Radio age (Jan 1927-Jan 1928)

RADIO AGE for JulyAugust, 1927 OAJ3U, an Australian amateur who came over to see where his messages were received. His name is Hull, but no "ham" cares anything about names after call letters are assigned attending one arrayed in comedy straw hats about as big as a silver dollar. This claims to be the oldest active amateur radio organization, and was started about the time some of the present members were thinking of being born. Relaying of radio messages was the reason for the existence of the American Radio Relay League, President Maxim says. Fifteen years ago an amateur was thrilled if his signals were heard across the street. A member of the Hartford Radio Club succeeded eventually in transmitting a message to Windsor Lock, twelve miles north. About that time it was learned that there were radio amateurs in Springfield, 25 miles north. Mr. Maxim conceived the daring idea of relaying messages through Windsor Locks to Springfield. The plan succeeded and the League was born. That was only thirteen years ago, and the other day a member of the League, sixteen years old, told me of this incident : "I work in a radio store. I put up a sign inviting customers to give me messages to send free of charge anywhere in the world. I advertised in the papers too. A lady came in and said she had a friend who had been a missionary in China and had just escaped and gone over to the Philippines. She wanted to know if I could send a message that far and find out if her friend was all right. I sent her message to a ham in California and he relayed it to one in the Philippines. It took ten days to get the answer back, but we found out the missionary was all right." This youth showed no signs of boastfulness. The performance was unusual for him only because of the service renderd to the missionary and her anxious friend in America. He exchanges messages with Australian amateurs without the help of a relay station, covering a distance of over station, covering a distance of over 7,000 miles, with less power than flows through the lamp that illuminates this page as you read. Amateurs cover these enormous distances by using short waves, around 20, 40 and 80 meters. For some reason that is not yet fully understood, these waves travel further with less power behind them than those commonly used in broadcasting and commercial and government services. They work as well or better The Providence Radio Association, which announces itself as the oldest active amateur radio organization, has a youthful appearance in daylight and are not troubled seriously by static. They may be inaudible anywhere within 500 miles of the transmitter but loud and clear 5,000 miles away. The theory is that they are propagated upward, strike ionized strata in the upper atmosphere, and are reflected back to earth. Like shells fired at a high angle, they strike nothing between the points from which they are fired and the point where they return to the ground. Experimentation with short waves is one of the most fascinating pastimes in radio. Twenty watts input is all the average amateur uses, so short wave work does not run up the electric bill seriously. OAJ3U may look to you like an unintelligible jumble of letters, but read it to a "ham" and he will say right off the bat : "Melbourne, Australia." This "Aussie" is celebrated throughout hamdom because his signals come through frequently, steadily and readily. When he landed in America a few months ago the radio amateurs were so glad to see him that they forgot to argue with him about who won the war.