Radio Broadcast - 1923, August - 86 Pages, 8.5 ... - VacuumTubeEra

The GridQUESTIONS AND ANSWERSThe Grid is a Question and Answer Department maintained especially for the radio amateurs. Fulllanswers will be given wherever possible. In answering questions , those of a like nature will be grouped!together and answered by one article. Every effort will be made to keep the answers simple and direct,yet fully self-explanatory. Questions should be addressed to Editor, " The Grid," RADIO BROADCASTGarden City, N. Y.SUMMER RECEIVING CONDITIONS AND THE IDEAL SETnection of the antenna, proving that it is due to "X's'j"strays" which the radio world for twenty years hajfsought to eliminate.Unless the enthusiast is willing to alter his apparatso as to conform with the requirements of summer rection, he must bow to these conditions as inevitable. Heever, the addition of radio-frequency amplification toparatus operating from an open antenna will bring bacthe distance reception which was possible on fewer tutduring the winter. Two stages, or at the most, three,transformer-coupled R.F., or sometimes a single stage ofcorrectly installed and operated tuned-plate amplifier, wfnot been changed in over eight months, excepting batteries, and, suffice to accomplish this. Radio-frequency amplificatiorthinking that the fault might he in the antenna, I recently will also, to an extent, reduce the effect of static, and in merected a new one without improving matters.case will the static be appreciably amplified. This is due t'My set has also developed a crackling which even the mostcareful investigation of connections and batteries has been unablethe limiting effect of R. F., as well as to its discriminatkragainst all frequencies other than that to which the ampli-to eliminate in the slightest degree.fier is tuned. Static disturbances, incidentally, are muchCan you give me any idea as to what is wrong with my more noticeable and prevalent on the higher waves.apparatus?Static can be practically eliminated by receiving on loopR. L. S,, NUTLEY, N. J. using the requisite R. F. amplification, reception often beingpossible in the midst of a thunder storm. Ambitiou!the thousands who have become broadcast experimentersTHAT arrange an R. F. set that maj]enthusiasts during the past winter have yet to learn be thrown from open aerial to loop antenna, thus insurin]the radio significance of summer, is evident from many fairly consistent reception throughout the summer, regardlessletters similar to the above which have recently been addressedof atmospheric conditions. Such a circuit, willto this department. The plaint of our correspondentthe suggested switching arrangement, is shown in Fig. Iis as old as the wireless game itself, and itemphasizes afield of radio endeavor that has yet to capitulate to science.The construction of a suitable loop antenna was describe:in the June, 1923, GRID.Reception drops off, to a very appreciable extent, in thewarm months, and it is often less than fifty per cent, as INTERFERENCE AND FADING CAUSED BY A NEAR-BY SEIefficient as during the cold, clear winter nights. The cracklingnoise of which the writer speaksisThe"static," withoutDuring the last two months my receiving set has becomecomparatively inoperative. During the winter I was ableto hear stations as far west as Davenport, Iowa. I alsoheard Havana on several occasions, many stations in thesouthern states, to say nothing of several Canadian broadcasters.Now I am able to receive nothing farther away than fivehundred miles, and most of my evenings are spent listeningto WGY, WEAF, WOR, KDKA and WJZ, all comparativelynear, and who (especially WGY and KDKA) do notcome in with anything like their former loudness. My set has/ have a two-stage regenerative set which is the same 4owned by my next door neighbors. W'ben I am tuned in on.FIG.I