Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

PROFESSIONALLY 6 7 6 7 8 » , 2 4 5671*2 WHAT ABOUT INDEPENDENT SERVICEMEN? Servicemen who have no direct connection with sales or- ganizations feel themselves handicapped and not squarely treated when their requests for service data from certain manufacturers are turned down. They feel that if they are to service receivers, even though they are not the manufac- turer's authorized dealer, they ought to have all the available information. And we believe they are right. It is certain that a manufacturer does not want every man who can wield a screw driver to have a detailed description of his receiver; but it is the service- man's contention —and again we be- lieve he is right—that it is no proof that a serviceman is a seven-days' wonder just because he is attached to some organization whose primary purpose in existing is to sell receivers and not to service them. We believe it would be a much better plan to give as much help- ful service data as possible to everyone who qualifies for this in- formation. But we do not believe qualification should de- pend upon a willingness to invest some dollars in a few sets at wholesale prices. In other words, the qualifications for getting service data should be the ability to service a set and not to sell it. It is a serviceman's job to fix sets and to keep them sold; not to sell them in the first place. Why would it not be a good plan to prepare an examination which a prospective recipient of service data could fill out, thereby either satisfying the manufacturer or damning himself in his eyes? It may be felt that permitting an independent service organization to fix a receiver works an unnecessary hardship upon the service department of the authorized dealer in the locality, but it is our idea that if this service department does its job better than the independent there will be no need to worry, especially if both servicemen have had to pass the same technical examination. REGARDING ADVERTISING CLAIMS Parks and Hull, Baltimore distributors for Atwater Kent, put an Atwater Kent Model 55 screen-grid receiver on life test. They tuned it to a local station at full volume, the voice coil of the loud speaker was removed from the field, and the set was left to its silent task. Day and night the set was connected to the a.c. mains, part of the time a.f. signals were coursing their way through the loud speaker and asso- ciated circuits. At the end of 816 hours the set was turned off and the tubes were retested. It was found that the tubes were but little different from what the test indicated at the start of the ex- periment. Some had increased slightly in emission, others had decreased slightly. This test of 816 hours is equal to about 275 days of service, in the average listener's home. .SPEAKING A plan /or distributing service information lo all qualified servicemen. Our problem — lo inform factory managers of the cure for man-made static. Good and bad advertising claims, and which is which. Let's have more life and performance tests. Out in South Dakota something went wrong in a power house supplying an Indian school. In this school there was an Atwater Kent Model 60 receiver. Instead of delivering 110 volts to the set the power wires supplied 220 volts. Electric fights in the building began to pop and burn out. When the electrician arrived, a half hour after the ruckus began, he found the set playing with considerable volume, tube shields very warm, and everything going along at a merry clip. After the power wires had been fixed up, the A.K. came back to normal without any bad effects and at this writing the receiver is operating as well as when it was new. On August 3rd L. T. Breck, vice president in charge of merchandising, Kolster Radio Corporation, picked a Kolster, which is a medium-priced set, and a Brandes, which is a low- priced set, out of the production lines and put them on life test. Day and night they operated at full volt- age and volume. At the end of 2000 hours they were still going strong. No tubes had been changed; no ser- vice had been required. We believe that life tests which give actual hours of test, some reference to the conditions of the test, or any definite quantitative data make much better advertising or news copy than the vague generalities which are in common use. Compare these three stories with the following statement which is quoted from a recent advertisement for a radio pro- duct, "Comparative tests show that our product stands up longer in life test than any similar product on the market." HOW INDUSTRY FEELS ABOUT RADIO There are many hundreds of listeners to radio pro- grams in Hartford, Connecticut, just as there are in other manufacturing cities. Not a few of these listeners have been bothered by nightly man-made static emanating from an air- plane factory. One of them had the temerity to write the fac- tory manager protesting about the racket that spoiled recep- tion. We did not see this letter but the factory manager's reply seems to be characteristic of many industrial plants: "There is little or nothing we can do to help out this condi- tion, and suggest that you refer the matter to the manufac- turer of your radio set, as it can not be expected that the manufacturing industry is going to spend millions of dollars to radio shield their properties." This letter indicates no desire to alleviate an annoying situation; it shows that no attempt had been made to find out what made the noise and how it could be eliminated. It proves that the factory manager did not know that a few dollars in- vested in an interference eliminator would inhibit all but the most virulent type of racket. The name of this plant manager will be furnished any inter- ference eliminator manufacturer who wants to take his fife in his hands for the benefit of the radio industry. 138 • JANUARY 1930