Evening Star Newspaper, February 7, 1926, Page 32

John Smith and His Radio BY FREDERICK C. RUSSELL Car owners throughout the world ha motoring—and have benefited thereby. Now he has taken up radio, and is willing that his fellow fans evening experiences. Smith has a 4t will pay radio devotees to follow in The Sunday Star each week. No. 51—Avoiding Distortion. “How's that for volume?” Smith @sked, turning up the rheostats until WFAR came in like the neighborhood broadcasting station on a zero night. “That's volume all right,” I admit ted. “‘But what's it all about? Is it 2 band or is that some one talking on economy 2" “It doesn’t sound like much of any- thing,” he agreed. *\Vait a minute, and T'll clear it up. His “clearing” process was even more surprising. With the rheostat turned up to a point at which the loud speaker actually shook with vibra- tions, he started giving the tuning dials slight readjustments. In other he was detuning 'he result disagreeable racket without y rhyme or reason. Now you've - got pure distortion, and we can get down to business,” I remarked. “The manufacturer of your set made & special effort to avold distortion, and yet you violate all the rules of set operation in order to get it. One thing Yyou must remember, when you can't PIck up a station clearly over the headphones you can't obtain any bet- ter result over the loud speaker by amplifying. “There are First, perfect torted sign two reasons for thi: amplification of di: THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. 0., FEBRUARY 7, 1926—PART 1. v tions are made. These channels lie in public toll service bands from 105 to 85 meters, 76 to 66 meters, 60 to b4 meters and from 37.5 to about 16 meters, excepting a few channels re- served for amateurs, relaying broad- casts and mobile stations. Music With Children’s Stories. Children’s stories told with an or chestral accompaniment have been introduced to the radio audience of the Capital by Daniel Chwalow, con- Acation itself. Transformers used be. | ductor of the Hotel Hamilton Orches- tween the various ges of audio | tra, through station WRC. The amplification cause most of the dis-|Storles are told by Miss Madge tortion, especially in cheap sets, be-| Tucker, former bedtime storyteller cause even the best of transformers |8t WRC,.and are given suitable back- have difficulty amplifying all fre.|8rounds of music by the orchestral quencies alike. It is a trulsm that |Ifangements of folk songs adapted audio amplification is no better than | bY Mr. Chwalow. fia foanators A second departure from the usual “It isn’t merely a question of trans. | dinner concert program introduced former design and skillful'use of trans | P¥ Mr. Chwalow has been the pres- former ratios, but of the placing of [ ¢ntation of movements of the world's these transformers in the set. If you |Sreatest symphonies. The plaving re- recall, Smith, jr. had trouble with | ently of Haydn's “Surprise Sym- his little t because he placed the vhony” as a part of a recent dinner transformers so close together that |PTOETam brought a greater number magnetic action Hojtiad | SF _8Unkuse o i M to place a shield between them. Of ] CONCErt program ; ever course, he could have pliced them a | Proadeast from the Capital. little farther apart, 4 or 5 inches space between them being enough to stop the magnetic interpla “Even the lead from the secondary of the first transformer to the grid of the second tube is a distortion pro- ve followed John Smith in his daily should be amused and profit by his faculty for “finding out things,” so Comdr. Hooper Back. _Comdr. Stanford C. Hooper, U. §. N., will shortly take over his old job in the Bureau of Engineering as head of the radlo division, which position ducer. If it is too long or too near |he left about a year ago to become the other wires it will cause a howl. | fleet radio officer. His last sea duty Possibis to Redtoo. x[n::”:: 1o way & new one to Coma. T ia r, since he was the first to By means of a little blasing it 18| erve as a seagoing radlo supervisor, possible to lessen the distortion tend-| 1" the ‘early days of radio in the ency of the set. This is'done by bias- | xavy “ s as- | Navy, few officers knew anything ing the grid of the second amplifier | hou it; that i, the operstion of fave: elther With & 'C or grld’ bat- | iransmitters and the methods of ac- tery or with a potentlometer. Youliya] communication. They could not remember that a ‘C i continuous broadcasting and the range of the stations. When stations were all of low power and were only occa- sionally on the air, it was not so diffi- cult to require them to share a given wave, since they did not Interfere Today, however, the allocation of channels and the desire for high power go toward making the job of chief radio supervisor a difficult one. Drape Band Auditorium. Out of consideration for the radio audience of the United States Marine Band Orchestra, the Marine Corps has authorized the draping of the walls oi the Marine Barracks in Washington, from which the Marines' music is br adcast by stations WRC, WJZ anc WGY. The draping will greatly benefit the acoustical properties of the auditorium and eliminate the slight echoes whic have been noted in the past radio pe formances of the stra. The draping was made throug! the suggestion of