Radio Broadcast - 1925, February - 113 Pages ... - VacuumTubeEra

: "If
668 Radio Broadcast
DOWN WITH THE ROOF WIRES
Regardless of the type of tube
set you operate, this indoor
aerial will equal, and in many
cases exceed, any outdoor aerial
you may be using.
MORE THAN A
SHADOW OF DOUBT
Kxtravagant claims, which in many instances,
actual trial shows to be unjustified, breed certain
dissatisfaction and tend to impair the enthusiasm of
radio purchasers. The radio public itself should
cooperate to require advertisers to tell the truth
about their products
the manufacturer maintains a sentimental
attitude as to how his goods shall be
priced by the retailer," he argues, "let him
total his cash book at the end of the year and
he will find that the radio chain store quite
probably has moved one hundred times as
much merchandise as the collection of small
jobbers."
Careful reading of magazines and newspapers
continues to disclose practices which
bear out the statement that radio is
passing
through a period in which the buying public
must exercise great caution and discrimination.
Take as an illustration a recent advertisement
of a well known battery by a retail store. It
road-
We are the only dealer in
the city in a position to supply
the public with unlimited
quantities of this
NEW
108 volt B battery
The fact was that this battery, instead of
being a new model, was being discontinued.
The agency handling the advertising copy explained
that the word "new" was intended to
mean that the batteries were fresh from the
factory and that "unlimited" meant that
enough were available to supply the store's
trade. Certainly the word "new" in the copy
was objectionable because the average reader
might well take the advertisement to mean
that the manufacturer was bringing out a new
model.
THE OVER-HNTHUSIASTIC ADVERTISER
NOW and then advertisers inadvertently
get off on the wrong foot. Around the
time of the national political conventions, an
eastern manufacturer of radio sets advertised
in newspapers on the Pacific Coast, urging the
public to buy his product in time to listen in.
Investigation developed that Kansas City was
the nearest point from which the conventions
were being broadcast and the feat of reaching
that far east from the west coast during the
day time, when range of reception
is
very
limited, was anything but a certainty. Again
we have the manufacturer of a well known
loud speaker, whose advertising in the middle
west emphasized the pleasure to be derived
from listening in on New York grand opera.
It is well known that the Metropolitan company
is not heard over the air.
Another case in point
is the loose statements
made about "noisy batteries." One radio
expert to whom the writer talked recently
stated that such noise practically never occurs
in batteries used for filament supply but that
it sometimes is found in plate batteries. The
cause is either a defective cell in the battery,
or a loose connection between the cells. Almost
any dry cell, he pointed out, even those of
the most reliable makes, may develop noise
when they are nearly used up.
Other extravagant claims are made concerning
the life of batteries. This is a difficult
factor to determine, and it is here that batteries
of different manufacture may be expected
to vary materially if at all. Only
usage can determine the real utility and life
of any particular battery with consideration,
of course, for proper care. This is all the more
reason why purchasers of radio equipment
should give real consideration to the makes and
types of batteries they purchase for their sets
in order that they may have the maximum
protection on the money expended.
Claims for new and startling discoveries in
the battery field likewise should be carefully
examined. Years of study have brought them
to their present point of efficiency and most
of the possible improvements could hardly be
called revolutionary.
Within the last year one concern has advertised
that its batteries will enable the operator
of a radio set in the middle west to hear
England or South America as clearly as Detroit
or Chicago. The advertising copy was
so worded as to make it
appear that whatever
troubles are encountered with a set may be
removed by substituting the batteries ad-