The copper era and Morenci leader., 1917-02-16
WIRELESS PHONE
 SYSTEM MAY BE INSTALLED

Flagstaff, Ariz., Feb. 10.-The To- cal forest office has just received a copy of the official report on the wire less system successfully installed at Raseline Ranger Station by forest of ficers. This station is some 3S miles north of Clifton, Ariz., and in the bot tom of deep canyon.
 The report shows detailed drawings and photos of the entire system, the aerial wiring, g,antennae, inside appa- ratus, etc. The system was installed by Forest Ranger Warner in Novem- Der, 1916, assisted. by Ray Potter of Clifton, who has small wireless sta tion of his own just north of Clifton. Ranger Warner, however, has had no previous experience whatsoever with wireless.
 The serial wire is stretched across the canyon of Blue river, on which the Baseline ranger station is located, with the antennae some 14S feet above the level of the river. The supply of No. 10 iron wire that was being used ran out and ordinary barbed fence wire was used to complete the aerial line from cliff to cliff. Copper and iron wire were used for the lead in" from the antennae to the station.
 On the night of Nov. 29 the system was tried out, the first message being sent to Clifton, 3S miles away, to an other wireless station, and was trans
 mitted by them to the Western Union
 who transmitted it to Washington,
 Portland, Ogden, Denver, San Fran.
 cisco and Missoula.
 The unusual thing about this expert
 ment is that Ranger Warner went at
 the matter an entirely green hand,
 and used whatever material he had at hand, barbed wire, etc., ordering the lmain apparatus from a mail order house.
 Since the original installation few of tho parts have been replaced with Imore powerful ones in order to enable the Ranger to receive messages bet
 ter, and he has been picking up mes lsages from the Government Wireless
 station near Washington, from the
 Pacific Coast, and even from vessels
 out at sea. He has also used the system in sending messages to Clifton several times, these messages being
 forwarded by. telegraph to Springer
 vile and to Silver City, regarding or , ficial business.
 Forest officers are very enthusiastic
 over the possibilities of wireless ir , handling urgent business, such as re porting fires from locations now no = reached by telephone lines. If rang s CT can rig up system out of barbet s wire, and other odds and ends, at : f total cost of not over $50 .00, ant f with no previous experience in wire n less, it would seem, they say, tha
 some inexpensive and serviceable sys
 tenn could be readily devised whereb, J. tke cost of very expensive pole tele
 ho 0hTyfo O6 n cases are a wireless across the Gram if Canyon, to render communication pos V sible between the forest rangers o d the south side and the north side c ,- the Canyon, which during the danger d ous fire season would be extremel Q advantageous since the north side c O the Canyon is much higher than tn Q south side and overlooks a great par a of the latter. Another local possibil Q tv is the installation of a wireles !. system from the top of the Sa if Francisco Peaks at Flagstaff or Wi lx Hams, or Jerome, whereby fires dt D. tecteG from the Peaks could be in r. nIediately reported to forest officer ,, on the Coconino, Tusayan, Prescott 0 h. Sitgreaves forests-which can not b n accomplished now except by the COT 10 struction of an expensive telephon l. line.
 al Forest officers are now at work O n Ia modification of Ranger Warner i- system whereby the system can b s worked over into wireless telephon Q system, which is well recognized, ha II great advantages over the wireles D. telegraph, since no knowledge of cod II signals would be necessary. They ar h. very hopeful that such a system ca n- be worked out whereby an inexpensiv h and satisfactory means of commun W cation can be gotten for localitie If where the construction of pole tell
 phone would be out of the question.