VK2DYM'S MILITARY RADIO AND RADAR INFORMATION SITE.

HOME

THE RADIOTRON DESIGNER'S HANDBOOK
edited by Fritz Langford-Smith.

The RADIOTRON DESIGNERS HANDBOOK was conceived and published by the Australian Wireless Valve Company or AWV, as a guide for radio engineers working with new valve amplifiers and receiver designs. AWV was the valve manufacturing subsidiary of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) or AWA. Over the years the Handbook was expanded to include many facts and figures and data relevant to radio design and became almost the "Bible" for the industry. The first author was Fritz Langford-Smith who worked in the technical laboratories of AWA.

The first edition was a small soft cover booklet of 40 pages published in 1934 and costing 1/-. It was printed for AWV by Wireless Press, the AWA printing house. In 1935 a new edition was printed with 58 pages. The next edition in 1940 consisted of 352 pages and became a worldwide best seller, with over 280,000 copies and reprinted over numerous impressions up to at least 1943, with one impression even translated into Polish. The first impression of the 3rd edition had a soft cover but some later print runs had a hard cover. I know of at least 8 Australian impressions. The 4th edition was produced in 1952 and was reprinted in USA for RCA with the RCA logo on the hard cover, as well as other translations into Japanese and Spanish. It was printed for the UK market by Iliffe Publishing (who published Wireless World). The 4th edition grew to around 1500 pages and no-one knows how many were printed across the world but it is estimated to be around 500,000. There were at least 6 impressions up to 1963. My RCA copy (January, 1960) cost US$7.00.

AWV also printed a 24 page "4th Edition, Addenda, 1953" to the 1st impression, and the information was incorporated in the revised 2nd impression. There was then a 28 page "4th Edition, Enlarged Supplement, 1954" with addenda and corrections to the 3rd impression. There may have been further addenda and correction booklets for later impressions but I have not found any records.

EDITION DATE PAGES NUMBER NOTES
1ST 1934 40    
2ND 1935 58    
3RD 1940 352 10,000 (soft cover) over 280,000 including Polish
3RD, 2nd Impression 1940   2,000  
3RD, 3rd Impression 1941   3,000  
3RD, 4th Impression 1941   4,000  
3RD, 5th Impression 1941   6,000  
3RD, 6th Impression 1942   5,000  
3RD, 7th Impression 1942   2,000  
3RD, 8th Impression 1942   5,000 (hard cover)
4TH 1952

1500?

  RCA, UK, Japan and Venuzeula
4TH, 2nd impression 1953      
4TH, 3rd impression 1954      
4TH, 4th impression 1955      
4TH, 5th impression 1957      
4TH, 6th impression 1963      

A further number was reproduced in USA for RCA in 1960 with a hard cover.

The 6th edition of the Radiotron Designers Handbook has been reprinted by the publishers of Radio Bygones and may still be available from http://www.radiobygones.com 

Please note, this article is copyrighted.

HOME