Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1925)

As the Broadcaster Sees It 79 cathedra. But a considerable number of listeners notified the station that X and Y, the two transmitters with which we sometimes have difficulty, were on our wavelength. We know that at this particular time X and Y were innocent. Clearly our well-meaning informants were wrong* in their conclusions. As long as only two stations heterodyne each other, there is hope, but in the not infrequent case where three transmitters are involved, one can do little but sit back and stand the gaff. Generally, when one carrier is taken off the air, the remaining two beat with each other to such a degree that the announcements of neither can be understood. The only thing that a broadcaster in this situation could do would be to shift his own wavelength and get clear of them both. But that is reprehensible, for if individuals start taking the law or the wavelength into their own hands in this way, the present difficulties of ether congestion will become aggravated to the point of chaos. Such a remedy is worse, in the long run, than the disease. Communication and cooperation between broadcasters should all be in the direction of keeping every one on his assigned frequency. If the stations will only stay put, we shall be able to say, as far as beat interference is concerned, "The rest is silence." Who is Which in Radio — . Colonel Combust ON OUR recent trip abroad we carried letters of introduction to Colonel Combust, the Chief Signal Officer of the unmatched Euphratean army. We had considerable difficulty catching up with Colonel Combust, for the Euphratean forces were just then retreating before the matchless Kustanian army, a war having sprung up between the two monarchies over a chorus girl. Finally the officer was located, standing up to his mustache in a river, and waving his sword to encourage the brave Euphrateans who were swimming around him. Delivering our letters through an orderly, we hove to in our rowboat, waiting for a statement. "We shall deceive the enemy," cried the gallant colonel, "for the code our signal corps operators send is absolutely unrecognizable, even by ourselves. Therefore the cursed Kustanians will be unable to discover our designs, our arms will triumph, and the lovely chorus girl Tina will be restored to the Euphratean "Follies," from which she was wantonly kidnapped by the King of Kustania, that insolent pig!" As the valiant colonel swung his sword close to our nose during this denunciation, we rowed several boat-lengths upstream before asking: "Has the King of Kustania no chorus girls in his own dominions?" "He has," explained the colonel, "but his taste in that line is exotic, like that of a DX hunter, who praises the stations of every country but his own." "Are you, then, afflicted with broadcasting stations,* sir?" we inquired. "Yes, indeed," answered Colonel Combust, "and I predict with confidence that, after we have defeated the enemy in this present war over Tina, the next war between Euphratea and Kustania will be brought about by the broadcasting stations." "What!" we cried. "We understood that broadcasting was to lead to universal peace, the hearts of the Mongolians, Californians, and Esthonians being softened by mutual listening to bedtime stories, lectures on the dog-collar industry, and reports on measurements of the losses in No-Loss variable condensers. Nay, more, we had worked out a plan whereby all international disputes were to be settled, not by citizens shedding each other's blood, but by the announcers of the several countries being allowed and incited to talk each other to death. Thus an orderly and beneficial process would be substituted for barbarous warfare. What could be sweeter than to have the announcers die for their countries, while other citizens continue to hug their girls — " "Whose girls— the announcers'?" interrupted the colonel with great interest. "Announcers have no girls," we exclaimed impatiently. "The conjugal tie cannot long unite two such verbose entities as a woman and an announcer, and girls, realizing this ile Lo<art oscillated like cl Hooper