Radio Broadcast (Nov 1923-Apr 1924)

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294 Radio Broadcast cycle hum which is music only to the ears of a telegraph amateur. And the broadcast listeners have no recourse at all. The operator is careful not to sign his call letters, so it is impossible, even for a listener who knows the code, to make a definite log entry and complain to the U. S. Supervisor of Radio in the district. For the time being, the amateur seems to be getting away with it. But what will happen in the long run? The broadcast listener is only too prone to ascribe to the amateur interference for which the amateur is in no way responsible as well as that for which he is responsible. As a practical proposition, therefore, it behooves the amateur to have the broadcast listener interfered with as little as possible. If he himself causes such interference gratuitously, he is helping to accumulate a weight of resentment and irritation which, in time, may be exceedingly dangerous to the amateur's interests. Public feeling gathers its forces slowly, but they are very great once they get started, and occasions have been known where it was hard to stop them at a reasonable point. The amateurs have their privileges, and, like other people, act as if they will always have them. But these are not inalienable rights. The idea of further restrictions in transmitting seems preposterous to many present-day amateurs. But the idea of having to confine themselves to a particular wavelength, and taking out a license, and emitting a sharp wave, seemed preposterous to some of the amateurs of 19 1 2. 1 well remember the indignation of one old fellow who snorted indignantly at the idea that he could no longer talk back to the commercial stations and send as he pleased — which was on 800 meters with a spark gap in the aerial, a kilowatt or so of power, and a wave as broad as the ocean. Even after the "W" calls had been assigned and the new law was in full effect, the amateurs had, for a time, much greater liberty than at present, and I well remember hearing Doctor Hudson sending a deadhead to the National Electric Signaling Company's station at Bush Terminal, asking Mr. Hogan to look for his pipe, which he had left at the station on a visit. At that time this procedure was quite in order. Those days are past. They were picturesque, but picturesqueness is a poor argument for survival. WHY THE AMATEUR SHOULD WATCH HIS STEP 1AM speaking specifically of the urban amateurs. Out on the farms the situation is much less acute. But in the cities the ether simply cannot carry all the traffic imposed on it, taking into account that broadcast receivers must be built to be handled by laymen not engineers, and that within a few hundred feet of an antenna radiating an ampere or two, eliminating the signal from such an antenna is a more or less dubious proposition. There is one Procrustean way of doing it, and that is to eliminate the amateur. This proposal is in fact made, and in no very subdued tones. Personally, 1 am warmly against it. I doubt, also, if it can be done. But there is no reason to be certain and cocksure. No organization is so great that it can throw aside prudence and give no thought to the morrow. If the amateur is wise, he will read the handwriting on the wall, adjust himself quietly to new conditions and superior forces, save what he can — which is considerable — and so keep a reasonably prominent place in the radio game. He has one fine argument on his side — the demonstrable fact that the amateur telegraphers are the best source of material for army and navy radio men in time of war. This argument, if not pushed to absurd lengths, will sustain the amateurs perfectly well. If it is used to prove that amateurs should be allowed to do what they please with the air at all hours in time of peace, it will suffer the same fate as the syllogism to the effect that since skill with firearms is a virtue in time of war, gangsters should be allowed to kill all the bank-messengers they please for practice. The comparison is overdrawn, but it makes the point clear. As for justice, one should not rely on it too much. The son of the present Secretary of Commerce is a prominent and competent amateur, and as long as Mr. Hoover is in the Cabinet the amateurs are assured of justice. But Mr. Hoover will not be secretary forever, nor even for a decade. The next secretary may be a broadcast listener. In fact, he is twenty times as apt to be a broadcast listener as a code man. And at some time, thunderous key thumps or raw AC on the plates or fortyeight CQ's in a row or a spark set next door