Page:January 1916 QST.djvu/6

  TESTING How many times have you tried to work a distant amateur and failed? And you felt that if something only had been done right you would have been able to reach him easily. Read what “THE OLD MAN” has to say about this matter. He seems to have given this practical operating question a lot of thought and every amateur should read his words.

APPLICATION BLANKS
Every man, woman or child who reads these lines and is interested in Amateur Wireless, and owns a station, should not put this magazine down until he or she has cut out the page which forms an application blank, and filled it in and mailed it. The whole success of our Relay League depends upon having a wireless station at the point where there is a message to be sent or received. You may not have but one message a year, but it might well be that this one little MSG would mean a tremendous lot to somebody.

We at headquarters are working hard and enthusiastically and spending good money. You will help more than you think by sending in your application blank, and if you can show a working station, to secure the LIST OF STATIONS BOOK, and the APPOINTMENT CERTIFICATE. It costs you nothing but a two-cent stamp to send in your blank. The List of Stations Book costs you thirty-five cents, which is what it cost us. The appointment certificate, if you are appointed, costs you fifty cents, which pays for the certificate and the printing of this magazine. 

In An American Radio Relay League Station


Opr.―“This is the sending set.” I use about 1 kilowatt."

I am It―“Kill-oh-what?”

Student―“A.C. or D.C.?”

Mr. Opr.―“A.C. of course. This Clappham transformer is very efficient it steps the juice up to 20,000 and (opening shunt switch on hot-wire ammeter) I push 5 amps into the aerial.”

Other Am.―“Well that's fair but if you had a good transformer like my Hardpack you'd get 6 amps. Then, of course, your wave is broad, and over 200.”  College student, trying to get a word in to interrupt the coming war―"Now I don't quite understand that. You put in about 1,000 watts and get out 5 times 20,000 or 100,000 watts. Apparently 100 times as much; of course that couldn’t be true by the Law of the Conservation of Energy. I wish you would explain that.”

I am It―(In I-know-it-all-tone) Oh, that conservation of energy stuff is all wrong. The big stilts in college guess too much. Why look here I’ll prove it’s all wrong.

Suppose I take a watch spring and wind it up. I've done work haven't I? Now I will drop it in to a jar of very strong acid. The acid will eat the spring up. Where has the energy in the spring gone? Well?”

Mr. Student―Now my good friend, your course of reasoning is all wrong. The evident disappearance of the energy can easily be explained by the First Law of Thermodynamics. You see―(Here his condenser broke down!) 