Evening star., 1923-02-11
BY COMMANDER STANFORD q.
HOOPER, u. s. n.
(Copyrixht 1921

Picking dots and dashes" out Of
space lis the business of the radio
operator Picking music. lectures
and other forms of entertainment out
Of the air is the favorite amusement
Of the radio fan.
1t Is this principal difference which
distinguishes the. former from the
latter, although the radio operator
must have other special qualifications
besides his ability to read and write.
or, in other words, to send and re-
ueive the language Of radio.
Obviously the radio operator can
enjoy the broadcast programs as well
as the radio fan-if he has time to
listen to them-whereas to most radio
fans the "buzzings" in space of the
radio language is a meaningless jun
will take the trouble to learn the
language of radio because to become
fluent in 1t Is as difficult as 1t Is to
master foreign language.
The professional radio operator
will not give much time to radio
be of exceptional interest or merit
even though he has leisure time for
the purpose, because radio In Its
various aspects Is to him decidedly
OCner tnan romantic.
To the regular government and
commercial radio operators, radio is
an agency which always demands
strenuous mental effort on his part.
and 1t frequently happens that
strenuous physical effort is required
as we'll as part OF his daily task.
This. of course, applies more par
ticularly to the radio operators who
day and night man our radio stations
on shipboard and on shore. and some
| times on aircraft, and who are re-
sponsible for keeping their stations
in efficient working order and get
ting their messages through regard
less of difficulties. rather than to the
! many thousands of juvenile amateur
| radio operators who strive for results
| among themselves, but who are not
held to account If they do not achieve
1 them.
When the professional radio op-
| orator finishes his day he logically
| seeks relaxation through other means
| than radio. The dot and dash Ian
| expression common to all languages.
All Languages Same.
An American radio operator who
! lily copy messages sent in German by
| German operators. in French by
! French operators. or In Spanish by
| Spanish operators for example, and
l they Will be exact reproductions OF
| the messages as sent although their
meaning will be unintelligible to the
| American operator and intelligible
| only to those who can read the Ian
guage in which the message was
| originally written.
Likewise. the American operator
! will correctly transmit messages
| written in foreign languages which
he does not understand. or he will
experience no difficulty in trans
mitting messages in English to for.
eign stations manned by operators
| who do not speak or understand Eng.
lish.
This feature constitutes one Of the
outstanding advantages which radio.
telegraphy possesses over Tado-tele
phony, especially with respect to in
tercourse between nations Of differen
languages.
An American who speaks and un
| derstands only English. for example
will not make much headway by en-
deavoring to converse by radio-tele
phony directly with a Frenchmar
who speaks and understands only
French.
1t is doubtful even whether Ameri.
cans in the United States could freely
converse with Englishmen In Eng
land. due to the differing accents anc
! mannerisms Of speech. as exemplifiet