Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1925-02-28
Radio Column
Radio Fans Consider Your Neighb0rs
(By Charles d. Potts.

Ninety-fie per cent of radio "trcub-
les" are caused by ignorance or disre-
gard of the rules of tuning. 1t is sur
plising to find what a change in ones
viewpoint is made when a radio set is
purchased. Before we own the set,
radio is most mysterious science;
wonderful in the extreme. After we
get the set, most of us expect to sit
down and hear stations thousands of
miles away, without paying any at
tcntion to the operation of the set
according to instructions.
Turning the dials at random is not
tuning. You may run into some sta
tions by accident, but the chances are
that you will hear nothing but the
nearby stations that you can't help
but tune in.
Just as the violinist tunes his in
strument to the piano that is to ac-
company him, you must tune your
instrument to resonance with the
sending stations. Not only that, but
you have several separate circuits
that must be in tune with one another
as we'll as with the broadcasting sta
ton.
The first thing for the beginner to
do in starting to tune in a station is
to turn on the filament of the vacuum
tube. If you have amplifers, turn on
the amplifer tubes first, as they do
not need a very careful adjustment.
Tubes burned too bright, give fainter
signals and more harsh noises, and
last about one-tenth as long as tubes
burned at the proper temperature.
The detector tube adjustment is very
important, and it should be burned at
q temperature lower than the point
where a Kissing sound can be heard.
After regulating the detector, adj
vance the ticker, or plate inductance
(this is marked on most sets, and is
usually the farthest dial to the right
OF the tuner), to about one-half it's
capacity or little more. Now turn
the primary condenser and switch
(this is usually at the left, and mark
ed tuner) until a sound is heard like
a whistle or if the dial is moved past
very rapidly, chirp of bird. Now
turn back the dial until this whistle
is heard loudest, and then reduce the
value of the ticker, meanwhile hold
ing the whistle at it's loudest point,
until the whistle becomes blurred, fl
rally melting into the voice or music
at the sending station. 1t is possible
to tune in stations with the ticker
advanced too far; but this will be un-
stable, and the set is liable to start
to howl when the hands are moved.
On the other hand, the ticker should
be exactly at the place where the
whistle disappears for below this
point it will be impossible to hear
distant stations. To sum this all up:
1. Advance ticker to half or three
quarter position.
2. Turn primary, or tuner adjust
ments until whistling sound is
heard.
3. Stop at this point, and reduce
the ticker until the whistling sound
disappears, meanwhile varying the
tuner so that the VIII stle is held at
it's greatest intensity until it COM
pletely disappears. At this point the
voice will be heard.
A little practice will make this OPP
Grafton very simple, yet if this pro-
cedure is not followed it is probable
that no distant stations will be heard
at all. These instructions apply only
to regenerative sets, but unless your
set is regenerative or has radio fire.
quency amplifier, very few long dis
lance stations will be heard under any
conditions. Reradiation from single
circuit tuners has become such a de-
c:ded nuisance that eight of the lead
ing radio laboratories of the country
arc now engaged in developing pre-
! ventative device to correct this evil.
This will probably take the form of
one-way valve which can be inserted