A group of radio collectors and radio amateurs in the Asheville, North Carolina area long dreamed about a museum that would trace the history of radio from the early days of spark gap transmitters to today's technology. Today that dream is a reality.

Sonny Morton, KM4GG, "bringing in the stations" with a Crosby regenerative receiver.

Two young Asheville visitors trying their hand with Morse code (note the rare Bunnell crystal set in front of them).

Lois Wernicke, a visitor from Swannanoa, North Carolina, listens to a 1923 Crosley ACE regenerative receiver.

The Marshall family listens to some older radios.

Norman Harrill, N4NH (left), is president of the Southern Appalachian Radio Museum. Here he is with Frank Lamb, K4ADI (center) and Harold Kinley, WA4GIB, looking at some vintage radios and tubes.

Lois Young admires some Collins equipment.

Before the Southern Appalachian Radio Museum became a reality, we had a lot of questions and wondered if such a museum in North Carolina would be of interest. After all, there are already over 20 similar museums in the United States -- but there was nothing like it in the Southeast. Additionally, many people in the area had worked at companies such as the Hammarlund Manufacturing Company in nearby Mars Hill -- a company that made tens of thousands of radios. Many were used in remote outposts and communication centers during World War II and afterwards. In any event, the group felt that it was very important to keep the history of radio alive.

"Walk Back Through Time"

Visitors have come from abroad and all over the US. They come to show their children "Grandpa's radio." They come to see the radios their father had, or one they had many years ago, bringing them visual images of programs long before the invention of television. They see many sets from the 1920s through the 1940s, including large floor models, and have the opportunity to tune them. The reaction of many children as they take a walk back through time is particularly interesting -- some become very interested and might even go on to become engineers.

Visitors recall enjoying the excitement of The Lone Ranger, the humor of Lum and Abner or Ma Perkins. Others are equally absorbed in the world of opera and symphony concerts or music that might start your toes a-tapping. How about the Yankees or a Joe Louis fight? Whether it was a Philco, an Atwater-Kent or a Silvertone, they all brought the world into your home. They were radios that glowed in the dark.

Whether they're young or old, visitors don't leave until they have turned knobs, listened to "wooden" radios and tap on a code key to see the spark jump from an early spark gap transmitter. School children discover what tubes are ("What are those things?)" and find it kind of exciting that you can make a radio with little more than a coil and a just a few parts. Collectors come to see some of the radios they would like to have, while others marvel over a "Gibson Girl" transmitter that saved untold numbers of downed airmen floating in life rafts in the Pacific in World War II, or a receiver used by the Dutch underground in the WW II era, but that's another story.

Radio was growing like wildfire in the 1920s. Radio kits could be purchased, and with luck you could pick up radio stations all around the country on a good antenna with just one tube! Many people, however, built their own sets with a coil wrapped around a round oatmeal box, a pair of headphones and a germanium crystal. They could hear Nashville's Grand Ole Opry over WSM as early as 1926. Back then it was called the WSM Barn Dance.

Amateur Radio Featured in the Museum

Many visitors experience an Amateur Radio contact with a station far away for the first time. More than a few visitors share remembrances of contacts they had with Amateur Radio personalities like Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, Senator Barry Goldwater, K7UGA (SK), or King Hussein of Jordan, JY1 (SK).

In 1915, amateurs typically communicated a few hundred miles at most, or with a nearby town. In 1916, 200 amateur relay stations were set up throughout the US with the first country-wide relay. On George Washington's Birthday, a message was sent coast-to-coast in less than 55 minutes (and to the governor of every state). Those stations were members of the American Radio Relay League -- and they were just beginning to lead the way.

More importantly, Amateur Radio operators, shortly after establishing two-way communications between the US and France in 1923, led the way again when they found they could communicate between continents by transmitting on higher frequencies -- that was really "wireless"!

In the early 1920s, a man named Powel Crosley shopped for a radio for his son, but he thought that radios were too expensive. He built one and started producing them for $20; he quickly became the largest radio manufacturer. He embarked on a few other projects -- buying and increasing WLW Cincinnati's power to a whopping 500,000 watts -- and went on to produce a few other products, the first "soap opera," refrigerators, automobiles, disc brakes and more.

The first superheterodyne (which you can see at the museum) made its appearance in 1923 in a home radio. The inventor, Edwin H. Armstrong, briefed David Sarnoff (RCA's Vice-President) on the set and it was a total success. But let's give some credit to a man who contributed to the birth of the superhetrodyne in no small way -- Harry Houck. He worked with Armstrong throughout, building all of the pre-production models and invented the second harmonic circuit, said to be his main contribution. The Radiola at the museum, the AR-812, includes the words "second harmonic superhetrodyne" in the nameplate. In any event, many of the principles invented long ago are still in use today in our radios! Armstrong went on to invent FM in the mid-1930s -- an invention that would rid us of radio static in one mode.

Back then, many people would drive a long distance just to hear "radio" on headphones and a crystal set -- or on an Atwater-Kent if they were lucky. Just think, you might have heard on the radio in 1927 that Lindbergh had just flown the Atlantic.

Older visitors sometimes ask if the volunteers know about the World Championship Telegrapher contest held in Asheville in 1939 and won by Ted McElroy at 75.2 words per minute. Amazingly, the record still stands. That contest drew over 300 attendees. The museum holds the key collection of a well-known Asheville participant in that contest, Bill Hayes, W4AFM, and the museum holds his call sign as a club call sign.

Local Flavor

Hayes, one of our early Asheville hams, was an extremely capable, fast telegraph operator who introduced many to the Amateur Radio hobby over the years. He was at the brokerage house desk at the Grove Park Inn in 1929 when one of his customers came in, took a quarter from his pocket and said "Bill, this is all I have left."

The tough times that followed the crash are legend, and you might well ask, "What did radio have to do with the Depression?" In the 1930s, President Roosevelt's "fireside chats" made people feel as if he was talking directly to them; millions of people heard many of his broadcasts during those tough times. It was "The Golden Age of Radio" and would not have been possible a dozen years earlier.

Come Visit!

The museum is always interested in old radios and may be able to display your radio as a working, interactive exhibit. Most of the radios and related artifacts in the museum are only there because of the generosity of their previous owners, letting others enjoy them. There are many large, private collections of early radios that could be donated to the museum, given sufficient space, a goal we hope to achieve some point in the future. Leadership contributions from individuals and corporations who share our vision are very welcome, of course; we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The Southern Appalachian Radio Museum is located at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College in Asheville, North Carolina in the Elm Building, Room 315. It is open Fridays from 1-3 PM, though tours are available other weekdays. We deeply appreciate the college's assistance and especially enjoy showing the students the "old technology." Volunteers will delight in showing you around; you can experience what it is like to tune in a station on a radio built in the 1920s, so come, see and hear the world of real wireless and share a story with us.

The museum is sponsored by Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) Smoky Mountain Chapter 145. Drop by and see us.

All photos courtesy of the author.

John Travis, W4QCF, holds an Amateur Extra class license. Licensed since 1949 after a stint in the Signal Corps, he attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) and was employed by the Federal Aviation Administration. After retiring, John settled in North Carolina near the Great Smoky Mountains. He enjoys vintage radio and has a Hallicrafters S-20R and a Drake transceiver, as well as some more modern equipment. John also enjoys QRP and has built a number of tube-type transmitters and regenerative receivers. When not working on his own radios, John volunteers at the Southern Appalachian Radio Museum.

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