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Widget Of The Week
My Power 25-Watt Megaphone, 1970
 Sooner or later it will come in handy. At least
that’s what I tell myself (and the missus) because quite frankly its difficult
to justify owning a megaphone, let alone two of them, but mark my words, one day…
To be fair megaphones, also known as loud hailers and bullhorns, do have their
uses. The plus points include being a powerful crowd controlling tool at
impromptu and low-rent (PA-less) public events and gatherings. They’re also
useful for persuading bank robbers to come out with their hands up, and
persuade twitchy roof-jumpers not to do it. I can also vouch for their efficacy
for making trespassing cats to vacate your property. On the minus side they’re
a very quick way of annoying next-door neighbours, and they cost a bomb to run,
draining a set of eight ‘C’ cells in just a few minutes; at least that’s one of
the major drawbacks of this My Power 25-watt megaphone, especially when playing
with the built-in siren.
 This model, which superficially looks a lot
like the Eagle International Loudhailer, has a maximum output of 25 watts. It
may not sound much, but the horn is designed to concentrate and direct the
sound and according to some specs I found for a similar model, it can be heard
up to a kilometre away. You’ll believe it if you are ever daft enough to stand
directly in front of it… The similarities to the Eagle and many other loud
hailers are mostly due to the fact that over the years megaphones have evolved
into this familiar form, with the horn speaker at the front, a microphone at
the back, and a handle with a trigger switch at the balance point, under the
middle section, which houses the amplifier and batteries. On this model, and
many others, the microphone is detachable, so the megaphone can be conveniently
worn on the hip, slung from its shoulder strap. The mike also houses a second
microphone capsule. This is wired to in anti-phase (back to front) to the main
microphone, presumably as a feedback reduction measure. Whilst we’re with the
microphone, it also has a rotary level control, which turns out to be the
primary weapon against howl-round. The best feature, however, is the siren.
It’s a real old-school US police siren, none of your trendy two-tones or
whoop-whoop jobbies, it’s a proper rising and falling howl, guaranteed to get
your audience’s attention.
 Opening the battery cover reveals a pair of
hefty power transistors. These are mounted on a removable module that contains
the amplifier PCB and the contacts for the batteries. There are 8 transistors
in a simple push-pull configuration and the fact that most of them are
germanium types puts the probable date of manufacture somewhere between the mid
sixties and late seventies. Build quality is good; it’s designed to withstand
the knocks and drops of portable use in the great outdoors so a lot of
attention has been paid to keeping out moisture. It is very easy to use;
there’s no need to consult the manual, not that this one came with any, though
it might have come in handy when I first tried to power it up.
 I find it wise to assume that stallholders at
car boot sales almost always tell porky-pies when it comes to the condition of
their wares. I wasn’t surprised, therefore, when the nice old lady who I bought
this one from for £3.00, solemnly promised that it was in good working order
when she left the house that morning, in spite of one of the battery contact
springs being clearly missing... In my experience stallholders peddling
battery-powered devices that actually work will put in a set of batteries, to
prove the point.
Obviously it didn’t it work and there was no
way it could have done so for at least a decade, thanks to my old enemy, a
leaky battery. It hadn’t been too serious, though and a few drops of acidic
goop had eaten away a
rivet holding the spring in place. The leaky
battery must have been removed fairly quickly after it had been discovered so
the damage was limited. There had clearly been no attempt to use it for some
years and the contact pins on the bespoke 2-pin external power connector were
coated with a thin film of rust. That was confirmed by several generations of
dead spiders inside the unit (what do they eat?). After a general clearout I
hooked it up to a bench power supply and it gradually came back to life as the
electrolytic caps re-formed (another sure sigh it had been dormant for years).
The amp perked up quite quickly but the siren took a while to get going before
it managed a continuous howl. I was able to make up a new contact spring from
one salvaged from an old torch. It took a while to sort out the battery power,
though due to some light corrosion on the other contact rivets and pads but now
it’s fully functional, very loud and ready to go.
What Happened To It?
The My Power brand, just about visible on a
faded sticker on the side of the main unit, is unknown to me or -- it seems --
the Internet. I am inclined to think that it came from the same factory making
Eagle branded products and I have seen several near identical models, but with
different names and logos suggesting it has been widely badge-engineered. This
isn’t a surprise and it is likely that there are now, and has only ever been a
handful of companies making what is a fairly specialised product with a very
limited market.
Over the years megaphones haven’t changed very
much and modern ones are not that different to this one, though for a given
size they tend to pack in more powerful amplifiers and extra features, like a
recording facility. Price wise they cost about the same nowadays, relatively
speaking, as they did 50 years ago. That is reflected in the current value of
vintage models, which is next to nothing to maybe £20 to £30 for one in good
shape that still works. Real old-timers, from the 40s or 50s do have some
value, though, but they appear to be few and far between on auction sites like
ebay. There does seem to be a small collectors market in the US, though but the
big money is reserved for unpowered – i.e. shout-through – megaphones adorned
with advertising slogans, sports team logos, TV and movie characters and so on.
If you want to become a collector the good news is you won’t find too much in
the way of competition, but you’ll be doing it for the love of the technology,
rather then a way to make money. Nevertheless, never pass up the chance to own
one – especially if it is selling for less than a fiver. A megaphone is one of
those things that you think you’ll never need, until the day you do, then
you’ll wonder how you ever got by without one.
First Seen: 1970?
Original Price: £30?
Value Today: £10.00 (1018)
Features 25 watts
output, 8-transistor amplifier, built-in siren, detachable feedback cancelling
microphone, 2 x PTT switches (pistol grip & microphone), mic volume,
external power socket, carry strap
Power req. 8 x 1.5-volt C cells
Dimensions:
370 x 225 x 300mm
Weight: 1.9kg
Made (assembled) in: Japan
Hen's Teeth (10 rarest) 7
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