Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-08

Radio experts believe that the broad
cast situation would improve consider
ably if the stations would select
standard wave lengths for their nor
NAL use instead of taking any odd
number of meters which happens to
come into their minds.
For the past two or three years the
Department of Commerce has been
assigning channels separated by at
least 10 kilOcYclcS so that the ether
routes used would have plenty Of
clearance and the traffic on adjacent
wave lengths would not interfere.
This separation has been found neces-
sarv and the standard channels, which
were carefully worked out by experts,
have been proven in practice. Some
stations are ignoring this theory and
practice when they SELECT new wave
lengths for their normal use. 1hlS
tends to make matters worse than II
they took a regular ether route, 1t may
avoid taking another stations wave,
but il causes interference on other
wave lengths as we'll as the immediate
adjacent wave length.
The selections are apparently not
the work Of radio engineers or teen
nicians. but must be the result of hay
ing announcerS or call boys select
/
WNAC at Boston selected 430.1 meters,
or 697 kilocycles. only 90 kilocycles
from the Canadian channel, also used
hv NAA at Washington, whereas the
difference should be 10 kilOcycles.
This station probably will intetere
with WSB at Atlanta, since it is only
30 kilocycles from its wave.
WJBN mt Woodhave. n. Y, has
chosen 1922 meters. 63S kilocycles.
as it's new channel. This is another
non-standard route which is only :
lilocvcles from WRC at Washington
and KFI at Los Angeles, the last
station being one best heard in the
East. 1t is only kilocycles from
station channels used in Fort Worth,
Hartford and Dallas.
WJAF, the Fernherg Radio Co. at
Ferndale. Mich. selected the 400-meter
chnnnel. which is not a recognized
route for broadcasters; the regular
channel is 399.S meters, used by
WHAS. Translating these terms into
kilocycles. we get 749.6 for WJAF,
whereas WHAS operates on $50 kilo-
cycles. There is only difference
Of ! kilocvcle. but they should be
the same, and as Il result more inter
ference will be caused with other
stations en- nearby waves. WOR. for
example, on 40 kilocycleS.
Another faux pas is the choice Of
o6o meters. or S32.S kilocycles by
VIEW at st. Louis; the channel should
have been 1912 meters, or $50 kilo-
cvcles. as used by WQAO, WIN and
EGO. The wave selected is so near
these stations waves that it will in
terfere ANYHOW. and also with sta
tinrs on 1863 meters. or $40 kilocycles,
from which il is separated only by IL
liloCycles instead of 10 kilocycleS. the
usual clearance. Some time ago an
experiment was tried out wherein
several stations took temporary
freouencies separated by seven
kilocycles to see if good broadcast re-
ception could be had. 1t was proven
conclusively that a larger separation
was necessary and 10 kilocycles was
adopted as the standard.
In selecting channels station
should take Il number of kilocycles
ending in zero, between $50 and l,i9o
kilocycles. This Will. of course, give an
uneven number of meters. On any
standard kilocycle- meter conversion
chart or "a list of broadcasting chan
nels. if the number $50 is selected in
the kilocycle column. the meters will
he 54oI. Frequencies may be so Sc
lected by going down 10 numbers each
time in the kilocycle until 1890 is
REACHED, which corresponds to 2O2. i
meters. the lowest meter channel.