Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

REMOVING NONSENSE FROM SHORT-WAVE TRANSMISSION 113 an earnest suggestion that the experimenter always be inquisitive and ever ready to try those things that seem to be vague or incorrect. Whatever the conclusions may be which these tinkerings and testings give forth, they should be aired. Progress comes from comparison and from the matching of results. It seems that sooner or later there must exist an agency which may act as a clearing house for the needs and questions of the experimenter in a manner somewhat as adequate as the provision now made for other activities. This will be a rather difficult matter to frame, for it will be required to deal with all manner of interests from the most serious and important to the case of the misguided boy who is trying earnestly and persistently to determine whether Hartley or Armstrong invented the "best sending circuit." THE INNER URGE I^HAT this agency does not exist now will not matter greatly to a real experimenter; when the genuine radio experimenter is interested in a problem time, cash, and correspondence deter him no more than a violent golf fiend is deterred by a pneumonia fog. Similarly I also suspect that such stubborn persistence does produce the best work. At any rate the genuine radio experimenter need not read this discussion, nor will I convert anyone who is not already an experimenter of some sort. The thing is organic, like red hair, and if artificially produced is equally temporary. THE MESSAGE-HANDLER AS HAS been suggested above, the handling of amateur radiograms seems to carry less opportunity for developing something worthwhile than do other uses of amateur radio. In the main it serves only to develop operating skill which can then be diverted to worthy ends. The messages handled meanwhile are mostly worthless in the same manner that a copybook is worthless after one has learned to write. The applications of that operating skill have been advertised so widely that it seems almost useless to mention them. Radio contact with exploring expeditions, occasional emergency work when wires are down, application to military situations, have all been mentioned many times. There exists an Army-Amateur scheme of cooperation as well as a Navy-Amateur scheme, the activity of each differing materially in various territories. The object of these systems is that in case of war there will exist a partly trained reserve. Recent hearings before the Federal Radio Commission suggest that if no better agreement, can be made between the various interests who "must" have radio for emergency contact we may well consider the possibility of a publicproperty or corporation-operated radio emergency net whose operators may keep in practice by talking to amateurs. A preliminary tryout of such an idea was instigated some years ago by G. L. Bidwell of Washington and operated by A. L. Budlong for the Pennsylvania railroad. It gave a very good account of itself and I (who began as a skeptic) feel that, with somewhat stronger support, it would have expanded easily into the scaffolding on which a permanent system such as suggested could be erected. Certainly the tryout would have been made easily with amateur stations — and can to-day.. It would be a most unhappy matter if instead we were to have a horde of privately owned stations working for their separate owners, having no contact in normal times and hampered by financial affiliations so as to be unable to work in A SUB. OR BAT. Antenna To Osc. To Amp. SENDING SET r 110 V. ~= Gnd FIG. 2. SWITCHING ARRANGEMENT Switch l changes the antenna so that various bands may be employed. Switch 2 shorts or opens the antenna loading coil used to operate on the 180-meter band. Switch 3 turns on and off the a.c. power input to the transmitter. Switch 4 turns on and off the A battery — if used. It must be kept away from Switch 3, and if ax. is used in place of the A battery switch 4 is not necessary. Switch 5 is the lightning switch required by the fire insurance company. the free-handed manner that a good emergency net must base upon. The suggestion just made, is that certain but ill-defined military value seems to be the main reason for the message-handling game. Expeditions will not continue indefinitely to depend on amateur stations, though they will continue to use amateur operators because they are able to work under limitations of apparatus. International message handling is involved just now in a great bog of diverse opinion from which it may not emerge for a long time, if . indeed it emerges. TEST TRANSMISSIONS I CANNOT resist a paragraph regarding test i * transmission. These sendings are typified by ! the "test number one, test number two, test , number three" of the man making circuit ad j justments or by the dreary machine-sent "Test \ Ixam" or "Test Ioa" that has gone out so many times during these years of short-wave explora \ tion. Such transmissions are meaningless to \ those who have not been informed in advance, ] except when supplemented, by hand-sent or } spoken information, but this does not in any way : mean that they are out of the way or to be condemned. On the contrary, they deserve a hundred times as much respect as the senseless calling of station after station for the purpose of hastily asking for a card and then jumping to the next station. Such foolery teaches nothing, does not provide satisfaction to the stations so curtly dismissed, and may well step aside for even a machine-sent "test test test" which at least represents an attempt to learn. CONCERNING THE STATION CVERY man is free to choose which of the foregoing activities he cares to indulge in, but he will find that certain conventions relating to operating and station arrangement apply in each case. One must comply obviously with the legal provisions as to manners of calling and signing to some degree. A certain use of abbreviations is also most helpful and in any case is forced upon one if key operation is employed. These abbreviations fall into two classes, the absolutely arbitrary ones, which are matter of international agreement, and those which are merely butchered words such as "Xtal" and "Xmitter" for "crystal" and "transmitter" or "Wx" for "weather." Picking these up is not as painful as it sounds. Another class of abbreviations occasionally met is that sort made by phonetic spelling or by dropping vowels, as "sine" for "sign" and "tmrrw" or "Tmw" for "to-morrow." These too dawn on one soon enough. Station arrangements are suggested in the illustrations herewith and usually a wide departure from these is not advisable. It is really surprising how much more one can accomplish when things are arranged conveniently. Especially one should avoid placing apparatus in cabinets or against walls in such a manner that alteration or inspection requires disconnecting wires. The transmitter as here shown is without a case and this is my preference since a dustcover made of khaki cloth serves all the useful purposes of a cabinet. If a case is desired it should be made so that it may be removed without disturbing wires. Mere opening of the lid does not suffice. Other than these generalities it seems destructive to give advice. Such matters as the exact antenna arrangement, the construction of the loading coil, etc. can be decided best by the owner, and useful experience is gained at the same time. If the antenna must be made shorter than was described, perhaps the counterpoise may be made longer, or a different combination altogether worked out to cover the various wavebands. If a loading coil is necessary no exact dimensions need be followed. One may start with the first thing handy — a Dutch Cleanser box for example — and wind it with ordinary annunciator wire. A little loop should be brought out and twisted together every 5 turns until perhaps 40 have been wound. As soon as the loops are skinned one can connect to the lower end of the coil, clip the antenna to one of the loops and, by trying various wavelengths and noting the condenser setting, one can arrive quickly at the correct number to load to the desired 20-meter wavelength. This is quite as effective and much more educational than a set of ready-made directions which might not fit the antenna. At the writer's station the process was timed and it required 20 minutes.