blanks...... 

It's straight, warm, tubey sounding lo-fi mono sound and disposable plate "vinyl" makes it perfect for recording punk or DYI/Outsider music 

Conquer The Video (Game) Craze - 1982

If you STILL love those classic '80s arcade games (and WHO doesn't?) There was a very special vinyl LP they made back in 1982 for you that you probably need to know about.

Surprisingly, even in the age of the Walkman, this NEVER got released to CASSETTE. When it mattered. It was on vinyl only...

It is an album filled with video game tips on how to defeat anything from Dig-Dug to Defender....Centipede to Pac-Man (for the arcade classics, but may work just as well for your more accurate home video games versions.)

Good luck figuring how all that translates out on a typical PS/X-Box/Wii controller.

Part 15 Radio

If you ever wanted to run a radio station (and who hasn't?), there is a way you can do it without a lot of money, that has small, but fair enough range (about a mile, more or less - enough for a local neighbourhood) and without a license - legally.

There's a little known sub-section in the Code of Federal Regulations under Title 47 called Part 15. Under this section, you can legally operate a small radio transmitter running no more than 100mW (milliwatts) and a maximum antenna height of three meters (about 10 feet) on AM. (FM is much more limited in signal strength and smaller in antenna height.)

You can operate on either AM of FM. But the range you get with FM is much more limited (about 250 feet) than with AM. AM is by far the best method of transmitting under Part 15 rules.

Most Part 15 operators transmit in the upper portion of the AM dial, in that "expanded band" area that appeared on AM radios made past 1988 between 1600-1700 on the AM dial where there are fewer stations. Range is actually farther on these frequencies than those on the lower end of the AM dial. Which was something I never understood because technically, the lower end of the dial always seemed to have the farthest broadcast range of most AM stations. But I think that's factoring in grounding and other high-end engineering methods (that's one downside with AM, you have to really study radio transmission methods and theory.)

Here are some web sites that can get you started on this incredible little hobby:

http://www.hobbybroadcaster.net

http://www.part15.us

http://www.lpam.net

Conelrad Radio

Conelrad was a civil radio alert system used in the early '50s to the '60s. If the Russians ever decided to press the button, you could tune your radio to the nationwide Conelrad frequencies, 640 or 1240 kHz on the AM side of the radio dial and get instructions on how to save yourself and yours from the ensuing fallout. AM radios of that era had tiny inverted triangles on their dials marking the dial positions of Conelrad stations.

You can actually identify any American radio made between 1953 and 1963. Just look for the Conelrad markers. Usually an inverted triangle. But some were inverted triangles in circles.....

The Conelrad stations were the direct predecessors of the annoying EAS data bursts you hear on the radio today.  They were originally a civil defense method of warning radio listeners in the event of a nuclear attack.

There was no music or lite talk on Conelrad stations. They were strictly for emergency information.

One of the biggest questions I get asked is why were Conelrad stations on those frequencies? And why weren't any on FM?

First, all but two broadcast frequencies (all other AM radio stations, including TV and FM stations) were required to go off the air FM radio was still in it's infancy. Most radios were AM only and in the '50s, FM had very few listeners by comparison. TV was also still fairly new and TV wouldn't reach coast to coast and ubiquitous in homes until the early '60s. These wouldn't be the best mediums to inform the public of a national emergency. Secondly, the nature of FM/TV broadcasting would make these stations "sitting ducks" for enemy aircraft with radio direction finding. 

It was through radio direction finding that Japanese aircraft were able to attack Pearl Harbor by homing in on the signal of KGU, Honolulu.

The 640 and 1240 AM frequencies were selected to confuse enemy aircraft RDF. One radio station would broadcast for a few seconds go off the air, then change over to the next station in a chain that would alternate between 640 and 1240. By doing this, it would be very difficult for enemy aircraft with RDF to get a "lock" on any signal accurately.

And yes, there were some actual radio stations on these frequencies. 640 was occupied by 50,000 watt radio stations KFI Los Angeles and WGST Atlanta and 1240 (which was occupied by many lower power 1,000 watt radio stations.)  

It looked brilliant in theory. But in practice, it was pretty clumsy. Higher power radio transmitters (especially the older ones at some radio stations.) weren't made to be shut on and off like that and some transmitters failed. 

     
Conelrad was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System when missiles could be launched instead of dropped from airplanes. Where designated radio stations in each area served as the primary EBS radio stations. Stations in surrounding areas would relay these broadcasts over their signals or would refer the listeners to tune to the originating station. They also broadened their services to include emergency information of severe weather or man-made/natural disasters.

Here's a video tape from 1990 that explains how the EBS worked on the radio/TV station level.

Under the EAS system of today, ALL radio stations regardless of signal reach or MUST participate. The EAS also provides Amber Alerts for missing kids as well as other emergency information.   

This site archives the endless sights and sounds of this nervous era. If you're old enough to remember the Cold War, you'll be in for a really cool flashback and if you're not, welcome to the bomb shelter....

http://www.conelrad.com/index.php 

Hartz Parakeet Training Record

I once found a copy of this back in the '80s at a Value Village. I still don't remember what happened to that copy, but my friends and I used to get a few good laughs out of this one.....

I still think someone could steal a few samples from this and make the next great hip-hop record.....