Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-25
The "Short Ware Regeneraiire Circuit

In every radio magazine you pick up
you see a great deal about the su.
periority Of the "short wave regen-
erative" circuit for receiving the broad
cast concerts. You may wonder why it
is that so few Of the manufacturers of
sets now on the market advertise that
they use this circuit. The answer is that
they don't use it. If they did nine be-
ginners out of ten would get diSusted
with radio and quit.
That isn't because there is anything
the matter with the circuit. There
nothing the matter with the main
switch board in the principal power sta
ton of the trolley company. but you
wouldn't advise novice in electricity to
monkey with the switches.
This set. with it's two varioneters. is
about as delicate and hard to manage as
you get the impression that all 1t can
do is howl and sQueal and whistle and
fry" Then. after few nights OF
discouragement, you hear the sound OF
a voice and you quickly turn something
10 improve it, and it is gone. And, like
swimming. you fuss around and are
about ready to give up when suddenly
you find yourself swimming and after
that you don't have much trouble.
Ii you are through building oil the
six by six units we have described IN
these lessons we will "hook the set up.
as we hams say. and see what It
does But first. have you pasted tin
foil or copper foil on the backs Of the
panels Of the units where we recon-
mcnded it? If not you'd better do it.
for you will have sad time otherwise,
have already said that the human
! body is n great condenser. quite as
powerful as the beautiful forty three
plate variable that you have bought.
With many hook ups, when you reacl,
out your hand and turn knob until
rou hear signal the way you want II,
YOU are including this human condenser
y the circuit without knowing 1t and,
when you take your hand away, re-
moving the condenser. your signal dis.
appears or the set begins to howl.
In the illustration l am showing the
| hook-up as applied to the regular
manufactured apparatus which you buy
in any store. Some time ago l gave O
/ list Of apparatus and prices, totaline
| S5S as approximate for the best circuit
! that could be used. This was the one
! ! had in mind.
! You'll probably be bothered by body
! capacity with these instruments If YOU
/ have bought them. II you are you wi!
have TO arrange some sort Of body
/ capacity ground as IL is called. If you
are mounting them in cabinet paste
I tnfoil all over the back of the pane
/ and the inside Of the bottom and sides
, cutting it away wherever you have &c
make connections, except at tbs
ground" binding post. See that the
! tinfoil hns good contact with this post
| and it will then carry off the body
! capacity and divert il TO the ground Sc
that il will not affect the set sc
seriously.
If you aren't mounting the inStru
mcnts you had better stand each o'
4 them on 4 piece Of cardboard on wh!ct
You have pasted tinfoil. But be very
rarcrul that no metal parts touch tht
fuiI or your set may not work at all
q Or You can paste a piece OF paper over
The rinfoil.
Now ger n number Of ordinary paner
, cIiir-the kind made OF steel wlre-ant
solder two on the two ends Of number
Of pieces of wire. The number anC
length will depend on how you are ar
ranging your apparatus.
The idea is 10 slide one clip over thu
cardboard so that it makes good con-
tact with the t!nfoil and slide the cliI
on the other end OF the wire to the tin
foil under the next instrument. In thi!
way you must connect the t!nfoil under
all the instruments in the same line anC
the other end Of the line goes to tn
ground binding post on your variable
condenser, II you use one, or If yot
don't, to the ground binding post OF
your variocoupler. The object is 70 SCI
that all these pieces Of tinfoil are con
rected 10 the ground wire somewher".
This i n nuisance, ] know, but /
isn't one-tenth the nuisance that bod
capacity is. And this hook-up Is hart