HRTI-Hollywood Radio and Television Institute

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? HRTI-Hollywood Radio and Television Institute 
14.Mar.09 07:02
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Joe Sousa (USA)
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Joe Sousa

I have a Radio correspondence course from the late 1940's. It was published by HRTI--Hollywood Radio and Television Institute.

The course publisher was in Hollywood California USA, but this .ourse in the Portuguese. The course newsletter was in Spanish, so I presume that there was a Spanish language version of the course.

At one point I had the radio that was constructed in the course. It was a rudimentary superhet radio that required no alignment. There was no RF tuning and the IF is 12.5MHz. All signal selection was done by the regenerative detector running at 12.5MHz I imagine that selectivity was poor at this high frequency. Coverage was from 550kHz to 12MHz. Band selection was done with a variable capacitor at the local oscillator, and tuning was done with a bandspread circuit in the local oscillator tank.

This circuit is very crude, and designed to avoid alignment. The content of the lessons is pretty good, with a broad topic coverage of radio operation and repair.

The following scan is the cover to the final experimental lesson 10L, covering construction of the radio.There is a CRT on the cover, but this particular version of the course did not include TV.

The previous experimental lessons had mostly temporary learning circuits.

The constructed radio would look like this photo that was scaned from the lesson:

The following schematic shows the simplicity of the radio. Strangelly, there were no pentodes in this radio. The aparently high tube count make use of the tubes used during the course.

 

Should anyone be interested, I have scans for the rest of this lesson, and I can correspond in English or Portuguese.

My question is: Has anyone else ever come across this radio or course?

Best regards,

-Joe Sousa

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Hollywood Radio and Television Institute 
14.Mar.09 08:20

Thomas Albrecht (USA)
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Thomas Albrecht

Hi Joe,

I have another booklet from HRTI -- "Pinciples of Television" Lesson 1:

No experiments or construction articles in this one, however.  Just a basic description of how TV works along with some history of the development of TV (the RCA version of that history).

Best regards,

Tom

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? HRTI 
14.Mar.09 19:48

Joe Sousa (USA)
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Joe Sousa

Ah, so there was an English language version.

A couple of years ago, I spent several months reading through a few hundred issues of the US magazine "Radio News" which became "Radio and TV News" and lastly "Electronics world. These issues spanned over 30years from the 1930's to the 1960's. The magazine was originally oriented to the radio repair technician and hobbyist, and was always full of correspondence course radios. Some full page some just a couple inches in the classified section. Yet I never saw HRTI mentioned once.

About 10 years ago, I placed a classified advertisement with the picture of the radio, and a short text, in "Antique Radio Classified" magazine. The magazine is published in Carlisle Massachusetts USA. I got one response from Canada, and in that case, the respondent cited involvement with the course in the 1960's.

The course material that I still own includes nearly all the lessons in a 6" (15cm) tall pile. I inherited it from my father. He took the course in his late teen years in the late 1940's, but decided that was not going to be his career. He became an Aeronautical Engineer after a bachelor's program at the Northrop Aeronautical Institute in Englewood California, USA.

Originaly, I was given the radio and course in my teens. It marked my involvement with tubes in the early 1970's, along with Van Valkenburg-Nooger-Neville "Basic Electricity", "Basic Electronics" "Basic Servo-mechanisms" and "Basic TV" series that they developed for the US Military (the Navy, I think). My version of this series was translated in Portuguese.

When I got the radio, it came without the speaker, and it did not work, anyway. So I used the parts of the radio to do some of the experiments outlined in the course. The only bit of hardware I kept was the 15mA meter that came with the course.

When I emigrated from Lisbon, Portugal, to the USA in 1976, I left all the course components with a friend, who still keeps them as a memento.

All these many years, I have been mystified by the rarity of the course, even though it lasted some decades.

Was your HRTI booklet the only material you have? How did you find it?