Cap Santelmann, leader of Band snd conductor of Band Orchestra the Marine Latin-American Program. A speeial concert of Latin-American music will be broadcast by Statio) WRC from the of the Pan American Building, February 27, be ginning at 7:30 p.n, Music for th program will be played by the Unite States Army Band, led by Capt. W liam J. Stannard, and will include group of selections by the double se: tette of saxophones recruited frou members of the Army Band. Bolivia to Have Own Station Radio listeners in Bolivia, tired of WRC WILL BROADCAST FEB. 22 CELEBRATION ‘WJZ Also to Send Out Washington Birthday Program Planned at Poli’s Theater. The National Capital’s celebration of the birthday of George Washington, February 22, which will be held at Polt’s Theater, statfons WRC and WJZ of New York. The principal speaker on the pro- gram will be James M. Beck, for: solicitor general of the United States, and response probably will be made v the British Amb Other speakers will be Dis trict Commissioner Cuno H. Rudolph, lishop James E. Freeman and Rabbi | Toward. sbram A spec imon. man, basso, WGY, lay R;dio‘ Batteries Recharged, 75c We call for and deliver f; . & M. Battery Service, 1 I musfeal program has been irranged which will include selections v the United States Marine nder the leadership of Capt. Wi i. Santelmann, oprano, and Charles Trowbridge Titt- solof: vill begin at 11 a.m. PLAN BIRTHDAY PROGRAM. Schenectad statfon, will celebrate its fourth birth anniversary aborate program is being will be broadcast by sador, Sir Band, iam with Helen Howison, battery “rebuilt.” guarantees are misleading. give you good, honest service. The program superpower February 20. North 9928-4896 The Death of the Gyp! EXIDE BATTERIES Six Volts—11 Plates 112 These are brand-new, fully charged, genuine EXIDL automo- bile batteries that will give excellent service. Rebuilding batteries is not economical. Deal with reliable people, who can Don’t have your old Time BATTERY AND RADIO SERVICE 2119 18th St. N.W. a &ive you simpl amplified distortion; secondly, amp] fication adds distortion of its own.” Smith digested this and then an- d his desire to know just where ortion started in the set. It starts with your tuning,” I ex plained. “But I think you have ear to enough to catch this and correct it. battery is used | eqq code, and, therefore. never knew for grid biasing when ~the “plate, or | ({actiy how ihe enllsted operators B' current, voltage is high, while a|were handling the messages. = Know potientiometer, which s a sort of | ing code was “Greek” to the officers, rheostat, can be substituted when the aDarators comtanlian P as ithey plate voltage is not so high. nding and receiving a lot of “Blasing is used in this connection 1 communications, some of prevent the grid from becoming | which were not complimentary to paralyzed. You can see that if it is | their superiors. allowed to become t0o positive it stops| When Hooper was a boy he was the action of the tube. However, this | interested in radio. and before the biasing, while necessary with three | entered the academy he had learned stages of amplification in which a [ihe code. So when he took over the power tube is used as the third tube, | job of radio officer he was able to may not be called for with two stagi listen in and see how the fleet com of amplification if they are well de- [ munications were being handled. His signed. ~ At least biasing would be |ability to read code enabled him to required only on the second stage.” |censor messages and reprimand the SUPERIORITY All the while I talked Smith had |operators who did not stick to the UNQUES.I.'oNED appeared to have something else on |text of their messages. Those who T his mind. Finally I asked him what|did not accept his orders in good N T it was, grace soon found themselves trans- \ 3 istance coupling,” he said.{ferred to dreary duty In out-of-the- something I don't under-|way radio stations. stand. Have you avoided it because S it's too complicated? “No. because I thought it was too simple!” I replied. ill, if it bothers you we had better clear it up. There's no_sense lettin iio terms make radio a puzale listening to foreign broadeasters, ar planning a station of th Paz. They have or Club Boliviano and are orgs stock company to finance the 1 The club possesses two powerful it cefvers on which Pittsburgh, Buen: Alres and Santiago stations are pici ed up. SPECIALISTS OF ATWATER KENT RADIO Neutrodynes, Service CAL _CONSTRUCTION ENINGS OYER CO. M. 842 Radiolas, || WM. P. | 812 13th St. Source of Distortion. “The chief source of however, is in the design and wor manship of the set itself If you wer content to listen in over the e phones about the only distortion you would get would be due to interference and faulty tuning. But with audio ampli- fication, making possible loud speaker operation, a large distortion factor is introduced. Even if the set is de- slgned to be inherently free from dis- tortion, comparativ ing, you still are s'by care- less operation of it. In order to keep operators from turning up the audio amplification rheostats too -far, one manufacturer places the rheostats on the back of the machine where the dealer can set them at a logical point and be sonably a ed the radio fan will not use them unwisely. In addition to what the