Page:C Q, or, In the Wireless House (Train, 1912).djvu/57

 Olympic-Hawke collision from The Ushant right through the Pyrenees, and I was lying in the bay of Algiers in a perfect nest of stations. There were fifty vessels all talking at once,&mdash;a terrible jam,&mdash;but I got every word. Now the regular press business comes every night through Poldhu&mdash;in Cornwall, you know! About a quarter past eleven you start your detector and begin listening. The detector is an endless iron band passing through a small coil of copper wire. It catches everything&mdash;any kind of an electric wave&mdash;any length. You tune into the other fellow’s wave by sliding these vulcanized rubber handles backward and forward. Well&mdash;now you ’re ready. Then at eleven-thirty sharp (Greenwich time) Poldhu begins working ‘CQ—CQ—CQ—ZZ—ZZ—ZZ.’ That means, ‘All stations&mdash;Poldhu talking.’ Then he begins to send his commercial messages and signal for the ships he wants. Every ship has a letter. If he wants the Caronia he sends out MRA.&mdash;MRA&mdash;until he picks her up, or if he ’s after the George Washington he sends out DKN. After he gets through his commercials he begins to distribute the news to