Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1922-03-30
Building Your Own Radio Set


~
Tbs word wireless" has almost been
erased from the modern scientific vocab-
ulary. 1t has been suppplanted by the
word Radio" 1t is possible to change
our words and expressions, but it is al
most impossible for the old-time wire
less bug to forget the wireless days and
tireless nights spent in the efforts to
make Radio" what it is today.
1t was along in 1912 that indianapolis
put her hat into the wireless ring. Sew
eral enterprising young men in various
parts of the city had by hard labor and
many trying experiments been allie to
get their apparatus constructed and were
able to communicate with each other by
the telegraphic code. Apparatus was
very scarce on the market and was at the
same time very expensive when it was
obtainabIe. Very few wireless bugs
had sufficient money to purchase the APP
paratus, and, accordingly, about 95 per
cent of the equipment was home made.
Many weary hours were spent by these
earnest devotees in winding by hand
many thousand turns Of very fine wire
on the secondary coils of their trans
formers. And, oh! how exasperatlng it
was to see these secondary coils burn out
after pressing the keys a few times; all
the labor and materials gone up in smoke
and the work to do over again.
FIRST ATTEMPTS RESULTED
IN MORE PROBLEMS.
After a second or third attempt at
rewinding and building up hopes of
transmitting signals "all over the city"
the secondary condenser would begin to
kick up by breaking through the plates
and requiring complete rebuilding. Fin
ally, after rebuilding IND strengthening
parts here and there, the operators
heart leaped with JOY to hear his fellow
Bug" way over on the other side Of
the city answer his signals. And did
you ever have the pleasure Of hearing
these signals? Well Johnny Love had a
tone sounded like a Ford hand Klaxon,
rough as a nutmeg crater, and Bill Keg-
ley sounded like an old ram out in the
barn lot. Carl Dean boosted Of aApretty
smooth tone like a Mississippi River fat
boat, but just the same the signals got
through"
Then came the advent Of the rotary
spark gap which "sweetened" up the
tone and made the signals readable
through the raspy static. All the boys
then built rotary spark gaps to replace
the inefficient straight spark gap. Oh!
It was something TO talk about when your
signals were so strong that every fellow
in town could hear you on any adjust
ment Of his tuning coil. However. It
wasn't nearly so nice when some one
else wanted to work the air" when the
strong stations were working. They sim
ply had to quit and wait until the power
box was through.
About that time Uncle Sam stepped in
and said: Here boys, you've got to cut
that out. Some OF you fellows are in
terferinG with commercial work. You
must make your aerials smaller and cut
down on your apparatus so that you
don't send out a wave longer than 200
meters. Also, you must cut your trans
former input to one kllowatt and you
must tune your sets to transmit on a
sharp wave" Wen this woke up soma
Of the power boys and put some Of
them to sleep. The sleepy one said at
can't be done. We wont be able to send
FIVE miles" The more interested ones
said well 1t can't be helped. We must
do II Uncle Sam says So" And they
did
Much to the surprise Of many, they
found that their transmitting range was