Regards,

-Joe

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HRTI 
14.Mar.09 20:54

Thomas Albrecht (USA)
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Thomas Albrecht

Hi Joe,

The booklet I show above is the only one I have.  I believe I obtained it along with some other books at a radio swapmeet of the California Historical Radio Society a year or two ago.

Tom

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More USA correspondence curses 
17.Mar.09 21:07

Mario Coelho (P)
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Mario Coelho

Dear Joe Sousa

Thank you for your article.

Some time ago I've sent an article  about USA correspondence curses. http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/usa_radio_schools.html

There is also in Rmorg a HRTI's page and the HRTI's radio kit in it. http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/hollywood_radio_kit.html

I own one TV HRTI curse (in Spanish) and a 21"TV kit,  shematics included. 

As before I keep wondering about any information about the other USA correspondence curses refered in my prior forum.

 Best Regards

Mario

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? HRTI TV? 
18.Mar.09 04:15

Joe Sousa (USA)
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Joe Sousa

Dear Mario Coelho,

Thanks for adding information and context to this topic.

Continuing what Mario started, I just finished uploading the entire Experiment 20 page lesson 10L, with full construction and operation details. The photos in the lesson were uploaded to the photo section instead of the schematic section.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/hollywood_radio_kit.html

It would be very interesting to see a scan of the TV schematic, and of any TV photos that may be in the course lesson. Perhaps you could add a TV model type under HRTI.

TV broadcast started in Portugal in 1957. Did you find this Spanish language TV course in Portugal?

Is there an indication about the date of the course?

Best Regards/Cumprimentos,

-Joe

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TV kit 
18.Mar.09 19:39

Mario Coelho (P)
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Mario Coelho

Dear Joe Sousa

I noticed that you have add important  information to the page. Can you add the tubes numbers too? 

I send you now one photo of my HRTI TV kit.

I intend to create (propose) today  a new page for it.

Then after I'll upload photos and schematics, as usual.

Answering to you question: This lessons and kit were received here in Lisbon, coming from HRTI, between 1959 and1960.

By the way, do you know anything about the other USA curses by correspondence?

regards

Mario

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californian correspondence course  
18.Mar.09 23:49

Maitiu Standun (IRL)
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Maitiu Standun

hello mario, some time ago you contacted the forum re this subject , i sent a request to bart lee of chrs in berkely, he said he would enquire through the history dept of that organisation, as far as i know he did reply to rmorg re the subject, you also mentioned a street address of the school in san francisco?as far as i remember , you could contact the californian history radio society yourself or the americn gent whoes enquiring now could . best regards , maitiu standun .

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Got no confirmation yet 
19.Mar.09 01:13

Mario Coelho (P)
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Mario Coelho

Hello Maitiu

Thank you for remember that.

Unfortunately as you can see in this  forum, at time I haven't got  an answer for that question: National Schools versus  National Technical Schools are or are not the same Institute. http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/usa_radio_schools.html 

Bart or one of his fellow colleagues couldn't give me an answer. 

At 2007-Nov 21th Bart sent me his last e-mail :

Hi Mario,
 
 I have not been able to find the materials I was looking for.  I will see if the museum library has something relevant.
 
Nothing more after this e-mail.

I feel that there is a lack of information yet about  USA Schools by correspondence.

Regards

Mario

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 10
NRI vs. NS vs. NTS 
23.Mar.09 03:21

Joe Sousa (USA)
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Joe Sousa

I just made a quick survey of several decades of Radio News magazine from 1931 to 1971 to look for radio correspondence course schools with "National" as part of the name.  I only looked at one magazine per decade, and in each magazine, I only looked at the advertiser's index under "N", then I looked at the advertisement for more detail. I did not look in the classified section, where smaller schools may have advertised. The results are as follows:

NRI - National Radio Institute: It was founded by J E Smith around 1914. The address in the adds for 1931, 1946, 1955, 1964, 1971 was always listed in Washington, DC. (The capital of the US, not the state of Washington on the east coast) Judging from the size of the ads, it became the most successful of all the companies, with the ads ocupying up to 4 pages.

