The Wrangell sentinel., 1942-01-16
QRM

We'd be the last one to point a finger of criticism at our armed for ces who are doing such noble job of defending us and as Alaskans. we're used to taking lot of things on the chin. However, once ill a l while We feel, as citizens, we have just cause to get all 'het up' and that's why, forthwith, we are set ting up a howl We hope will carry quite a distance-at least as far as the Seattle headquarters of the U. s. Signal Corps for Alaska.
 For a long time now we've been bothered with interference, QRM in dot-an-dash language, from our lo- cal signal corps station. Some QRM is atmospheric and there's not much can be done about that. Another variety, of which the local station is guilty, is mechanical and therein is where we raise our voice in pro- test or supplication or whatever isl necessary to get it remedied
 Protests were lodged over yearI ago from annoyed residents and for warded to headquarters in Seattle. In June, 1940, the Colonel then inl charge in Seattle stated that uponI moving to it's new quarters in thel new Federal building, the local sig-I nal corps station would be providedl with new equipment and a compel tent engineer would install it and see that the troublesome QRM wasl eliminated. But when the signal corps moved in August, more thanl three months before war was del clared, the same old antiquated, equipment was installed and mol changes were made to correct theI interference the station had long caused.
 The trouble consists of key clicks and thumps. As soon as anI operator starts sending, any pro- gram to which a tired Wrangell bus mess man, or woman, may be lis tening is drowned in an unholy ta- too that sounds like Fred Astaire doing a Buck n Wing in deep-sea divers shoes across the dial.
 Key clicks are caused by keying the entire plate current. The remedy, which would cost Uncle Sam less than $25.00 (out of S58,000,00 0,000) | would be to bias the final amplifier tubes, neutralize them, and use the grid bias keying on the oscillator. The local operators could fix it but regulations prohibit them from mak- ing any changes in their equipment without permission from headquar- ters. It wasn't so bad before the war when the signal corps operators were on short schedules and never after six o'clock in the evening, but since the new 24-hour shift order, no sooner do we tune in on how Gener- al McArthur is doing in the Phil ippines, or Jack Benny's latest wise crack, which is good for morale, than it's all lost in barrage of clicks and chatter from one end of the dial to the other.
 The day of President Roosevelt's s worldshaking address on the state of the nation, at the opening of Congress, We stayed home from work to listen. It was at 93O a. m We heard the introductions perfect ly, atmo ospheric condition were ideal Vice-President Wallace introduced the president. My friends" the President began and then-?!*$OuI you guessed it! The Signal Corps! If our fayorite President had any thing more to tell the people of the United States (which, we assume includes Alaska) it was only a word now and then between thumps, ut terly meaningless.
 Amateur operators and stations are bound by strict rules of the Federal Communications Laws and they must adhere to them, or else There were, before they were banned, Amateur stations in Wrangell, using the same amount of power as the signal corps, yet they gave no trou- ble. They obeyed, to the letter, Fed Deral laws regarding interference and wave-lengths. It doesn't seem too much to ask the U. s. Signal Corps to do the same.
 At least, we'll wager Nazi pelt that if the Army would authorize the boys to take the bugs" out of their old equipment, that new trans hitter probably now being out off the question because of the war. it