The Radio Boys' First Wireless Part 15

"I should say it did work!" replied Joe. "We just heard a wonderful selection played by a big orchestra. It must be the Newark broadcasting station, as they had promised a concert for this afternoon."

"I missed it, then, didn't I?" said Jimmy, with a downcast face.

"Yes, but they'll play something else pretty soon," said Herb. "Plug in with your ear phones, and maybe you'll hear something to cheer you up."

"It will take quite a good deal," said Jimmy, "after hoofing it all the way to my house and back on the double quick. I'll bet that trip took ten pounds off me, if it took an ounce."

"That won't hurt you any," said Joe, with a total lack of sympathy for his friend's trials. "Hurry up and plug in here, so that we'll be ready for the next number on the program."

"Oh, all right, all right," said Jimmy, adjusting his phones. "If I'm not ready, just tell 'em to wait."

The absurdity of this idea raised a laugh, which was suddenly cut short as the first notes of a rousing march came ringing into the earphones. Every note was true and distinct as before, with practically no interference, and when the last note had died away the boys rose and as though actuated by one impulse, executed an impromptu war dance.

When they had quieted down somewhat, Bob rushed downstairs and brought his mother up to hear her first radio concert. She was rather incredulous at first, but when the first notes of a violin solo reached her ears, her expression suddenly changed, and when the selection was over she was almost as enthusiastic as the boys themselves.

"That was simply wonderful!" she exclaimed. "I never imagined you would be able to hear anything half as distinctly as that."

"I'll bet you never thought you'd hear anything over our home-made set, now did you?" accused Bob.

Mrs. Layton looked a trifle guilty. "I never thought you'd get it working so soon nor so perfectly," she confessed. "But now that you have, I certainly congratulate you."

They all listened for some time for something else to come in over the aerial, but apparently the concert was over, for they could hear nothing but a confused murmur, with here and there some fragment of a sentence coming out clear above the general confusion. This was probably due to the sending being so distant as to be almost beyond their range. Just before supper time they heard a message from a s.h.i.+p at sea, and Joe, Herb, and Jimmy could hardly tear themselves away to go home to supper. They finally got started, however, promising to return as soon as they could after supper, so as to be in time for the evening concert.

After they had gone, Bob called up Doctor Dale, and told him of the successful outcome of their experiment. The minister was delighted.

"That's great work!" he exclaimed heartily. "So the set works well, does it?"

"Yes, sir, it certainly does," said Bob. "Of course it's not as good as yours, and we can't tune out interference very well. But it does all that I hoped it would, and more. I wish you could get around to hear it when you get a chance."

"I tell you what I'll do," said the doctor. "I have an expert radio man visiting me here this evening. How would it be if I dropped around some time during the evening, and brought him with me?"

"Fine!" exclaimed Bob, delighted at the prospect of talking with an experienced radio man. "We'll all be looking for you, sir."

Bob was delighted over the doctor's promise, and told his friends about it as soon as they arrived that evening. They were all equally pleased.

"He can tell us just what we need to know," commented Joe. "You can dig a lot of stuff out of books, but lots of times just the question you want answered doesn't seem to be in them."

The boys had just raised the Newark station, end were listening to the first number on the program, a soprano solo, when the minister and his friend arrived. He introduced the stranger as Mr. Brandon, and the latter immediately made himself at home.

"I hear you fellows got your set working first crack out of the box,"

he said, as they were going upstairs. "You're luckier than I was with my first one, because I had a lot of trouble before I got my first signal through. I fooled around a long time before I found out what the trouble was, too."

"What was it?" asked Bob.

"I finally found that the water pipes were insulated from the street pipes, as they are in some houses, so that I really didn't have any ground at all, even though my ground wire was connected with a pipe in the bathroom. I might have been looking for the trouble yet if a friend of mine hadn't given me a tip what to look for."

By this time they had reached Bob's room, and Dr. Dale and Mr. Brandon inspected the boys' outfit with great interest.

"Pretty good for beginners, isn't it, Brandon?" said the minister at length, when they had gone over the thing at length and Bob had explained the way they had made the different units.

"I should say so," acquiesced the expert. "They've made up one of the neatest amateur jobs I've seen in a long time. Let's see how it sounds."

He and the doctor donned head phones, and Mr. Brandon manipulated the tuning coil and the crystal detector with a deftness that spoke of long experience. He showed the boys how they might get even clearer and louder tones than any they had yet obtained by adjusting the detector until the best possible contact was obtained with the crystal.

"You could hear better with a more elaborate set, of course," he said, "but you get mighty good results with what you've got. Of course, you're range is limited to less than two hundred miles with this set, and your tuning range is limited, too. But you've made a fine start, and with this as a foundation you can go on adding equipment, if you like, until you have a first cla.s.s receiving station."

"Yes, and after we get a little more experience, we want to try our hand at sending, too," said Joe.

"Well, that's a more complicated undertaking," said Mr. Brandon.

"But there's no reason why you shouldn't, if you are willing to go to the trouble to learn the international code and take an examination. You have to be able to receive ten words a minute, you know, to get a license."

"I suppose you're an expert both sending and receiving," said Bob.

"I ought to know something about it by this time," said Mr. Brandon.

"Uncle Sam has me working for him now as radio inspector, so I'm supposed to know something about it."

"Mr. Brandon was with the aviation radio branch of the service during the war," explained Dr. Dale, "and he has seen radio telephony develop from almost nothing to what it is to-day."

"Yes, it was the war that speeded up the growth of radio," said Mr.

Brandon. "It revolutionized war in the air, and made it possible to control the movements of airplanes in a way that had never, been dreamed of before."

"You must have had some mighty interesting and exciting work,"

ventured Herb.

"All of that," admitted Dr. Dale's friend, with a smile. "Once our whole station was wrecked by a bomb dropped on it from an enemy plane.

Luckily, we all had time to duck out before the bomb landed, but there wasn't anything left of our fine station but a big hole in the ground and bits of apparatus scattered around over the landscape. There were very few dull moments in that life."

"It doesn't sound very dull," said Bob, laughing.

"I can a.s.sure you it wasn't," said the radio expert. "But in the case I was telling you about, our airmen brought down the fellow who had dropped the bomb, which made us feel a little better."

"There's some interesting stuff coming in now," said Dr. Dale, who had been listening in at the receiving set. "They're sending out news bulletins now, and I'd advise you to listen for a bit. It's away ahead of reading a newspaper, I a.s.sure you."

"Besides being easier on the eyes," grinned Mr. Brandon. "Let's hear what it's all about."

Sitting at ease, they heard many important news items of the day recorded. There was a little interference from an amateur sender, but they finally managed to eliminate this almost entirely by manipulation of the tuning coil.

"I know that fellow," said Brandon. "I was inspecting his outfit just a few days ago. He's got a pretty good amateur set, too. He's located in Cooperstown, not twenty miles from here."

"My, you must know every station in this part of the country!"

exclaimed Joe, surprised.

"It's my business to know them all," said Brandon. "And if anybody takes a chance and tries to send without a license, it's up to me to locate him and tell him what's what."

"It must be hard to locate them, isn't it?" asked Jimmy.

"Sometimes it is," returned the radio inspector. "I'm tracing down a couple now, and hope to land them within a few days."