operator can do to create distortion there is the basic fault of transformer ampi- COUNTERPHASE distortion “There's Clamor for Increased Power. Some organizations and even com- munities are clamoring for increased power for their broadcasting stations. They wonder why inc 8 are not granted by the Department of Com- merce. The answer is that most sta- tions are located in cities or are sharing wave lengths with other sta tions. with which they would inter- fere seriously if more pow was | granted. Some stations not in con- gested centers ated by great distances from transmitters sharing their channel, m increase their power without creating undue inter ference, t uthority for higher power is always governed by whether or not additional interference would Chief Radio upervisor its out station rated at 200 watts or more doubled its power, inter- | ference would be tremendously in creased due to the extension of ranges Next week, No. 52—Resistance Coupli (Copyright oy tne Ul Radio Tube Model SSW 501-A—$2.50 "o B-T*TOROST YLE FOR EASY WIRING This Circuit and Torostvle R. F. transformers: (both patented) were developed by a firm that has never put out a product that did not demonstrate its ri;%t to leadership. Ask your dealer to show you the B-T nine color Counterphase diagrams. Torostyles are sold individually for 1, 2 or 3 R. F. stages or in 5- or 6-tube kits. Send for ‘Better Tuning.” Tells about the Counterphase and other hook-upe Postpaid 10c. Circulars free. Recent inquiries made at the De- 1200 miles, with only 100 watts power. partment of Commerce relative to a | the ays, demons ] public transcontinental radio tel The Simpson Phone system to compete with the line | proposes to erect a two y telephone circuits met with approval |New York to operate with the in general, although offic imilar stations are Ppracticability of such a anned in the Philippin ing present where few, if any, con The inquir ilities eXist, the res of the Simpson Radio Corpor upon the naval and Army radio and consequent overlapping the Seattle, who claims t with new [tems. South American interests are|ygdiated waves. Interference is bad appardtus he can lio-telephone | also reported anxious to tie in on a |enough as it is, this department expert messages half way across the conti- | fadio-phone communicating system ays. so only out-of-town stations en- nent on short wav with very low he fact that the clusive wave lengths or those power. Compared with the operative | communicates daily channels with distant stations costs of line and long-wave radio cir- | Manila is said to v TloeIcalivilie pecmittedito| nccease cuits, the proposed system could | bility of very long work. { their wattage. BREMER-TULLY MFG. CO. gle messages at greatly reduced rates, | Eventually, Mr. Lesser thinks, long: | It is also difficult to arrange for the || 326 camal Strest CHICAGO he pointed out. Reduced station and | distance telephone lines will disappear | use of a wave channel by two or more 4 construction costs, along with low vor of radio telegraph and tele-'| stations, on account of the demand for maintenance costs, would aid in guar- phone systems. Within the limits of anteeing ithe public reasonable rate ties and towns wires will be retaine 409 11th Street N.W. EN you buy a Stewart-Warner Matched-Unit Radio, our Blue Ribbon Rep- resentative will banish that helpless feeling of, *“Now What Do I Do?” He will install the Matched-Units in your home, and show you how to tune and operate your radio at highest efficiency. His special radio training is of great value to you and is yours for the asking, from then on. All Radio Sets require some service just as your motor car—your vacuum cleaner—or even your telephone. Hence every Stewart-Warner Matched-Unit Radio is sold only by our specially trained, carefully selected Representatives, each of whom is able to render prompt Blue Ribbon Service should the need ever arise. beside which, Mr. Lesser believe dio systems would not work well;| year-round service could be guaran- |the great number of stations and re. | teed without interruptions encountes- |ceivers required would clutter up the | ed in wire ems ' | creating undue interferency Channels in the ether are already Ithough some governmental radio reserved by the department for public |experts doubt the advisability of e radio-phone service in the short-wave | tablishing a system of this sort, they band, but today no such service exists | are not disposed to hinder any form &nd no applications are on file for the | radio development, pointing out that | use of these channels. A similar proj- | they have channels available for sta- ect was once in operation in California | tions of this between Catalina Island and Los an- | = geles, carrving over water for a s tance of about 25 miles. In its early all radio phone messages were broadcast and proved far from pri- vate, being audible to all who hap-| pened to listen in on the wave used. | Later developments, however, elimi- nated this by “scrambling” the me: 5 so that only those possessing receivers could ‘‘unscramt There are now in 3 existence | several private short-wave point-to-| 50 point radio-phone stations, but the | . Cabinet Model 305—$95 Open Evenings! Continuing the Grand Opening Sale! 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