New-York tribune., 1922-11-19
First Aid for the Radio Fan
Building Capacity With Fixed .Condensers;
Using the Dry Cell Tube as AN Amplifier;
Placing Negative Bias ON Grid of Tubes
Trouble with petector Tube

tayss,lon---r have . problem which J
should like to have you help me. solve,
81 hays a sssaso uss At n0eS apiy,na af tuss M
as 9 datector. operating II on 2ais volts.
Recently. I bought fadiotron wv 2oo
sas worhs esrss.y 90
yarioeoupler set.. canno. get a sound
out OF it on my. soney;comb aet. NOT even
gone over Gnsh y st shs es sIa ssas aa find
s tube have wSsns sasiaa sas sra leaks s and
rs from e sSs g on the " 20 g m no aas
used a wv 200 In this oct before, and II
worked SO much better. than the arnplify-
I have the condsnssrs In my honey comb
in series with the aerial. and. shuntsd
one across the secondary circuits. II you
san muos sss s any 'hey WIN %
Answer.-lt. may be that the y. Y.
200 which you now have does not
make contact TO the grid and plate
contact springs of your socket.
should advise you TO look over the
socket very carefully and make sure
that good contact Is made. Under
the circumstances, there is only one
other thing that I can think Of, ana
shat is the possibility that you gre moi
he flament Of the tube. Perhaps re-
ducing the amount Of resistance IN
the rheostat might give better results.
"Using Loop on Crystai!"
ouestion---I am moved to send line
after reading the last question and an
gwat in this column Sunday, October 9.
''Using a Loop on Crystal" and your
answer implies that reception with a
tuned loop and crystal combination is
aerial or loop will not bring in az much
radiation energy ae even small antenna
and whiio any properly working tube is
more sensitive than the best crystal. you
have set the distance limit too low For
example, eea Radio News" for September,
1922. page 49,. describing broadcasting In
radius of about ak miles 70 receive
concert on an, indoor loop with
AZ our house (Which is two miles from,
WGY) aerial coil. with tuning con-
denser, crystal and phones. is regularly
to hear the concerts. bedtime stories. etc.
On several occasions this loop has been
taken outside the city, In the middle OF
the towers stock quotations were taken
down. On two other occasions In the
evening, outside of the city. toward the
east, music was heard and announcement )
were understood at distances OF six and
seven mites
Young children have no difficulty in set
dG "a,
but at distance Of five SIX miles
considerable care in alignment tuning and
crystal setting is needed, and the test
| should be made In g. quiet place.. 3. r.
Answer--Many thanks for your very
interesting letter. 1t is very difficult
to give advice on radio reception with
regard to distance, because SO many
variable factors have to be taken into
consideration. First OF all, there is the
power used at. the transmitting station;
second, the construction and efficiency
of the receiving set, and third, the
locality Consequently the policy
that | have adopted is to take an aver
age value in giving advice, leaning a
little toward the conservative side in
estimating rather than the radical
side.
In some localities it will be possible
to receive very much greater distances
than in others, and the pleasures of
being able to exceed the average is
more enjoyable than merely coming up
to what is generally conceded TO be
normal range by those who arc too
optimistic with regard to distances.
After all, | think you will agree with
me that the conservative policy is the
hest in these days of rap.dly con-
structed apparatus, in which very little
care is paid to detail. am always
glad, however, to get letters showing
that exceptional distances have been
covered in unusual cases,