Evening star., 1928-11-19
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

! Now the receivers working on straight
| alternating current tubes. thus doing
away with batteries, have caused the
regenerative sets to come to the fore
again, for the following reason:
Thousands of persons owning old
| fashioned "bloopers," who had learned
how to handle them, have traded them
in on the newer sets. Thus the "bloop-
ers' have passed into the hands of in
experienced persons who neither know
nor care what they are doing TO their
neighbor's radio reception.
Just what this amounts to any one
knows who happens to have such a
'blooper" nearby. Personally, we have
always doubted that such radiations can
be heard for 2 miles, but there is no
question that they may cause havoc
for several blocks
The present writer once owned a one
tube regenerative set. with which he
sometimes amused himself by causing
hoWlS in the set Of the man next door.
The sounds which he could cause to
come zooming forth from the neigh
boris loud speaker were bloodcurdling.
He thinks it only fair to himself TO
say that he INDUCED in this sport but
few times.
Imagine what a 5-tube regenerator is
capable Of doing! 1t is no stretch either
of the imagination or of figures to say
that a man with a $40 regenerative set
can utterly ruin the reception in thou
sands of dollars worth of the latest
type electric receivers.
T,':s is exactly what has been hap
penina to the nice new set of the pres
ent writer, and he is here to tell The
wid4 wide world that he is getting
preey - A of it.
If this thing keeps up, he is going
to sell his new receiver cheap for cash,
and give up radio for good and all,
since there is no pleasure in listening
is to be spoiled every few minutes by
startling shrieks, awful groans, weird
rumblings, Super-cat walls.
4 X X y
There seem to be four varieties OF
noise which a determined regenerative
set owners can make come forth from
your loud speaker.
The first of these is the we'll known
"yawp" caused when the "blooper
tunes into a wave band and out of it,
It would be an interesting experiment
if it were not public nuisance. 1t is
for all the world like riding down into
valley and coming up again on the
OGIlGT SiUb.
The second noise is a whistle which
many persons are now miStaking for a
| "heterodyne" caused by the wave band
of some other station being too close
to the wave band of the one broadcast
ing.
If the annoying whistling noise is a
''heterodyne" it will not disappear until
the other station goes off the air. but
if it is caused by a playful neighbor
with "blooper" 1t may stop at any
moment. If such whistle finally
ceases, the chances are 10 to l that 1t
was caused by some kid in the neigh
borhood amusing himself with his small
but mighty set
The third sort of noise is a grum-
bling, away down at the bottom of the
loud speaker, for all the world like the
recurrent moan sent forth from the
throat of the more practiced of two
belligerent tomcats.
The fourth noise is sort of knock.
probably caused by the playful fan
rapping vigorously with his finger on
the detector tube in his set. We can
account for it by no other procedure.
All these noises should and must dis
appear from the air, we submit. if radio
broadcasting and receiving are to be-
come what they inherently are and
what the future holds for them. Let
the regenerative set be discarded or at
least made safe for ALL 1t can and
should be done-and by enforcement.
II necessary.