The sun., 1909-02-14
AMATEUR. WIRELESS PLAGUE
THE AIR LINES BLOCKADED BY
YOUNG EXPERIMENTERS.
" Papa Is Rich Enough They Can Bust
Up Direct Communication for ZOO
Miles-Oue Reason Why Messages
From the Homing Fleet Are Scant.


Miies-One Reason Why Message
From the Homins Fleet Are scan,
-. - --lN'
The above Is not exactly a Sunda
school word. In fact It's rather naught
monosyllable, and there are reasons 70
thinking that Of late it has been more O
less polluting the oircumambient atmos
phere in these parts. but more especiall
in and about Roston. Freely translate,
it may thus he rendered:
why in the name OF all tho devili
doesn't that kid amateur ring of with
his pesky two by four and give the pro
fessionals a chance to do business Her
l just go and get started taking an i'm
portant flash from an incoming line
when that doggoned little nuisance who
likes TO play with the wireless TAX es 1t int
his head to have cosey chat with another
one OF the same foolish sort about goine
to the dance at Coney Island tonight
IL ! had the condemned pest here Ic
wiring his idiotio neck"
! Yesterday there came a wireless wal
from the Portsmouth Navy Yard. The
Portsmouth operator OF the De Fores,
system was able to get only single mes
sage about the homeward bound feet
This came from the cruiser .Yankton
she being of the Azores and. about q
thousand miles in advance OF the feet
proper, and was tossed along through b
the night by the Yankton.
1t seems that the wireless craze has hit
the Boston amateurs hardest. The use
to which the wireless was put at the time
the steamship Republic was wreoke has
stirred them up afresh. and ever since the
battleship feet sailed from Gibraltar
scores and scores ofthem have been sitting
up nights waiting TO get the first fash
from the homeward bound sailors. Sitting
up nights is dull business for the amateur,
and accordingly he has beguiled the
tedium with conversations with neigh
boring amateurs. This is harmless
enough when the youngster is using
machine OF low power. but when he has
rich papa who has given him one Of
those five kilowatt transformers that
can toss language through tho daylight
200 miles or more. and almost any old
distance through the dark. it's an entirely
different matter.
Friday night was amateur night on the
Boston wireless circuit. The profess
sionals complain that the average Of rich
pepas seems to be lamentably high around
Boston. ANYHOW. the air of the Massa-
chusetts coast was so crowded with chatty
little messages that there was not even
standing room left for the professionals.
In vain did the Portsmouth operator
implore the amateurs to get of his air.
They kept right on chatting just the
same. Every amateur that picked up the
lankton's fash had to tell some other
about IL, and the amateur who
was told about it had to tell the chap that
told him: -Huhl You're not 80 much!
Got it myself long time ago"
The most that the Portsmouth man
could do was TO fire out a thousand or
80 cuss words in the effort to get square
by balling up the amateurs. Ordinarily
IL wouldn't have been so bad because !
there is much less general wireless busi- |
ness at night. and moreover wireless
will travel much further at |
night than in the daytime because the |
Is damper. But on Friday !
night the atmospheric conditions were |
anyhow. and when the /
butted in on the air they just |
out the Portsmouth mans receiver or |
)f business.
ayers there is comparatively little trouble |
With the amateurs near New York. Few |
of them have instruments powerful |
'nough to cause trouble. Brooklyn is
! favorite training ground for the young
wireless enthusiast. In that borough
here are probably no less than fifty wire
ess plants operated by boys or very
Few OF them are powerful enough to
end more than few miles. and for the
most part they don't bother anybody.
The worse sufferer from their activi-
les is the station at the navy yard, but
hen the navy yard complains the big
liant Of the United Wireless Company |,
teps in. takes the department message
md telephones it to the navy yard.
The trouble about the amateur game is
hat il 30 cheap to install a small plant.
good many Of the back yard plants
n Brooklyn probably didn't cost their
,roud owners more than IS each. and the
rouble they make when they are chatty
made a receiver QUITO an old
yster can.
In the Borough Of Manhattan wireless |
seems to be considerably {
ess. About the only amateur whose
have been in the least per-
icious is the son Of W. z. D. Stokes, the
roprietor of the Ansonia. Young Stokes
q
ig apartment house. He has five kilo- !
'att transformer (the vital part of the ,
ending apparatus), and under unfavorable ,
can send 200 miles. With the !
III of this contrivance he has occasionally
sed up the air just when the profess
ionals wanted IT, Brt he has been
easoned with and has learned TO quit !
llking when requested, which is a valua- Z
le lesson for the young. d
Expert operators are able to alter the .
itch Of sending Instruments so that they '
ill not conflict though operating in the !
anne wireless zone. But the thing has i
} he done by arrangement and IL for the I
lost part quite beyond the powers of
ne amateurs. even II they were willing :
, take the trouble. which as a rule they
re not.
So IL you happen to be one OF these
esky amateurs you will know what II
leans, and IL you are as good natured as
you ought TO be you will stow your Jaw :
hen your receiver clutches from the air
nd hands over to you that naughty
tile word
WAND WIRELESS STATIONS.