Page:February 1916 QST.djvu/2

 February Radio Relay Bulletin

Practical Relaying

By Hiram Percy Maxim.  HE idea of a citizen of Portland, Maine, being able to send a message to a citizen in Portland, Oregon, by wireless, and without cost, is of course very wonderful and extremely attractive. Nothing like it has ever been possible before in the history of the world. The co-operation of a few unknown but nevertheless kindred spirits between Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon, by means of which the message is handed on, adds a touch to the whole scheme and makes it almost Utopian.

It is the history of human affairs however, that it is a far carry between a good idea and the practical working out of this idea. While it might be possible for the gentleman down in Maine to get a message through to his friend on the coast on some special occasion, yet it is quite a different matter for the former to communicate with the latter at any time that the spirit moves. It is just here where a Relay League either meets its Waterloo or grows into a great National institution.

It has been said in this magazine, the only mouthpiece of the practical operating amateurs of the country, that after one year's experience, it is still impossible to get a message through without great delay. To overcome this, the leaders of the relay organization have, after studying the problem, recommended that each large city and town send out a QRU? at a given hour every evening, and thereby notify the rest of the country that they are on duty and ready to receive. This sounds like a good idea at first. It certainly will help the linking up of stations which would otherwise never get together, and it would also release a great many msgs. which might otherwise be held up. But, would it accomplish that important thing which experience has found so necessary? Would it “prove up” all stations and demonstrate which ones were always on the job and which ones were almost never on the job?

If a land telegraph company or a telephone company never ran any proof tests, to make sure that communication could be established, they would find when they wanted to get into communication, that there would be a hitch somewhere. Just so with a fire department. At twelve o’clock and at six o’clock. The bell rings every day in the week, just to determine if every fire station can he reached if necessary. Would not this plan be a good one to follow, in modified form, in a Radio Relay League? And would it not be a good thing to add to the QRU? Practice?

Again, and before we lay down any detailed plan for running proof tests:— Must we not realize that from a practical standpoint, there are a great many amateurs who lack the nerve or whatever else it is, to break in and send out a general QRU?. There is something akin to standing up before the crowd and making a speech, in sending a general call. Some people would rather take, a thrashing than touch their key for the purpose. They feel that they cannot send well enough, or that they will become rattled or that something will happen in the form of a come back, which will disclose the awful fact that they cannot receive well. These people never entirely get over this feeling and many of them have station equipment which in the hands of an operator with more nerve, could do wonders; For this reason, any plan which calls for initiative on the part of all stations in a voluntary organization such as the Relay League, is bound to be only partially effective.

The next question in undertaking to grasp the practical necessities, is that of regular trunk lines. In order to have system in either traffic in messages or traffic in  -