Radio Broadcast (May 1923-Oct 1923)

A Man Who Built A Set He Has Never Seen tern and a good deal of patience. The holes had to be straight in order to make the two parts jibe, and 1 certainly wanted the set to look as though a workman had constructed it, and if it looks the way I have visualized it, it must be O. K. " Finding a sensitive spot on the crystal also proved a tedious proposition. Finally I got it with the aid of a buzzer, which also lets me know whether my tuner is in contact with the coil or not. Funny thing about these crystals. They seem very temperamental and shy. You never know where a sensitive spot might be, and after you get it you never know the reason why. I remember working practically the whole of one evening trying to find a sensitive spot on my crystal and was about to give it up and go to bed when a sudden little jar with my knee found the sensitive spot for me. I had the phones on my ears, and right away got the surprise of my life. 1 was tuned in at 360 meters and the first thing I heard was the name 'Patrick' coming over in code. Patrick is my name, but why it should be the first thing to come through or who sent it I do not know. Anyway, Patrick had found the sensitive spot on the crystal, and Patrick sat up until way long into the night listening to one of the best concerts he had ever heard." Thereupon Mr. O'Keefe went on to tell of his experience with aerials. His first aerial was a wire that he ran out on the pulleys of the family clothes line. This proved rather weak. Then he tried running a wire around the house, and on the roof of the house, but it was dangerous for him to walk around an unguarded roof. Finally, he came to the use of a device which he screws into an electric light socket, the wiring circuit of the house acting as the aerial. This system has given excellent results, and inasmuch as he uses a condenser which is shunted across the secondary, and also a phone condenser, he is able to tune quite sharply. Altogether, his is one of the best arranged home-made crystal sets that the writer has ever seen, neatly constructed and yet as simple as can be. "Painting was the only part of the work I didn't do myself," he said. " 1 wanted the set to look O. K., and while I could gather how it looked by the feel, I could not paint that way — that is, I didn't want to be putting my fingers on the painted surface to guide me in the work, so my boy painted it for me." "What was the total cost of the set?" I asked. THE CRYSTAL SET WHICH MR. O KEEFE MADE BUT HAS NEVER SEEN It is almost inconceivable that a man who is totally blind can build a complete radio set unassisted, including winding the coils, and doing all the wood working. The secondary was wound over a rolling-pin; the legs of the platform are doorstops. Mr. O'Keefe cut the 35" hole in the loose-coupler end-piece with an improvised device employing a safety razor blade "A little less than $5.00," was the reply. " The condenser was the most expensive part of it, but it is worth all it cost as it helps me to tune out a station I don't happen to want. The phones are only a makeshift, but I make them do. The whole outfit gives very good satisfaction, and. of course I get more than an ordinary amount of pleasure out of it on account of having made it myself." The ex-policeman leaned back in his chair and puffed contentedly at a cigar. He was sitting in his "corner," or as his wife terms it, his "workshop." Directly overhead were his police department certificates. On one side of the chair, next to the mantel of the fireplace, stood a little table covered with tools, wire, and other odds and ends, and attached to this table was a swinging board supporting his present set. It is always within reach, and pretty nearly always in use. For wherever broadcasting is taking place in the metropolitan area here is one man quite willing to listen. Next to his chair stood a little stool on which were several magazines for the blind, printed in