Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

504 Radio Broadcast you, not a threat. Close us up, and the New York Herald will publish immediately the affidavits of approximately one hundred radio operators on duty at ship and shore stations within range of NAA all affirming that NAA in its evening press that night mentioned the arrival at and departure from Newport of the V-53" "Where could you get any such information?" "Well, Commander, if I told you that you would be as wise as I am. But nevertheless it's true, and so sure as you close us up, so surely will I run the story. On the other hand, if the Navy and Mr. Secretary Daniels forget all about closing our station, the Herald will accept the censorship and will forget all about the story of the Navy Department violating neutrality. How about it?" There was a silence on the line for so long that 1 began to think that Washington had rung off. And then: "All right: that's a bargain." And the incident was closed. WHB continued in service until at last the Navy took over all radio upon the outbreak of war. 1 do not want my readers to gather from this that I am insinuating that the Navy Department, either directly or indirectly, was countenancing a violation of neutrality. Far from it. What had happened, of course, was that someone at NAA had slipped that message into the press stuff that night against orders, either in ignorance or more probably from motives similar to mine, and had left no record, so 'that when they investigated the Herald's story from that end, Arlington had, seemingly, a clean bill. Had the Herald pushed the matter and published affidavits, however, the affair would have been so embarrassing to official circles that common sense dictated an immediate compromise, particularly as the damage was already done and the censorship of our station by a naval officer would be a sure preventive of any further trouble. PLENTY OF ROMANCE STILL IN RADIO LKE most other amateurs in the vicinity of New York I watched WSL, the Telefuncken station at Sayville. So did WHB. Sayville was sending continually code messages to Nauen. Even after the closing by the Navy Department of the Goldschmidt transatlantic station at Tuckerton, New Jersey, for violating neutrality, Sayville continued its work, sending now to Cartagena, Colombia, whence the messages were doubtless flashed to Berlin. This code, as I remember was now a fifteen letter affair. At last, however, through the efforts of amateurs and government agents all listening-in Sayville was caught and closed down. It was during this period that the Providence Journal made its sensational news beats in revealing German activities here and radio had a great deal to do with this. From the nightly messages sent by Sayville some cipher expert discovered the Boche code and from the threads thus revealed clever detectives made short work of the rest. I have often thought of those old days of radio, while listening in to the present routine of broadcasting, and wondered if the romance had gone out of the air. After the Shenandoab's night adventure, however, when that stormtossed airship was guided to safety by radiophone, and after my own experience in hearing a storm-bound city telling its plight and linking itself to the world again through the devious channels of the ether, I have decided that the romance is still there for those who search for it. How Radio Times Have Changed THE article which appears below is taken from the New York Herald of December 26, 1912. That issue of the Herald was full of photographs of the survivors of the disaster to the United Fruit liner Turrialba and many news stories dealing with the wreck. The Herald station WHB, as Captain Dupuy's story brings out, had much to do with saving her passengers by radio. This news story is especially interesting, because it shows how radio conditions have changed since "the law of 1912" (as it is always referred to now), went into effect. Especially have conditions with regard to amateur operators changed. With the formation of the American Radio Relay League, that excellently organized and managed association of amateur radio operators, the amateur has come to be