Monday, December 02, 2013

NRI Job Sheets

In 1937, in the waning years of the great depression the National Radio Institute (NRI) began sending out job sheets under the name "Extra Money Jobs And How To Do Them."  They also sent out other very similar job sheets under the name "Radio Servicing Jobs and how to do them."  Both of these "newsletters" were printed on a 8.5 x 11 page, printed landscape on both sides. Many didn't even fill all four half-pages.  They came by mail, folded length-wise, punched with 2 holes and subscribers could bind them into a handy dandy faux-leather binder. Leatherette binders were common in that era. This one had the NRI name melted right into the cover. Sprayberry had a very similar newsletter that they sent out through the mid 1940s. You can download my set of "Extra Money Jobs" below:


The newsletters cover topics as simple as what tools a "radiotrician" might need, and more nuanced technique articles on soldering. Some more specific articles instruction on the servicing of certain radio models. Below is a sampling of  some of the articles. I have no idea how many there were in the series. I did find a catalog listing their entries as 1-37 in 1939. The newsletters are numbered in the lower right hand corner of each front page as "Job Sheet No. X"  They are numbered 1 through 31, a total of 124 pages which I've scanned and uploaded.

  • How Radio Men Service Receivers
  • How To Solder
  • Overhauling Radio Receivers
  • Common Causes for Receiver Failure
  • How Radio Tubes are Tested
  • How Resistors, Coils,  and Condensers Are Tested in the Chassis
  • How Defective Moving Radio Parts are Repaired
  • How Vibrations and Microphonic Noises are Eliminated
  • Interference Which can be Eliminated with a Wave Trap
  • Getting Customers Through Advertising 
  • Restoring Broken and Marred Radio Cabinets
  • Replacing Burned out Pilot Lamps
  • How to Erect an Antenna and Ground System
  • How to Erect an All-Wave Noise-Reducing Antenna
  • Helping  a Customer Select a Radio Receiver


  • Installing Filters for Line Noise Elimination
  • How Much to Charge the Customer
  • Power Ground and Antenna Lead Extensions
  • How Defects in an Antenna System are Detected and Repaired
  • Where to Place the Receiver in the Home
  • When and How to Install Indoor Antennas and Antenna Eliminators
  • Recognizing Receiver Troubles
  • How to Add Automatic Bass Compensation to a Receiver
  • How to Service a Dead Receiver
  • How to Align an All-Wave Superheterodyne
  • Developing a Professional Servicing Technique
  • Uses for Circuit Diagrams and Pictoral Layouts in Servicing
  • Hints for Identifying Stages and Parts
  • How Improperly Operating Receivers are Serviced
  • How to Service a Receiver Which Hums

  • How to Service a Receiver Which is Noisy
  • How to Service a Radio Which Distorts
  • How to Re-Center a Loudspeaker Voice-Coil
  • What to do When a receiver Plays Intermittently
  • How to Align a Tuned R.F. Receiver
  • How to Neutralize a Neutrodyne Receiver
  • How to Align an All-Wave Superhetrodyne
  • Service Hints for Universal Receivers
  • How to Get Practical Service Experience at Home
  • Planning Your Service Bench and Shop
  • How to Add an Electron Tube Tuning Indicator
  • Replacing the Antenna in a Better Location
  • How to Install a Master All-Wave Antenna for as Many as 25 Receivers

2 comments:

  1. Nothing like a tasty little dish of ephemera to get you going for the day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That took weeks.. I need a better scanner.

    ReplyDelete