Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-14
COD FOR W|RE[ESS'MAY co ON A STRIKE
Call for Help This Time Is Taxicab Chauffeurs Against
From Operators. Proposed Wage Plan.
AMATEURS MAKE TROUBLE IGET 20 CENTS AN HOUR
Putting Bugs the Air With Company Would Pay
Their Dinky Outfits. Cent of Receipts.
MESSAGES FROM FLEET CROSSED MEN STRONG
COMMITTEE With General
and
It stopped Expect
Call for Help This Time Is
From Operators.
AMATEURS MAKE TROUBLE
Putting Bugs" in the Air With
Their Dinky Outfits.
MESSAGES FROM FLEET CROSSED
Commander Bristol Getting Data for
the Department to Try and Have
It Stopped

NEWPORT. r. l., February 13.-Be-
cause continued interference by other
wireless stations has hampered the naval
wireless operators here in their en-
deavors 10 receive messages from the
hattleship fleet Lieut.. Commander Mark
l.. Bristol. U.S.N.. inspector of ordnance
in charge of the naval torpedo and wire
less stations has compiled data of this
subject for the Navy Department.
II is hoped that some regulation may
result so that the needless interruption
Of thoughtless operators exchanging gos-
sip from station to station may be
eliminated in some degree and chance
given for the passage of legitimate mes
sages.
According to the naval officials. much Of
the aerial conversation with which the
wireless instruments are kept buzzing
all along the New England coast. to the
total suppression of important messages,
is of an entirely aimless and unnecessary
character.
Fleet Messages Interrupted.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, February 13.-'- -
- The above is not exactly
a Sunday school word In fact, it's a
rather naughty monosyllabIe and there
are reasons for thinking that of late it
has been more or less polluting the cir
cumambient atmosphere In these parts
but more especially in and about Boston
Freely translated, it may thus be rem
dered:
Why in the name of all the devils
doesn't that kid amateur ring off with
his pesky 2x4 and give the profession
ais chance to do business. Here l just
go and get started taking an important
hash from an incoming liner when that
doggoned little nuisance who likes to play
with wireless takes it into his head TO
nave a cozy chat with another one of
the same foolish sort about going to the
dance at Coney Island tonight. If 1 had
the condemned pest here Id jolly well
wiring his idiotic neck
Yesterday there came a wireless wall
from the Portsmouth navy yard The
Portsmouth operator of the De Forest
system was able to get only single
message from the honeRard-bound feet.
This came from the cruiser Yankton, she
being OF the Azores and about a thousand
miles In advance of the fleet proper and
way tossed along through the night by
the Yankton.
Amateurs Sitting Up Nights.
1t seems that the wireless craze has hit
the Boston amateurs harder than those of
any other locality. The use to which the
wireless was put at the time the steam
ship Republic was wrecked has stirred
them up afresh. and ever since the bat
tleship feet sailed from Gibraltar scores
and scores of them have been sitting up
nights waiting to get the first flash from
the honeward-bound sailors. Sitting up
nights is dull business for the amateur
and accordingly he has beguiled the tedi-
um with conversations with neignboring
amateurs.
This is harmless enough when the
youngster is using a machine of low
power. but when he has a rich father
who has given him one of those five
kiiowatt transformers that can toss Ian
Suage through the daylight 200 miles or
more and almost any old distance through
the dark, 1t is an entirely different matter.
Wouldn't "Get Off the Air.
Friday night was amateur night on the
Boston wireless circuit. The professionals
complain that the average of rich papas
seems to be iamentably high around Bos-
ton. Anyhow. the air off 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 operators
implore the amateurs TO get off his air
They kept right on chatting just the
same. Every amateur that picked up the
Yankton's flash had to tell some other
amateur about 1t. and the amateur who
was told about ii had to tell the chap
that told him: HUH You're not so
much. Got 1t myself long time ago..
The most that the Portsmouth man
could do was to fire out a thousand or so
cdss words in the effort to get square by
bdlling up the amateurs. Ordinarily it
would not have been so bad because there
is much less general wireless business at
night and moreover wireless messages
will travel much further at night. than in
the day time because the atmosphere is
more damp. But Friday night the atmo-
spheric conditions were unfavorable any
how. and when the amateurs butted in on
the air they just put the Portsmouth
mans receiver out of business.
Navy Yard a Sufferer.
According to the local wireless man
ayers there is comparatively little trouble
with the amateurs near New York. Few
of them have instruments powerful
enough TO cause trouble. Brooklyn is a
favorite training ground for the young
wireless enthusiast. In that borough
there are probably no less than fifty
wireless plants operated by boys even
young men for their own amusement. Few
of them are powerful enough to send
more than a few miles and for the most
part they don't bother anybody. The
worst sufferer from their activities is the
station al the navy yard. but when the
navy yard complains the big plant of the
nited Wireless Company steps in. takes
the department message and telephones
y 20 the navy yard.
The trouble about the amateur game is
that it's so cheap TO install a small plant.
A good many of the backyard plants in
Brooklyn probably did not cost their
proud owners more than five dollars each,
and the trouble they make when they are
chatty is out of AL proportion to the
cost. One youngster made a receiver on;
OF an old oyster can.
AMCR1CAN IS unM0pEn