Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

496 Radio Broadcast constructed, and the antenna circuit direct coupled and retuned. Communication was then established with a vessel which relayed our message to Havana, but soon the motor generator burned out beyond repair. To rig a transmitter again we had to change the power transformer from closed-core to opencore type, and to construct an electrolytic interrupter. Having no gasoline for a blow-torch, we had great difficulty in shaping in the galley fire, heavy gauge glasses for the interrupter, while the ship was rolling heavily, but we managed to get it working well enough to reestablish communication. Before assistance reached us we were out of glass tubes for the interrupter and had to close down until we rigged up one of the ship's large alarm buzzers for a transmitter. This worked well up to a distance of seventeen miles, daylight, and communication was handled by relay. Two days later we were picked up and towed into port." Choose a school that is fully equipped with modern apparatus covering all that you are likely to encounter at sea. This should comprise a complete arc transmitter, quenched spark panel transmitter, tube transmitter, storage batteries, generators, and a goodly number of receiving sets, both of the crystal and vacuum tube varieties. Above all, the school should offer unlimited opportunity to the student to dig down into the heart of the apparatus and see what makes it work and why. A complete station should be in constant operation, with advanced students as operators. CORRESPONDENCE COURSES XT O CORRESPON DENCE course in radio is IN of the highest practical value in itself. You can learn theory from it, but if, after completing the course in a way satisfactory to the school, you were to be confronted with various parts of a standard installation, it is doubtful if you could distinguish between them. If, however, you have access to a radio factory, or can visit a radio station ashore or aboard ship frequently, enlisting the services of the operator to explain the apparatus to you, in connection with your correspondence course, you should gain a good foundation upon which to build a practical radio education. I do not wish to discourage aspirants to the radio operating field, but merely wish to point out that all is not music that makes a loud noise. We don't want to see the radio field filled ON THE LARGER LINERS BELL BOYS DELIVER THE MESSAGES For the radio man, and a steward caters to his every need — on some freight ships the radio man delivers the messages himself and has to scrap with the oilers for a place at the mess table where he receives cold "slum gullion" and other similar delicacies of the sea-going variety up in a year or so with a group of disillusioned young people, who blithesomely followed their courses, with fond hopes of taking the radio world by storm, only to find that there were many others ahead of them. The writer has recently completed a three months' investigation of radio opportunities, and knows that they exist for the trained man. He has also visited many radio schools, taught in a number, and been closely allied with such institutions for some years past. Therefore, he knows whereof he speaks. The facts are here. If you have the determination and the stuff in you to follow it up, the radio field will welcome you. If you are fired with the idea of being a radio operator in four months, traveling the world over at $125 a month and expenses, to start with, sheer off. It's a man's game, and as such takes a solid foundation. Don't be fooled by glaring promises of highsalaried, big-titled jobs at the end of a few months' training. In radio, as in any line, you must earn your place. There is just as big a position for you in the radio field as anywhere — perhaps bigger — if you'll work for it and earn it.