Non-motoring > Wireless or radio?	Miscellaneous
Thread Author: L'escargot	Replies: 34

New Mon 6 Dec 10 07:45   Wireless or radio? - L'escargot

When did a wireless start being called a radio, and why? Last edited by: L'escargot on Mon 6 Dec 10 at 07:50 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 08:07   Wireless or radio? - Berisford

In my lifetime is gone like this; Radio - Wireless (set) - Transistor - Radio - FM Receiver - DAB Radio. Wireless was the name for the first battery radios. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:38   Wireless or radio? - L'escargot

>> Wireless was the name for the first battery radios. >> My grandparents didn't have mains electricity and their wireless had a lead-acid "accumulator" and a 9v grid bias battery. I think the accumulator had to be taken to a shop to be recharged. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:48   Wireless or radio? - spamcan61

>> In my lifetime is gone like this; >> >> Radio - Wireless (set) - Transistor - Radio - FM Receiver - DAB Radio. >> >> Wireless was the name for the first battery radios. >> I'd stick Internet Radio on the end of the list, even if it is only wireless for the last few feet, if at all. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 08:29   Wireless or radio? - Dog

First there was telegraphy - morse code over wires to transmit telegrams. Then there was telephony - speech over wires, thanks to Mr Bell. Then there was wireless telegraphy - morse code by radio waves thanks to Sr Marconi. Then wireless telephony - speech by radio, and when this was broadcast it was just 'wireless' and a wireless was a radio receiver. Whether it was mains-powered or run on accumulators, it was still a wireless. ~ haveringhavers.blogspot.com/2007/08/whys-radio-called-wireless.html Reply to this message | Report message       1

New Mon 6 Dec 10 08:41   Wireless or radio? - Zero

It should never have been called a wireless, for it has always had wires in it. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 08:44   Wireless or radio? - Perky Penguin

It may have related to the fact that the tranmission was "wireless"? Where does a crystal set fit into this scale of things? Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 08:47   Wireless or radio? - Zero

There has never been a "radio" that used wires for transmission, the wired variety was called a telephone or before that a "telegraph" Last edited by: Zero on Mon 6 Dec 10 at 08:48 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:05   Wireless or radio? - Clk Sec

Fond memories of my crystal set when I was a little lad. It worked very well indeed with 30 yards of aerial wire. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:32   Wireless or radio? - Mike Hannon

I built one a few years ago with a bit of broom handle, wire and and a diode. It worked fine. Still got it in the attic somewhere for 'emergencies'. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:34   Wireless or radio? - R.P.

A radio receiver is always wireless to me. It counjers up images of a warming up hum, the smell of dust burning on internal components and a deep mellow sound......! Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:45   Wireless or radio? - Mike Hannon

My friend - he with the 1929 Austin daily driver - rebuilds valve radios (he has a room-full) and his usual receiver is a lovely art deco bakelite 'Defiant', which was the brand name used by the Co-op for many years. It works beautifully for Radio 4 long wave down here, which must be about 500 miles from the Droitwich transmitter, far better than my Sony ICF2001D - which some people say was the best transistor radio ever made. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:49   Wireless or radio? - Zero

I want one of these arts.guardian.co.uk/pictures/image/0,,-1110329454625,00.html A work of art. Reply to this message | Report message       1

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:50   Wireless or radio? - Mike Hannon

+1 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 09:50   Wireless or radio? - Hard Cheese

Telegraph required wires therefore when this revolutionary new technology using radio waves came along enabling transmission without wires it was called wireless. We have gone through the same scenario in networking terms in more recent times. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 10:54   Wireless or radio? - AnotherJohnH

>> Fond memories of my crystal set when I was a little lad... with a crystal you needed to find "a good spot" on with a bit of wire? The impromptu hole in the bedroom window frame for the aerial wire wasn't terribly well received by Dad. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 12:51   Wireless or radio? - Cliff Pope

Wasn't the bit of wire the original "cat's whisker" ? Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:09   Wireless or radio? - AnotherJohnH

>> Wasn't the bit of wire the original "cat's whisker" ? I believe it was, although the average moggy might have a different view :-) Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:12   Wireless or radio? - Fenlander

At my grandfather's home it was always the wireless... he only had the one... a wooden monster with that elusive place of Hilversum on the tuning scale. We still have it in the shed. My parents used a transistor radio from my earliest years (late 50s) so I grew up with a radio being called a radio. I notice our teenage girls tend to refer to the material rather than the device. So it will be *can you switch radio 1 on?* Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:19   Wireless or radio? - Iffy

