Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-04-25
That Bugbear of RadiO-the Aerial

You don't want an outdoor aerial, oI
course. Nobody does. Everybody 4.
| dreaming of the time when radio re.
ceiving set will all be contained in a
talking machine cabinet--aeriai and all.
There are such sets now. But they
are not for the man of limited means
or of limited knowledge Of radio. They
are for the expert who can use stagger-
ing looking mathematical formulae and
figure out every little detail according
to his own peculiar conditions. And
it takes an expert to get the best results
out Of them.
We might as we'll face the brutal
truth at once. For really satisfactory
results Of you are beginner) you will
have to have an outdoor aerial. You
can get results with an indoor aerial
but they won't compare with the out
door one.
And how big an aerial will you need
The longest and highest you can put
up-within reason. Of course. You
don't want one 800 feet long. You
don't want one 800 feet high.
The ideal aerial for the amateur Is n
single wire abou: l95 20 100 feet long
and thirty feet high IL possible. If you
can got only 100 feet in length and
twenty five feet in height. a single wire
will still give YOU mighty good results.
IL your space is limited so that you
cannot get q stretch of 100 feet, you
had better use a two-wirc aerial, If
you are confined to fifty feet or so, Use
a four wire. And. whatever you use.
get it MS high as you conveniently can
and, IL il is much loss than 100 feet
long. bring the leading-i in wires from
the far end.
If you put mp an aerial ton feet above
the tin roof of an eight story house. the
height of the aerial isn't much more
than ten feet, for radio purposes. Try
to rig it up 50 that il is we'll above
roofs and trees. for the branches of
trees are great absorbers Of radio
energy.
If you use orc-wire aerial, make II
fast to the insulator ut the far end.
pass it through the ring or hole of the
near insulator and tie it without cut
ting it. and bring the free end straight
to your wall insulntor. That will avoia
the trouble of soldering on another wire
for a lead-in. II you use two or four
wires. string up each of them the same
way. Bring them together as near the
leading-in insulator as possible and
then solder. This is one place where
solder is absolutely essential. No
twisted connections viii do.
II you positively must Use an indoor
aerial. string four wires in this same
way under the ceiling of a garret II
YOU can get stretch Of twenty five or
thirty feet. If you cant you can run
a wire around the picture molding of n
room. spiral fashion. with each turn
about an inch from the others. using q
total length of about 200 to 250 feet.
Or you can use what Is known as q
''loop' aerial or one made of two Sec
lions Of fine mesh mosquito wire. though
this latter type is not yet widely
adopted.
But remember that. with any Of these
indoor aerials. you are reducing the
strength Of the received signals so that
vou will nccd several stages Of ampli-
flying bulbs TO work II loud speaking
horn. and these annjliticrs are cXpcn-
sivc and require some skill for best ad.
justmCnt. If YOU are within twenty
miles cr 50 "f II broadcastug station
you will get fairly good results in
phones only. even with a loop. We
will describe these different acrials
soon.
Aerial wire may be either bare or
insulntcd-it doesn't make much diff.
ference. And. if it is solid wire. the
bigger the better. The very best aerial
wire for ordinary use is the kind sold
for the purpose by the electrical stores.
1t Is made of seven twisted strands Of
bare wire, Is easy to handle. not cx-
pensivc and much more efficient as
gathcrcr of radio signals than even u
very heavy solid wire.