Links to Boonton Equipment Manuals, Catalogs, and “The Notebook” are below …

Formed in 1934, the Boonton Radio Corporation (BRC) became a successful designer and manufacture of precision electronics test instrumentation. Their first product was a Q-meter, and is well described in the first issue of BRC’s “The Notebook“, and the Q-Meter applications continue in issues 4, 8, 13 and 25. This quarterly publication was modeled after General Radio’s “The Experimenter”, and perhaps also influenced by HP’s Journal (which started in 1949). From the spring of 1954, until the last issue in 1965, all 37 issues provide interesting reading for electrical engineers. In 1959 HP bought the BRC, and there is a write up of the merger (from BRC’s perspective) in their 25th anniversary edition, (issue number 23). The HP logo first appeared on Issue 33, and the last issue published was number 37. Many Boonton products lived on as HP models, such as the 202J, 202H, 207H, 240A, and 3200.

A brief introduction to the Boonton Radio Corporation was written by Frank G. Marble (sales manager for BRC), and appears in the first issue of The Notebook. The town of Boonton New Jerseyproduced several notable electronics companies, and we have some other “Boonton” information stored here.

Special thanks go out to James A. (Andy) Moorer for scanning these “Notebooks” as well as several of the Boonton Manuals. Also, thank to Henry Hall who donated his collection of Notebooks to HPArchive… Henry’s name is on the back page of Issue 34, as runner-up in that month’s Q-Meter contest (shown at the 1963 IRE show)!

And if you like reading “The Notebook” and “HP Journal”, then you might like Benjamin Sheena’s collection of the “General Radio Experimenter“, which spans all issues from the 1920’s through the 1970’s !


 Boonton Radio Corporation’s “The Notebook”…

Issue #Notes
INDEXIndex for issues 1 through 36
ALL IssuesThis single PDF file contains all 37 issues
Issue 1 
Issue 2 
Issue 3 
Issue 4 
Issue 5 
Issue 6 
Issue 7 
Issue 8 
Issue 9 
Issue 10 
Issue 11 
Issue 12 
Issue 13 
Issue 14 
Issue 15 
Issue 16 
Issue 17 
Issue 18 
Issue 19 
Issue 20 
Issue 21 
Issue 22 
Issue 2325th Anniversary Edition, and acquisition by Hewlett-Packard
Issue 24 
Issue 25 
Issue 26 
Issue 27 
Issue 28 
Issue 29 
Issue 30 
Issue 31BRC model 202J continued to be sold as HP 202J
Issue 32 
Issue 33HP logos now appear in title blocks
Issue 34BRC models 207H and 202H continued to be sold as HP 207H and 202H
Issue 35 
Issue 36 
Issue 37Last issue. BRC model 3200 VHF oscillator continued to be sold as HP 3200

 Boonton Radio Corporation’s Manuals and Other Literature…

LinkTitle and Key Words
Cat J-1Catalog J-1 (In color)
25th AnvBRC’s 25th anniversary short form catalog (1959-1960)
1963-4 CatCatalog 1963-64
160A-260ATest and Alignment Procedures for Models 160A and 260A Q-Meters
260AOperating Instructions, Q-Meter Model 260A (0.050-50 MHz)
190AOperating Instructions, Q-Meter Model 190A (20-260 MHz)