There was an old Bakelite valve radio in the garage where I used to work. It was turned on via the mains plug in the morning, and turned off the same way in the evening - if someone remembered to do it. Every few months the sound would get a bit woolly, so we blew out the set with the compressed air line to restore full fidelity. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:15   Wireless or radio? - RattleandSmoke

My grandma was telling me the days when the wireless ran of batteries as the house they had didn't have electricity but that was only breifly even the the 1930s. I suspect the transistor radio did a lot to create the 1960's teenage pop culture. The the first time ever 13 years old had their own personal radio which probably created the singles market. My dad still has its 1964 reel to reel tape recorder. It still works but the motors are too slow. The oldest HIFI we have in our house is my sisters Pioneer amp, circa 1979 and a cassete deck which was given to me (as I am collector of hifi) which dates back from 1980. I remember in 1987 my dad bought a Sony MIDI system complete with a CD player. We were very high tech we had a computer too even though the C64 by 1987 was an antique it wasn't in 1984 when we bought it. Got dialup in early 1997 and 512kbps ADSL in early 2001. As for radios and growing up I really only remember the 1987 Sony MIDI. Edit in my teenage years I was all over the place musicaly. It was only the past ten years I have found my musical tastes. It is almost the exact opposite to my parents but we share some tastes in common, e.g Simon and Garfunkel. It was clubs which give me exposure to a lot of music though, not the radio. Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Mon 6 Dec 10 at 13:17 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 14:04   Wireless or radio? - Perky Penguin

"There has never been a "radio" that used wires for transmission." Exactly so - the tranmission is achieved without wires and is thus Wireless. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:38   Wireless or radio? - FotheringtonTomas

No, no, no, you mean a "transistor". Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:45   Wireless or radio? - L'escargot

>> No, no, no, you mean a "transistor". As opposed to what? Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:48   Wireless or radio? - spamcan61

>> >> No, no, no, you mean a "transistor". >> >> As opposed to what? >> A 'transistor radio' Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 13:54   Wireless or radio? - FotheringtonTomas

Read the title and you will see. Getting forgetful? Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 14:18   Wireless or radio? - L'escargot

>> Read the title and you will see. You're talking in riddles. Please elucidate. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:13   Wireless or radio? - Bigtee

Back in the beginning a radio needed a long wire antenna this was met at the back of the radio and went up your garden some 30ft and this could then receive the short wave bands from all over the world. Today the ferrite core antenna has windings of copper wire around it to use as a receiving antenna for the fm band 88-108mhz. When they stopped been called wireless was when the 30ft was no longer needed and a telescopic or a fixed Dipole on your house was used for the Fm band as this antenna is much shorter than the type needed for the Short wave bands between 0-30 mhz. The long wire is still in use today as i have a end fed long wire of 66ft in my garden for transmiting on the Amateur radio bands below 30mhz. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:17   Wireless or radio? - Tooslow

No no no no no The ferrite core is for AM. FM reception is by the extending rod aerial. "Wireless", as has already been explained refers to "Wireless Telegraphy" which was a revolutionary way of transmitting the old morse code - without benefit of wires. Subsequently, "advanced technology" permitted sound to be transmitted and the commercial "wireless" came about. No wonder urban myths get started. John Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:21   Wireless or radio? - Zero

Hes right Big T. The ferrite core has the AM antennae wrapped round it. What came first, The transmitter or the receiver? Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:23   Wireless or radio? - Tooslow

If the BBC had anything to do with it, the transmitter. They were transmitting DAB for years before you could buy a DAB radio. :-( Still, they got the money easily enough, got to spend it on something or the budget gets cut y'know. John Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:23   Wireless or radio? - Iffy

...What came first, The transmitter or the receiver?... I reckon the transmitter, 'cos the transmitter transmitted before the receiver received. Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:25   Wireless or radio? - Tooslow

It could have been the receiver, hence the expression "there's nothing on the radio tonight"? John Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:27   Wireless or radio? - Iffy

...It could have been the receiver, hence the expression "there's nothing on the radio tonight"?... Which reminds me of a poor joke: What's on the telly? A pot plant. (You young 'uns with your flat screens wouldn't understand.) Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 6 Dec 10 15:31   Wireless or radio? - Tooslow

Go on then Iffy let's hear it, the joke. :-) John Reply to this message | Report message