The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-09-24
RAY D. OWE FINDS
NEW KINKS, BUT is
ABLE TO FIX THEM
His Problems Reach Point
Where They Interest the
Whole Family

How about that stage OF radio
frequency, you are going to make,
Ray?" 1 asked my friend, Ray d.
Owe, when / went to see how his set
was getting along. His face regis
tered a disguised expression and II
took him a moment to reply.
can't make this audio frequency
work right, yet why try to tackle
radio frequency?" was the reply,
sounding like he had given up all
hope. whats the matter. wasn't
that last step a SUGGEST" I asked
him. Eyes, 1t was a bowling sue
cess-that thing can cry louder than
any baby 1 ever heard.
This kind of conversation lasted
minute or two and he took me back
in the dining room to see If the
trouble could be located. The trans
formers were placed SO close to-
geteher that it looked like they were
touching and their cores were rum
ming exactly in line with each other.
lie tried changing this, which took
good little while, and then when
they had ben properly spaced and
turned SO the cores and windinGs
were at right angles he gave one
of his signs of relief, which he gives
after he finishes any kind of job
on the set. 1t was then about b
o'clock or a little after, and we
tuned in" w B, the Atlanta Jour
nal. I stayed to dinner, as he told
me he thought 1t was good night
to show off his two step"
We heard the Journal again right
after we started listening, and after
hearing all of their concert the ether
gave Jar and w Y started. With
the old two-step we could hear
them all over the house without any
loud speaker. After W Y signed
off the static got to working a ut
lie at short intervals and we listened
to the Kansas City Star. who signed
off after few selections. Then We
sid over to the next and listened 20
w o in Jefferson City, Mo. After
they called it a night we took trip
of several hundred miles to the state
of Texas, but we didn't know 1t for
quite a while.
After w o S quit we tuned In
new station right away and when the
selection was over the talking start
ed and we heard, "This is W-crash
--bam Located in rattle-crash-
etc" Then / heard a remark from
Ray which we can't print, but 1t
doesn't take much imagination to
tell what 1t was. This was repeated
for a time or two and finally We
understood ln6 Cdil " NC W II n -
and l got out a Radio Digest to look
up this call, as we didn't get where
it was 1t is in New York and SO l
made a little black dot on New York,
as there was none there. The next
time we heard the station 1t seemed
like he said w D A Y, so 1 looked
up that one and found 1t to be in
North Dakota. The static was still
bothering us though and finally we
got the call correctly. 1t was w p
A Y, Houston. Tex. l was a little
a dot on that city on the map that
Ray is keeping, and we are anxious
to get some new ones.
AS it was nearly time for the late
w B program we waited for It
and then after 1t was over we signed
off for the night.
A day or two later l went over to
Rays house and much to my surprise
found the Z-Nith all over the front
room. The variometers and vario-
coupler were on one side of the room
and the cabinet on the other. Midst
the confusion of articles was q lot of
old tinfoil and bottle of glue. to-
gether with soldering iron and a
blow torch. I tried to figure out
what was going to taks place or
what lad already taken place. but
reached no conclusion after several
minutes thinking. In a short while
Ray came in with a drill In one hand
and the back of the Z-Nith cabinet
in the other. Well. fellows, what do
you suppose he was doing? I am sure
you wouldn't guess in long time,
SO 1 will tell you: He was lining the
old cabinet with tinfoil to eliminate
body capacity effect, which was very
bad on his set. 81 am going to fix
of the room and 1t will not change
the music to a cat fight"
After much trouble In trying to
solder piece of wire to piece of