Page:January 1916 QST.djvu/9

January, 1916 man to finish, hoping he will get through before B’s 2½ minutes is up. The little boy is just finishing when two other little boys on the next street break in together each one calling the other simultaneously, sending HS and OT or something similar some fifty-six times in straight succession before they begin their own sign in, which they send exactly thirty-seven times.

By this time, 9:20 has come around, and A must begin calling B again. He starts and every thing goes all right, apparently from his end. At 9:22½, he throws in his aerial switch again for receiving, and begins tuning. There are only two or three stations which bother much and he has high hopes. At this juncture a door slams, somewheres down stairs, and loud voices ascend, and the next moment some one shouts, that he is wanted on the telephone. By this time 9:25 has slipped around, and he has not had the faintest idea of whether B was coming in or not.

This sort of thing goes on until B or A or both puncture a condenser, blow a fuse or burn out an audion bulb, or something similar. The test is a howling failure, and both A and B secretly harbor a suspicion that this relay business is not all that it is cracked up to be, and that if Mother were to be taken sick, it might be a good scheme to depend upon the phone or else get back to good old reliable Western Union.

But all of this is the result of lack of systematic preparation. If A and B, first of all would select an hour during the day or during the night, when the little boys had been tucked away for the night, or were at school, they would have had a “clear line.” This is an absolute necessity, and it is a waste of time to attempt to run a long distance test if there is any danger of interference. It is not always necessary to wait until night. The rush hours for interference seem to be between seven-thirty and ten. At noon and at six o'clock, and late at night, the writer has found a clear line very frequently. Therefore, if tests are to be run without attempting control of interference, we should limit ourselves to hours which are liable to be free from interference.

While on this point, it is desirable to bring up this question of control of interference. The writer has noticed that a general understanding that things should be quiet at a certain time, is, fairly generally respected. For example, there is a sort of general feeling that around ten p. m. one should keep quiet so that others might read Arlington without trouble, and get time. In some places, press news or weather reports coming at known times have respect. Therefore, it does not seem altogether unreasonable to expect that if a certain time were set aside for Relay League testing or even transmission, that in time it would come to be respected, especially if properly advertised.

In last month's issue, the League Directors suggested that every night between 8:45 and 9:15, League relay stations make a point of listening for calls, or sending out QST inquiry calls. This is the beginning of a very good idea, according to the writer’s notions. If we were all to talk about this