The Washington times., 1924-06-17
DEAD COUNTRY
IS FINALLY
HEARD
Experimenters Have Some
Success in Getting Mojaye
Desert

CHICAGO, June 1.-THE average
fan who thinks he is having a lot
Of trouble viii find consolation in
a report made by an engineering
corps which has been carrying on
radio experimental work In the
Mojave Desert, always considered
a dead spot" for radio reception.
The report has been received by
the Electrical Research Laboratories
in Chicago. The experimenters
are located at Little Rock. Calf.
and are members of the Los
Angeles county, surveyors camp.
The. report is signed by seven engi.
neers and says: " =.
I'VE believe you will be inter-
ested in the radio experimenting
we have carried on in our camp
every night since November 5,
with various sets with more or less
success. In the beginning, we must
state that this has always been
considered a .Ydead'' country; no
one before has had any success to
speak of, even the best sets 1--WE
mean up to five tubes sometimes
refusing to register signals even
from Los Angeles. twenty miles
southwest, but behind a high lafge
of mountains.
High, Sandy Plateau.
"You must visualize a high,
sandy, dry plateau, surrounded by
mountains on all sides: The Mojave
Desert. In addition to this, we
experience daily. high electrical
winds. We have seen an intern1it-
tant spark jump y inch gap be-
tween the antenna and ground leads,
continuously for hours at time.
I'm order to obtain successful
radio reception we have had to
bury the ground twenty feet deep
to find even a moist condition, and
to raise the aerial sixty feet high.
We are using an 81" antenna, ih5
feet long from point to set. This
has given best results over all
other types"
The report then gives a list Of
high-power, standard three, four
and five tube sets which failed to
get any results or succeeded only
in getting very unsatisfactory re.
suits, and then says:
Set Brings Results.
1.-THE only set which has brought
any degree of success is the Erla
three tube reflex. We believe that
the future universal receiver win
be one using the reflex method.
We believe that your Judgment,
based on radio research, will bring
decisive change in the construc-
ton of all receivers; that tube
refiexing is the most efficient of
any method so far. and that your
discovery of experimentation. which
few had suspected, will be the
ultimate goal of the perfect reflex
receiver"
With this cicruit the following
stations were heard on the loud
speaker. some of them at a dis.
lance OF a quarter of a mile:
XII, XIII. KFSG, KPO, XIX.
kGO. kew, KDYL, KIN. KFAF,
CFCN. WBAP. WHB, KYW,
WOAW, xxx, KDKA, WSAI.
WTAM, WGY. Other stations heard
on the head phones through the
nearby powerful stations were
WJAZ, WLW, WOS, WCAL. WAS.
WAX, WMAQ, WSB, CFCN, CYL.
KGU and others.
Stations reported as absolutely
dead to u.s. were WV, WIZ, woo
ana kSD. A total of fifty-six sta
tlons nave been received and
logged, sixteen OF them in one
night.
The report then calls attention
10 the fact that the difference in
tlme made 1t necessary to tune in
many OF the above stations between
and 8 o'clock, a great difference
IN volume being noted when special
late programs were sent out by the
Eastern stations.