Evening star., 1933-01-29
REAL RADIO HEROES
ARE BEHIND SCENES
Maintenance Engineers Risk
Lives While Performers
Get PubIic's Applause.
BY ROBERT MACK.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
ITTSBURGH. January 28.-This
l. Is a tale of radios unsung heroes,
Of those men who keep the
i radio show" going at any ex-
pense, who toy with apparatus
carrying thousands Of volts. where q
slip means instant death.
OF the valance and courage Of these
men, the maintenance engineers, the
public never hears. Their voices never
60 on the air and their names seldom
appear in print. Yet 1t is they who
render your receivers responsive to
what goes over the ether and who are
constantly improving the fidelity OF
your reception
1t was my privilege to inspect Sta
ton KDKA, Pittsburgh, the worlds
first broadcasting station. Not KDKA
located In . modern, downtown hotel
with its lavish furnishings and COM
modious studios for the artists, but
KDKA at Saxonburg-30 miles from,
Pittsburgh-where the giant transmit
ter is housed and where the mainte-
nance engineers are stationed.
My trip was arranged by Walter C.
Evans, who at 81 is the head Of all the
radio operations of Westinghouse Elec-
trio g. Manufacturing Co., including
stations. My immediate escort was
Earl Harmon, 27-year-old engineer
whose latest achievement, soon to be
disclosed, Is certain to startle the radio
world. He has developed a process OF
doubling the signal strength of stations
| without increasing power output anC
with almost negligible construction cost
Booming Transmitters.
Here were the booming transmitters
not only Of KDKA, with its output ol
| $4,000 watts, but of the worlds most
powerful set, which catapults 400, ,00(
watts into space IN testing the advan-
| taRes of high power and which romp.
up and down the radio spectrum dur.
ing the early morning hours wher
America sleeps. Then there are two
high frequency stations which carry
KDKA'S programs to the four corner.
of the globe-another pioneering ven
ture for Westinghouse-which 1t doe!
without monetary return, but which Il
designed to promote international gooc
| will and to provide entertainment fo1
those little patches of humanity in the
| frozen North and in other remote por.
| tions of the world.
Behind row after row Of mammoth
| electrical machinery We marched. witt
big signs, Danger, High Voltage" star.
ing us in the face. Elwyn Sollie, KDKf
maintenance engineer. joined us ant
they kept me sandwiched in the mid
| die to make sure I wouldn't brush
against live wire or gadget.
1t was only by adroit questioning
that I succeeded in learning of some
of the ventures of these boys behint
the radio gun They were modest u
the point of bashfulness. Finally,
made discoveries while we were inspect.
! ing the cellar" where are housed the
dig vats in which the transmitting tubes
are cooled by water and oil to prevent
| blowouts.
1t seems that the lead conduits. con-
Meeting these tubes with the transmit
ting circuits, wear away by friction
every few weeks. To repair them wher
the circuits are dead" would mean q
6-hour wait for the oil. In which the
tubes are bathed. to drain on During
| that time there would be danger of the
same thing happening to the spare set
So young Sollie, the swimmer" of the
crew, strips to the waist and jump:
into the vat, replacing the broken leao
under ice water.
Loyalty and Courage.
From others around the plant
ItdIlltQ VI cQudl lcdlS VI lOydlL5 kllt
courage with the single thought G.
keeping the stations on the air. A new
transmitter had been rushed to com.
pletion in time for special program
When the program was about to go or
the air, sputtering developed. Hur.
ried examination disclosed a faulty
splice in 3,500-volt plate cable, which
was burning itself apart. The main,
tenance engineer in charge pulled or
pair of insulated gloves and held tht
two high-voltage wires together in hi.
hand for As minutes, until the pro
gram ended.
Another tale concerns KYW, the
Westinghouse station at Chicago Ther,
sleet-laden Northeaster driving in cf
Lake Michigan carried away the ice.
coated antenna about 40 minutes befor,
the end of the evening program. TIL,
operator on watch secured a length O.
rope to the aerial, fought his way VI
the glazed ladder of the tower anc
succeeded in temporarily securing tn,
wires. The show went on.
Back in East Pittsburgh I was showr
through the EXPERIMENTAL laboratories o.
Westinghouse, a veritable house O
magic. where television experimental
ton gees forward and where astound
ing results have been attained il
"micro-ray' transmission. But that
another story.
(Conyripbt 1n2ol