Evening star., 1933-12-10
F AND when airplanes are de-
veloped to travel at terrific

Veloped 70 travel at terrific
speeds through the strato-
sphere, as scientists are pre-
drifting even more confidently
since the recent stratosphere
balloon aScentS, radios role will
be that Of maintaining constant
voice communication with the
earth below. That broadcasting
from the stratosphere is entirely
feasible-indeed has points Of
favor as against ordinary land
broadcaSting-was definitely DEM
onstrated during the recent Set
tle-F FOrdney. ascent.
Using only one watt of power
on a short wave around 20 meters,
Settle and Fordney were able to
speak to Washington, Pittsburgh,
Akron and other points quite
clearly during the flight and their
voices were relayed over a ma
tional network. Their transmit
ter weighed only IL pounds, and
their receiver only 8 pounds.
Two-way speech was maintained
until the balloenists had to drop
their batteries to tighten their
load.
Charles w. Horn, general en-
gineer of National Broadcasting
Co., explains that it was possible
to broadcast from the strato-
sphere with such low power be-
cause OF the absence of ground
reflections while the changes in
the angle of reflection from the
Heaviside layer, ionized portion
of the upper atmosphere from
which radio signals literally
bounce" back to earth. greatly
increased the range of coverage.
In airplanes. heavier apparatus
powered by generators instead of
batteries may make higher power
and even wider listening ranges
possible, he said.
The remarkable success of radio
during the Settle -Fordney flight
recalled to old timers the excite
ment that greeted another balloon
radio experiment just 20 years ago
this Winter. Flying with L. L.
Irwin, noted aeronaut of the
time, Harold D. Hayes, now radio
inspector Of the Federal Radio
Commission at Chicago, assembled
in a captive balloon over Los An
geleS at night to attempt to re-
ceive code messages sent from a
ground station. Mr.. Hayes was
then conducting the Y. M. c. A.
Wireless School in Los Angeles.
During the 2,000-foot ascent he
reported copying the position
message of the S. S. Siberia two
days west of Honolulu.
This was hailed as a great
achievement, and shortly there
after Hayes took off with Roy
Knabenshue the pioneer dirigibie
expert, for flight over Pasadena,
this time carrying radio trans
mitting apparatus. Code was sent
and received quite successfully
while flying at an elevation OF
800 feet.
'It is true" Hayes was quoted in
the press as saying after the
flight. that the America, the big
dirigible built to cross the Allan
tic and which came to an untime-
ly end in the waters of the South
Atlantic, had a wireless outfit.
But they had an aerial connected
to the water. Our outfit was
free from the ground. In fact,
we demonstrated that 1t is pos
Sible to send and receive messages
independent of all connection with
earth or sea-"
r
THE trend away from the wave
lengths bordering on the
broadcasting band, many of
which can readily be tuned in
by those owning the modern
radio receivers, is being evi-
denced almost daily by the num-
ber of applications for the shorter
waves below 10 meters being re-
ceived from police radio stations
by the Federal Radio Commission.
The commission is encouraging
this hegira, for its avowed policy
is to clear out the police channels
between 1,500 and 1000 kilocycles
as well as to cooperate with local
police in their desire to maintain
the secrecy of police transmits
sions.
People owning modern radios
that can tune beyond 1900 kilo-
cycles, the upper limit of the pro-
gram band, have displayed so
much curiosity in police messages
that the radio-equipped squad
cars are sometimes beaten to the