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 |
| INDEX | Index for issues 1 through 36 |
| ALL Issues | This 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 23 | 25th Anniversary Edition, and acquisition by Hewlett-Packard |
| Issue 24 | |
| Issue 25 | |
| Issue 26 | |
| Issue 27 | |
| Issue 28 | |
| Issue 29 | |
| Issue 30 | |
| Issue 31 | BRC model 202J continued to be sold as HP 202J |
| Issue 32 | |
| Issue 33 | HP logos now appear in title blocks |
| Issue 34 | BRC models 207H and 202H continued to be sold as HP 207H and 202H |
| Issue 35 | |
| Issue 36 | |
| Issue 37 | Last issue. BRC model 3200 VHF oscillator continued to be sold as HP 3200 |
Boonton Radio Corporation’s Manuals and Other Literature…
| Link | Title and Key Words |
| Cat J-1 | Catalog J-1 (In color) |
| 25th Anv | BRC’s 25th anniversary short form catalog (1959-1960) |
| 1963-4 Cat | Catalog 1963-64 |
| 160A-260A | Test and Alignment Procedures for Models 160A and 260A Q-Meters |
| 260A | Operating Instructions, Q-Meter Model 260A (0.050-50 MHz) |
| 190A | Operating Instructions, Q-Meter Model 190A (20-260 MHz) |