Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

458 Radio Broadcast authorities, that a temporary peace and agreement were made possible. It seems to us that here a most critical situation has been reached. We believe that the activities of such a society as the one projecting itself into this situation may result in very serious harm to radio. It is natural that the policy of such a body should demand what they regard as a legitimate division of the time to be determined largely by the society's members. With the interests of no particular station at heart, but with the primary idea of furthering the progress of radio, we should regret exceedingly and condemn vehemently any allocation of hours based upon the investment and advertizing desires of the various companies operating these stations. This is settling the question in the interest of the companies rather than in the interest of the radio public. : It is of no concern to us how much money has been invested by any company in their station, nor how much the company expects to increase their sales from the advertising value of their programmes. Broadcasting from the station should not be allowed unless the station is operated in the most excellent manner possible. By the best manner possible we mean that not only should the technical action of the station be as good as the present state of the art will permit, but also that the character of the programme sent out shall be the equal of that offered by other stations. It would be sheer nonsense to stop the operation of WJZ for one minute, so that some dry goods store might send out a scratchy fox-trot phonograph record which is mixed up with a loud commutator hum and " blocking" or over-modulation of tubes. The time has gone by when the public should have to listen to such stuff, because there are stations which have been properly designed and to which it is a pleasure to listen. We think that just as the Department of Commerce refuses to license a ship or shore station operating with spark telegraphy, unless the technical characteristics of the apparatus pass certain requirements, so broadcasting licenses should be refused unless the radio inspector is convinced that the messages will be transmitted with the best possible articulation and constancy of frequency. As soon as the quality of transmission deteriorates to such an extent that people say of radio "it isn't as good as a phonograph" — which could have been truthfully said on several recent occasions — the license to operate should be revoked. In the meantime we wish to asseverate, as strongly as possible, that the proper allocation of broadcasting hours must be settled entirely in the interest of the listening public; the selfish interests of grocery and department stores should not count one iota. If, in the interests of the listeners, it is advisable to let WJZ operate all the time, to the complete exclusion of all others, then let it be settled that way. The only criterion which must serve to guide in the allocation of hours is excellence of programme excellently produced. REGENERATIVE RECEIVERS MUST BE CONTROLLED AS ONE listens nowadays for the L evening concert he is continually bothered by whistling noises coming from his receiver, generally, it seems, at a critical point in the programme. Just as the singer endeavors to show the radio audience how well her voice can execute a pianissimo passage, a series of peeps (of which fortunately, she is not aware), spoils the whole effect. These whistling interruptions are due to some regenerative receiving circuit in the neighborhood of the listener, radiating from its antenna continuous-wave power which, combined with the power sent out from the broadcast station, produces a disagreeable beat note in other receiving sets in the vicinity. When a regenerative set is made to oscillate it really becomes a miniature continuous-wave transmitting station, sending out perhaps one hundredth of a watt of power. It might seem that such a small amount of power could do no harm but it is to be remembered that the amount of power picked up by an antenna from the distant broadcasting station is only a very small fraction of this. In fact, if the oscillating receiving set is within a mile or so of the listening station being disturbed, the amount of power received from the broadcasting station may be onl>' a small fraction of the amount received from the interfering oscillating receiver. As more receiving sets are installed, the nuisance from this source continualI\' increases at a much faster rate than does the number of receiving stations. This trouble must be controlled and stopped in some way, either b\' the good sense of the operators or by requiring that