Evening star., 1943-05-26

With their sons comblng Junk
heaps for parts and their wives
bicycling over the county to give
technical instruction in classes, radio
bugs" in Prince Georges County
now are operating a high-frequency
radio network which can serve as
communications center for the en-
tire county in case of an air raid.
Complete with tWo-Way mobile
units and Walkie-talkies, WYNN
has Is fixed stations and serves an
area of 486l7 square miles with less
wattage than the Metropolitan
Police Department radio. Operating
on frequency of ia megacycles, it
is licensed by the Federal Communi-
cations Commission to act in con-
junction with the county Office of
Civilian Defense.
The man most responsible for the
success of the venture is Perry
Wightman, chief radio engineer for
the Potomac Electric Power Co.
When Robert Sherwood, county
OCD chief, approached him in July
with the request that he supervise
the installation of the network Mr..
Wightman was somewhat skeptical.
Thought Job Impossible.
Frankly, didn't think the job
could be done. We neither had
trained personnel. priority on ma
take a crack at it anyhow, and
pretty soon we had rigged wired
radio that got its juice and trans
mission from power lines. We got
little publicity from this and
people began to take an interest.
In November WJWM was on the
air.
Boys all over the county clam
bered over junk heaps collecting
wire, dials and almost everything
else that goes into radio set.
Mrs. Gertrude Crocker, whose
husband, Albert, is licensed oper-
ator, pedaled her bicycle from one
end of the county to the other in
structing groups of amateurs so they
could pass the FEC radio operators
test-as 50 of her pupils have done
in the last two months.
Then there is the man who built
three complete sets from second
hand parts before he discovered that
he couldn't get the right tubes for
any of them. Undeterred, he went
out and got tubes that were available
and built himself a set around those.
Stations Are Listed.
The control center for the network
is in the County Service Building
in Hyattsville. Other fixed stations
are at Berwyn. Branchville. Laurel,
Bowie, Capital Heights, Beltsville,
Riverdale, Bladensburg, Tuxedo,
Mount Rainier, Marlboro, Seat
Pleasant, Cheverly and in the home
of Thomas Borden, chief aide to
Mr.. Wightman. In addition, there
are at present five mobile, two-way
units.
The stations are located in sector
warden posts. The present setup
calls for the rowing. mobile units to
notify these stations of the nature
and location of disasters. The mes
sage then will be relayed to the
control center, from which the
proper equipment will be dispatched
to the scene. Through the rowing
units it is possible to report casual
ties without having to waste valu-
able time trudging to the nearest
telephone-especially if a Nazi bomb
has just blown it sky high.
Plans-as yet little more than
ideas In Mr.. Wightman's mind-now
envision every block warden being
equipped with a walkie- -talkie, or
portable two-way set. These walkie-
ta1kies, which have a maximum
power Of six-tenths of a watt, are
being constructed by the bugs
Last Sunday-the station is only
authorized to broadcast from S to
pm. once a week except in emer-
gencies-the Red Cross experiment.
ed with these portable sets. Two
representatives of the Baltimore
Chapter were present to witness the
performance. They reported com
plete satisfaction"
Fire Revealed Need.
The need for walkie- -talkies, they
say, was shown by such things as
the st. Mary's County forest fire last
month. Portable sets would have en-
abled the IRE fighters to coordinate