Page:December 1915 QST.djvu/6

6  REGULAR HOURS FOR LISTENING.

 Our greatest difficulty in getting messages through is because the other fellow is not “on." Most of the stalling of messages is due to this one thing. What we must do is to have regularly established and definite times at which we will be on duty. Then if a man in Northampton has a message going West and he knows just when the station at Buffalo or Waynesfield or Kane, for example, is working he can work with some hope. As it is, he tries at any old hour and unless the other man is a regular night hawk and sits up half the night every night in the week, he misses him.

To make it better, it is suggested that every station send out a QST followed by a QRU with his town or city at a definite hour every evening. This will indicate that this station is ready for anything coming his way.

An example of what the plan is may be taken from the way we have begun to work it at headquarters. Between 8:45 and 9:15 p. m. every night, one of the Hartford stations sends out the following at full power:

QST QST QST de IZT ―. . . ― QRU Hartford ? QRU Hartford ? QRU Hartford ? de IZT. ― .― .― .―

This makes it known that Hartford, Connecticut, is ready to receive any messages for or via it. If all other cities would agree among themselves to carry out this same plan, it would help get messages through without a doubt. 

One of the best equipped Stations in the League

THE LIST OF STATIONS BOOK AND THE OFFICIAL LEAGUE LICENSE.

 Another vitally important factor in securing reliable transmission is the LIST OF STATIONS book. This book must he at hand ready for instant reference at any moment. Over six hundred stations are listed in this book, and it is the one which the Government would use in attempting to work through an amateur station in case help were needed. The book was distributed among a few stations late in the spring. The summer season came before many members had ordered it. EVERY MEMBER OF THE LEAGUE AND EVERY AMATEUR WHO HAS A STATION OR EXPECTS TO HAVE ONE OUGHT TO ORDER THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY. It gives all the latest call letters of relay stations, their address, the name of the owner and operator, his transmitting power, what kind of a spark gap he has, how far he can send, the number of words per minute he can receive, his usual listening in time, what kind of a license he holds from the Government and whether or not he has a telephone near at hand for delivering or receiving local messages. The book also contains a lot of extremely interesting letters from amateurs who are operating and covering long distances. The book is sent to any one whether a member of the League or not, upon receipt of fifty cents in stamps or otherwise, which just covers the cost of printing and distributing. Every one reading these lines is not doing his share unless he gets this book. If you have not sent in your order already, you ought to attend to it today. 