The Washington herald., 1922-03-09
Questions and Answers


Q. Please advise to the following:
Best means Of installing an indoor
aerial? Are dry cells sufficient and
IL so how many? Kindly explain
vacuum tube. Is telephone bride
wire strong enough to receive
messages on an indoor aerial?
G. w.
A. A single wire around the mold
ing of a good-sized room or sew
eral small rooms will serve for an
aerial with good receiving ap-
paratus. Do not use dry cells for
the vacuum tube. A storage bat
terry is far cheaper in the long run.
The action of the vacuum tube has
been explained in this column. Any
wire will do for an indoor aerial
Q. live about eighteen miles
from Newark. ! have crystal
detector. vario-coupler, variable
condenser, and 3.o00-ohm receivers.
NJ. aerial Is on the top of a four
STORY building and is about 100
feet long. VIII you tell me why 1
cannot hear the music? do not
want to install a vacumm-tube
outfit. J.v.D.
A. If you have the set wired up
correctly you ought to be able to
hear the music from Newark. Try
taking the variable condenser out
of the aerial circuit and putting it
across the secondary leads Of the
coupler. Would also suggest that
you go over all connections in the
set and aerial and be sure that they
are all tight. Better solder all OF
them.
, Q. Can I string an aerial across
the street? will a set work we'll
with two aerials. one across the
street and the other on the roof?
Which do you think is the best. to
collect my set one piece at a time
or buy "a complete outfit outright /?
,r w. ]. T.
A. You will have to get permis-
sion to put your aerial across the
street. Do not do it, however, as
there have been cases where anna
teurs have been badly burned or
electrocuted while doing this. II
the wire hapens to fall across a
trolley line or some high-voltage
line on the telegraph pole you are
apt to be seriously injured. By
using the two aerials together you
will in effect have one aerial. and
II may help in receiving. In the
matter of buying a set. It Is en-
tirely up to you. II you are good
at raking up parts and know how
to handle tools would advise you to
make your own set. II, however,
you are not able or have not the
time to do this, the best thing is
to buy set outright. By picking
up the parts yourself and assem-
bling them you may make a better
set for little less money.
Q. Which aerial Is best for re-
ception, cage aerial 90 feet long,
six wires separated by bicycle
hoops, or an aerial 100 feet long.
two wires. 10 feet apart, fiat top7
Both are 50 feet above the ground.
What are the wave lengths of each
B. Il.
A. The iat-top aerial is the better
of the two in this case, simply be-
cause It is the longest A straight
single-wire aerial Is practically just
as good when used for receiving
only. Waye length depends very
much on local conditions and may
change slightly from day to day.
Therefore We are giving only rough
estimates of wave lengths The
cage would be somewhere between
1e5 and 220 meters. while the fiat
top aerial would run $50 to 500
meters.
go y
Q. Can ] put a dry cell between
receivers and ground connection on
a crystal set to enable me to hear
clearer? Is II harmful to receivers?
A. w.
A. This department fails to see
where you win get clearer signals
with a dry cell where you propose
to place 1t. 1t viii not hurt ~the
receivers. but win hurt the incom-
ing signals. It Is not necessary and
advise. you not to do It. '.s 9