Evening star., 1924-11-02
RADIO QUERIES

Radio Editor:
Will you please tell me the loca-
tion of station WJJB?. I heard it
Wednesday night about sos o'clock,
but code Interference prevented me
from hearing the location Of the sta
tion distinctly. 1t sounded like New
Castle or Newark.--E. II. G.
You probably heard WILD. the new
station of the Loyal Order of Moose
in Moosehart, Ill. There is no sta
ton with the call letters WJJB.
Radio Editor:
Thursdays Star, the station heard
was WGBS, the new station OF Gim-
bel Brothers in New York City. The
speaker was Eddie Cantor, who had
apparently been announcing the en-
tertainers. as he had previously an
nounced Mai. J. Andrew White. After
the major finished his remarks Eddie
said: LAS far as I'm concerned the
program is concluded. It's 20 minute es
to u and I've got to get to Mount
Vernon. If / leave now / will be
there Thursday" / heard test pro-
gram from this station late Friday
night when 1t broadcast as excl
j. A. r.
Radio Editor:
] have very unusual crystal set
and do not think it can be beat
have picked up WSAI. WBZ. KDkA,
WEAF and WIZ, besides all local sta
tions. WBZ has been coming in late
ly louder than KDkA-F. C. r.
Radio Editor:
The station which NJ. T.. V. heard
n pl
Ill, broadcasting on 345 meters 1t
was radiocasting a sacred concert
Abide With Me-" bell solo being
followed by Beautiful Isle of Some
where. a soprano solo. l did not
hear the other announcements to
which NJ. E. V. referred. and it is
probable that he heard more than one
program at the same dial setting
DIR. T. B. DINON.
Radio Editor:
For tho benefit of those who have
tubes which have lost their efficiency
] might recite the following expert
cncc:
| have a 5-tube Neutrodyne set
which was neither bringing in dis
tance nor producing volume, using
CV-20lA tubes which I had decided
TO replace. friend told me of a
method to bring the tubes back to
life-i- e.. run a 15-polt current
through the flament for 45 seconds
and then a 6-volt current for six
hours, at the end which time the
tubes would be either burnt out or
working as well as ever Determined
to try this on the old tubes before
throwing them away. l took a volt
meter and located a spot on my stor-
age batteries which read Is volts
Using this as my source of supply
for the 15-volt current I joined con-
tact with each tube filament individ-
uaNy for 45 seconds and then after
disconnecting the B batteries from
the set replaced the tubes in the set
and turned the 6-volt filament cur
rent on full and left them there for
SIX hours.
At the end of this time l found that
none of the tubes had burnt out
whereupon l connected the bat
terieS and began to tune in on dis
tant stations. Imagine my astonish-
ment to find station after station
coming in clearly and with so much
volume ] had to cut out one Of the
amplifiers. 1 was able to bring in
stations 1 could not reach before.
even when the set was new. In fact
] brought in kGO on the loud speaker
quite clearly. This station. located
in Oakland, Calf, broadcasts on
wave length of 3l2 meters. WSAI at
Cincinnati was broadcasting at the
same time on a wave length Of 3OS
meters, but l had no difficulty in cut
tings out the latter station. It is
needless to say l changed my mind
about replacing the old tubes.
AS nearly as L can ascertain the
reason why it is possible to bring
the old tubes back under this treat
ment is that the filament, after be-
ing heated and cooled SO many times
when it is turned on and off during
several months use. crystallizes~ in
much the same manner that iron or
steel loses its temper and becomes
brittle after. being reheated a num-
Der of times, and that this treatment
brings the filament back to it's
original state in much the same man
ner. that iron or steel is retempered
under similar treatment,
1t seems to me that this is the
logical thing to do with old tubes
that have lost their efficiency, for
even if they are not burnt out they
have lost their usefulness If they fail
to function. If they burn out during
the treatment there is nothing to be
lost. while OH the other hand, il they
survive, they are certain to be func-
own case none of the tubes was
burnt out, and in the end they were
better than they were when new,
after seven or eight months constant
use.-CHARLAES l. CARSON.