NS - National Schools: The first indexed ad I spotted was in the 1946, and it claimed to have been established in 1905. The address was 4000 South Figeiroa Street, Los Angeles 37, State of California USA. The 1955 issue shows two addresses for NS, the orignal one in LA, plus an additional one  in Chicado, Sate of  Illinois. There were no indexed ads for NS in the 1964 issue.

NTS - National Technical Schools: This shool came up in the advertisers index of the 1971 issue, with an impressive 2 page ad for color TV course. Now the connection to NS: the address listed for NTS is exactly the same as for NS above, at 4000 South Figeiroa Street in Los Angeles.

I hope this clears up the confusion. Apparently, NS changed names to NTS, perhaps because it was bought and sold.

Regards,

-Joe

p.s.: "Radio News" magazine also changed name at least twice during these decades, to "Radio and TV News" and lastly to "Electronics World".

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? Two Schools in one 
25.Mar.09 23:17

Mario Coelho (P)
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Mario Coelho

 

Hello Joe

Thank you for your research. It helps too much to understand and clarify my doubts.

Now we may say that in 1905 we have National Schools. Later, between 1964 and 1971, it have changed its name to National Technical Schools .

Also NS have had two addresses in 1955.

I think this is a good information to suggest an add in Rmorg  in  NTS's page. Would you do it?

The original name was National Schools and after it had changing to National Technical Schools.

PS: One can see this same procedure in Radio Escola- Lisboa  founded in 1947 which had changed  in 1968 to CEC- Centro de ensino por correspondência.

Cumprimentos

Mario

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question? 
10.Apr.09 14:07

Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014 (D)
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Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014

Dear Mario,

sorry, but Your last thread is an info, not a question. Please use the categories carefully. Thanks.
 

Happy Easter!

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Happy Ester to You 
10.Apr.09 15:02

Mario Coelho (P)
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Mario Coelho

Dear Konrad

Sorry but I've one question in the 4th paragraph. That's why.

Now I finish my messages with an information. I hope it is OK to You.

Happy Ester too!

Mario

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National (Technical) Schools 
11.Apr.09 08:28

Joe Sousa (USA)
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Joe Sousa

Dear Mario,

Sorry for the delay in this response. It got you in a bit of trouble. I did not realize that questions would keep popping up in the forum, so they can become a nuisance if not answered.

I was thinking of conducting some finer research, but what I had found out is already a significant improvement, as it establishes the correct decades for the name changes of the school. Looking though more magazines would have gotten a slightly more precise date for the name change, but would not give an exact date, anyway.

I have now submitted a history update and corrections to the National Technical Schools.

Best regards/Cumprimentos,

-Joe/Zé

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Not to late 
16.Apr.09 21:15

Mario Coelho (P)
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Mario Coelho

Dear Joe,

 Thank you for your reply. I already noticed the National (Technical) Schools Page changemment that you have suggest.

Thank you for your help.

Tomorrow I'll go abroad for 20 days. Don't find strange my silence for these days.

Abraço

Mario

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Why HRTI was/is better known outside the USA 
24.Jun.09 20:28

Ernst Erb (CH)
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Ernst Erb

A guest has sent me a nice contact form and liked my answer so that he sent us this one:

Dear Ernst
I thank you very much for taking time to write. I will consider membership.

In the meantime; about the questions raised by Joe Sousa and by other members I can say that HRTI was better known outside the U.S.A, in the countries of Southern America, Europe, Africa and Asia. I was a student in the mid-fifties. For good reason they used to advertise in the non-Radio/TV magazines of the time, such as Popular Mechanics and Popular Science. Attached are two pages as example. This may partly explain the mystery and rarity of the name.

Regards,
Bagh



Including those two pictures - thank you again, dear Bagh.

 

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