Radio Broadcast (Nov 1923-Apr 1924)

What Radio Means to Me By W. FRANCIS GOODREAU And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares that infest the day, Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, And as silently steal away. Longfellow. SOMEHOW, whenever I think of radio I also think of these lines by Longfellow; they express so well something of what radio means to me. After having spent almost three years in a hospital, I know what a boon radio has proved to me and others in hospitals. I entered the hospital in November, 1920. At that time radio was very little used for entertainment purposes. To take up my time and pass the weary hours away, I tried many things such as basket-making and reading, but nothing seemed to satisfy me for any length of time. Something else was needed to make my stay in the hospital more pleasant, something that would grow more interesting day by day. I was wondering what to do next, when I was told that we were to have a radio concert. As I had never heard music by radio, I was naturally impatient for the concert to start. It was given through the kindness of Troop 5, Providence Boy Scouts. They used a set with a two-stage audio amplifier and loud speaker. The concert was given in a large ward, but the music could be heard plainly in every corner. The concert lasted only about one hour, but I received more enjoyment in this one hour than I had ever had in any one hour in the hospital. Thus I received my introduction to radio. From that day I have been, and always will be, a radio " bug." I decided I would have a radio set, but was a little puzzled how to get one. I had almost decided to purchase an outfit when I was told by a friend that it was easy to make a simple crystal receiver. That suggestion appealed to me, for I could while away much of my time in making it. By making my own I would be sure to get a better idea of radio and would perhaps enjoy a simple receiver that I had built myself more than one I might purchase. I secured several books on radio, from which I got at least a faint idea of radio sets and how to build them. I decided that a two-slide tuner was what I wanted. I secured the material and built one. Strange to say, it worked, and I must confess that my first radio set gave me more pleasure than all the radio sets I have had since. I used this set for some time and then decided that I had outgrown it. I had heard that a two-circuit tuner would give better results, so I built one. It worked splendidly, so I commenced to study radio in earnest; I studied radio books on an average of five hours a day. At last I had found what I had been seeking, that something which should pass time away and give greater pleasure the longer I worked with it. In the daytime I studied my books and worked on my radio set; at night I listened to music until I became tired and went to sleep. I had been using this radio set (the two-circuit one) for about two months, when I thought I could undertake a tube set. I purchased several new parts and built a three-circuit regenerative set using a WD-i 1 tube given me by a friend. I was somewhat disappointed with this set because, like many other beginners with a tube set, I expected too much of it at first. I expected to hear stations a thousand miles away the first night, but I didn't. In fact, for the first week I heard nothing that I could not hear on my crystal set. However, as time went on, I became more expert. Soon I found no trouble in reaching every evening those stations that I had long wanted to hear. To share my pleasure with the others in the hospital, I found I would need a two-stage amplifier and some kind of a loud-speaker. Well, the two stage was soon secured and a friend kindly loaned his loud-speaker. Permission was obtained for us to give a concert one Sunday evening in a ward. As there was a good program scheduled, we made our initial bow under favorable conditions. This