Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

256 Radio Broadcast a state of preparedness, even though we should have learned a lesson about preparedness from our Mexican Border experience when the supplies for the National Guard were so insufficient as to hold up the movement of our troops in nearly every state of the Union for long periods. Even at the end of the Border Expedition, we could hardly claim to be prepared for any great emergency. But we went into the war with Germany unprepared, and the result of our unpreparedness is reflected in our having resorted to the floating of five loans, amounting to many billions of dollars, for the production of military supplies, to say nothing of food and ships. Unfortunately the ships, at least a very considerable part of them, were built at too great a cost and in a manner which would prevent them from being kept in service for any considerable period, and to-day the waste resulting from our unpreparedness may be indicated by the fleets of war time ships which have been lashed together and placed in harbors from which they will never again sail. They are a total loss, except for the purpose they served, which, though it was important was also extremely costly and would not have been necessary if we had been prepared. And then there was the matter of training many thousands of men to take up various forms of military duty, and it is here that we may pause a moment and consider again how amateurs were able to help the Government. In any form of military training a certain amount of time must be spent in learning the ways of the armyand the navyand the air forces in war time. There were but very few of our military units which could be filled by ordinary citizens and there were but few of our citizens capable of stepping into the stride of military affairs by reason of their experience in civilian life. In some instances, especially the professional branches of the service, which were capable of carrying on their work with little or no military training, we see just the opposite, for instance the Medical Corps, composed as it was of doctors and druggists and nurses, who did not have to be put through a long course of training before they were^o^a position to do good work. And this is e:xactly the case with radio. Radio, in the war, was as necessary to our winning it as were our battleships, our troop ships, our guns or our men, for the reason that without its aid our army and navy would not have been able to keep such accurate check on the workings of the enemy, and would not have been able to have military or naval maneuvers regulated with the precision which was found to be so necessary. But that is a long story, and we will not discuss it more. The point in mind is this; when the war broke out there were nearly 5,000 amateur radio operators in this country, who with little or no instruction were capable of entering upon a military career which was of great value and importance to the nation. Those fellows who had learned to send and receive rapidly, to build their own apparatus, to take reasonably good care of storage batteries, and especially those who had done any work with the latest forms of apparatus could step right into the breach and prove their worth by doing in a very short time what it would have taken them months to learn if they had not been allowed to carry on their pet hobby in times of peace. There are instances without number which would go to prove these statements, but as interesting as they are, we can not consider everything at the same time, and they may furnish the fruit for interesting discussion later on. But we must say in passing that such instances as have been mentioned have gone far to establish a place in Uncle Sam's heart for the amateur radio fan and have helped to bring about some of these very encouraging conditions. It is needless to mention that Uncle Sam has endorsed the activities of the Boy Scouts in this country and that he wants to do everything in his power to assist them. One of the greatest subjects in the Scout's course of study is signalling, and we must pause for a moment to consider it and how much Uncle Sam thinks of it — more, perhaps, than any other branch of Scout work. And there are many boys throughout the countr)' who do not know how far our good uncle is going in his effort to help them to help themselves and help him, if he again needs their help, in this matter of signalling. A FEW OF THE MORE IMPORTANT AIDS FOR many years the U. S. Naval Radio Station at Arlington has sent out time signals and weather reports for the guidance of mariners, and this is also true of many of the other naval and other government stations throughout this country and its dominions. The value of these signals is very great, as it is through them that it is possible to keep ships' chronometers — which in plain American,