Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

Salt-Box Reception in Yoakum, Texas This interesting letter, describing the experiences of one family with a home-made receiving set of the simplest type, needs only the plain statement of facts to show clearly how important a place radio holds among those who live in remote localities all over the country. The Orrs wound their coil on a salt-box and backed the family chariot up near the set when they needed a storage battery for their vacuum tube — and they tuned in Detroit, 1,230 miles to the northeast! There is no telling how far Billie and his mother and father will hear when the "chief electrician" gets one stage of amplification. — THE EDITOR. Yoakum, Texas Dec. 3, 1922. RADIO BROADCAST, Garden City, N. Y. DEAR SIRS: This is a composite letter written by a 13year old boy, acting as chief electrician ; his dad, some fifty years of age, as supervisor and reader of technical papers; and the silent partner, the mother (age not mentioned), enthusiastic listener and giver of hard-saved nickels when needed. 1 mention these details to show how radio can and does grip people of all ages. We live in a small town, and last spring we caught the fever, so after much reading and talking, we built a set, consisting of a variometer and condenser. Alack and alas, nothing doing but a little of the now familiar rat-ta-ta. What was wrong? After much study and thought, it was decided the lack of sufficient inductance was responsible. We made a tapped coil on the old standby — a cardboard salt box — hooked it up, and presto, we had it ! How good that music sounded, and when we heard the announcer say, "Our next selection — Mr. Watkins on the pipe organ, " we felt like throwing our hats in the air. Now, after months of experimenting and learning, we often think of our first thrill on getting this music out of the air. How far do we hear? Bless your heart, we hear all over. We have heard Detroit, 1230 miles, Louisville, 930 miles, Atlanta, 840 miles, Davenport, 960 miles, Denver, 870 miles (our limits so far), and numberless stations between. St. Louis, Kansas City, Fort Worth, and Dallas are as familiar to us as the girl in our local phone exchange. We have also heard other stations, which we do not count, as in fairness to ourselves and friends, no stations are listed unless we hear the call letters, the name of the city, and at least two numbers on the programme. What do we hear on? A tuning coil consisting of a cardboard salt box wound with some discarded No. 22 wire, tapped every ten turns for ten taps and every two turns for ten taps, a variometer in the plate circuit, a .001 condenser variable in the aerial, one tube and accessories. This set has been copied by several friends and it works. The aerial consists of a single wire, about ninety feet long (counting lead-in), strung up between two 2 x 4 x 2o's on the roof, height above ground about forty feet. The aerial and guys consist of discarded telegraph wire, the total cost of the aerial, guy wire and masts being sixty-four cents. The filament current is supplied by our old automobile, which we drive close to the set, which we maintain in the shop where dad makes his living. Part of our success, we believe to be due to the fact that all joints are tightly soldered, all connections made of bare, hard-drawn copper wire No. 14, and all leads to the coil covered with spaghetti. From experience, we can say that loose connections are responsible for half the troubles in a set. Now, Mr. Editor, if this letter is worth printing in your magazine, do so, and as the chief electrician wants to add one stage of amplification to his set, and is running errands, etc., to buy the parts, and you feel disposed to give him a helping hand, he will be grateful to you. We mention this in view of the statement made on page 61 (insert) November RADIO BROADCAST.* Cordially in radio BILLIE ORR, Dad and Ma This refers to the announcement of the "How Far Have You Heard?" Contest, in which it was stated : "We are anxious to learn of experiences in broadcast reception, believing that theur publication may help others to obtain the best results from their outfits. . . . For letters published, a very liberal rate will be paid." This will still hold good, even after the contest itself has ended.