The Winslow mail., 1925-12-04
John Smith and His DhDI0
No II: Finding Battery Trouble atNVHV
One a of Weekly Articles Popular RadO-COpy
righted, 1926 by Ulman Feature Service

1t was while getting little prac
tice in tuning in on one of the sta
tions that was to broadcast an ex-
ceptionally fine program few
nights later that Smith ran into a
few difficulties 1t was one of
those nights when radio waves
were not spanning the ether up to
the usual standard, but when he
suggested that come over and
help him locate the trouble | made
no mention of this.
His trouble appeared to be diff
ficulty in obtaining sufficient vol
ume, but on watching him l found
he was not trying for anything
more than two hundred miles away.
why don't you try for some sta
tion at seven hundred miles of a
thousand?" l suggested. There
are a few more distant stations
that are so much more powerful
than the nearby ones you're trying
to get that they should come
through very we'll Don't condemn
your set just because a few. sta
tions are not up to par. Tune in
on as many as possible and judge
conditions from the average. Not
only must you figure on variations
in the efficiency of the stations but
also on variations in the atmos-
phere, the earth and many other
things that are still a mystery.
even your aerial makes a diff
ference Brown down the street
tried swinging his aerial in diff
ferent direction and discovered that
some of the stations he used to get
very distinctly became faint He
thought he was having radio trou-
BILE, but when he tried tuning in
for unfamiliar stations he found
he could pick up number of pro-
grams he never had been able to
due to the direction in which the
aerial ram
That's all very interesting"
Smith admitted, "but it looks like
a gentle way of telling me that
I've got real trouble tonight l
haven't touched the aerial and
neither get the old stations clearly
nor any new ones. Something's
wrong. Now, where do we start
looking for it?"
eve start with the easiest things
first" | answered. I'm your ex-
perience with tuning you must have
discovered how delicate a thing
your receiving set is, for the slight
est position of one of the dials
draws the line between getting a
station and losing it. The same
thing applies to any trouble with
the set That's why the very sim
pie things are the basis of most
radio troubles. Major troubles with
any of the units can be recognized
by the fact that they make the set
imperative"
well, we're in no such predicaz
ment as that. Let's check over
theN battery connections. They
cleaned the living room today.
Maybe somebody disturbed the
wires"
There's an easier way to look
for the trouble than that | re-
him "The fact that your
set is actually working tonight, but
does not get stations with the usual
volume suggests three things:
Radio energy reaching the set is
weak; the batteries are weak, or
the tubes are getting old"
Smith knew how to decide about
the tubes He went to the shelf |
where he carries a few spare parts /
so as not to be caught during /
worth while concert program and
returned with two new tubes. These 4
he inserted first as audio amplifier
tubes, then as radio amplifers. He
even changed the detector tube But !
the tubes revealed no apparent in !
Now how are we going to meas
ure the strength of the incoming
he asked.
wen decide that point with our
heads" | explained