Evening star., 1933-11-12
AUTOS INTERFERE
WITH SHORT WAVE
Experimenters Ask Co-opera-
ton in Efforts to Solve
Ignition Radiations.
By MARTIN CODEL.

MERTCAS vast army of motor
~ lists has become an unwilling
IN menace" to the small but zeal
4 \ Gus army of experimenterS
working ON the ultra-short ra-
dio waves. toward which Guglielmo
Marconi and other leading radio scien-
lists have pointed the way for the fu-
ture development of television and a
MULTIPLICITY of other radio services.
The reason simply is that the spark
discharges OF any automobiles ignition
system, though the driver may not
know it, actually act like a radio trans
mitter and send out inflnitessimal but
nevertheless penetrating interfering ra-
diations. Something must be done
about this, the short wave workers ex-
claim, and they are urging the auto
mobile makers to cooperate with them
in eradicating the trouble.
Interference by Autos.
Ordinary broadcast reception in the
home sometimes also feels the effectS
of ignition interference from passing
automobiles. just as it does from va
rious nearby electrical devices but the
set owner usually thinks it Is atmoS-
pl1eric static. II is a species OF man
made static that happens TO react
worse on the short wave than on any
OkllEiS, al law NAiN ~ NAA~
length the worse the effects.
Radio amateurs. through their head
quarters organization, the American
Radio Relay League, are taking up the
cudgelS for a crusade which they hope
to make as successful as the one they
conducted in 1881, which led manufac-
turers Of Superheterodyne receivers,
once the bane of amateur radio because
Of their radiating interference, to build
their sets so that they became rea-
sonably free from oscillator radiation
and consequent interference.
The amateurs, mostly mere youths
working at radio as a hobby, but with
a fine tradition of technical achieve
ment behind them, have been turning
more and more toward the ultra short
waves, ranging from five meters down
to fractions of one meter. Thousands
of additional radio channels are fore
seen in this area of the radio spectrum
once the kinks in transmission and re-
ception are removed. One OF those
kinks Is automobile interference. Says
QST, the monthly organ of the ANA
teurs:
Success Is Limited.
Amateurs aren't the only ones to
suffer, In the fields of television and
police radio. toward which high fire.
uuency activity is being increasingly ac-
ceierated. ignition interference is and
will grow further to be the limiting
factor to successful communication.
What matters it that static of the
atmospheric variety is absent at these
freouencies If it Is replaced by more
vicious variety? If a radio cop has to
20 a mile off the highway before he can
collect the lurid details, they won't do
him much good. Who will want tele-
vision pictures surcharged with snakes
and zigzags, symbolic of ignition wires
and spark discharges? 1t may add
dash of impressionism to drinking
scene, but most folks just won't appre-
ciate it."
Radio development, QST contends, is
now squarely afoul this defect" in
motor car manufacture. and 1t is up
to the automobile makers to eliminate
rn infringement" on the public inter-
est. convenience and necessity de-
s,ribed in the radio law. QST offers
the following simple solution, and asks
the auto manufacturers to heed it:
Equip all cars. at the factory, with
suppression resisters and with adequate
ignition systems so that the addition
of suppressors does not impair motor
performance. Cars with automobile ra-
clio are regularly thus fitted. All cars
should be; the small added expense
would be completely justihable."