Page:March 1916 QST.djvu/7

44  two, unless the relay stations on a given Trunk Line were sure that they could be at their instruments more frequently.

&emsp;The hour at which the test work was to be done is an important element. QRM has to be considered and the fact that there is a wide difference in time between the Atlantic Coast states and the Pacific Coast states must have weight. NAA sends time at 10:00 p. m. eastern time, which is 9:00 p. m. central time, 8:00 p. m. western time, and 7:00 p. m. coast time. A great many amateurs want to use these signals for various purposes, including testing of their receiving instruments, so that by no possibility must these signals be jammed. The little boy with the spark coil and the dry cells is to be considered early in the evening, and he is notorious for his, ability to QRM anything when he is just across the street. It seems therefore; that an hour like 10:30 or 11:00 p. m. would stand more chance of being successful than any other hour. The movies are out by this time, which is a factor we can by no means overlook, and it is not so late that it would kill us to stay up one or even two nights in a week. This matter however, is one for each Trunk Line to settle for itself.

&emsp;In the matter of lapping over from one time district into another, such as from Eastern Time to Central Time, it would, seem that this would have to be delayed at the point where the lap occurred. For example, a message received at Buffalo, the limit of Eastern Time, could be held one hour until Cleveland time came around. Coming the other way, Buffalo would have to understand that things would be one hour later coming from Cleveland than usual. The other alternative is for the east to take a very late hour, say Midnight, and the west to put up with an early hour, say eight o’clock on the coast. This would have the advantage of having us all at our instruments at the same hour all over the entire country. With things well managed, and working right, we could probably handle a message in Chicago through to Portland, Maine and receive back the QSL in fifteen or twenty minutes. In the case of those of us having especially good aerials and ground connections, and who know how to tune, we probably would make many very remarkable and extremely interesting long distance records. It would not be at all unusual for the man in Maine to hear Ann Arbor, Mich., nor the man in Little Rock, Arkansas to hear Chicago Headquarters when he started out his test msg. From the records which have already been printed in QST, all this and even more would not be unusual.

&emsp;All things considered, the writer would be personally in favor of the uniform listening in hour all over the country, because he believes the sacrifice of sitting up late in the east would be more than rapid by knowing that every one else throughout the country was at his instruments at that exact moment. This, however, is left to district headquarters, as is proper, and as every other detail of management should also be.

&emsp;Another important matter is the form a test message should take. For our amateur purposes, we should send out, an unknown pass word so as to check up who really got it, and the returning receipt, or as we call it, the QSL, should bear the call letters of every station who received and relayed it. When the QSL is received back to district headquarters, a record should be kept of just how, far it got before it had to be returned on account of not being able to get farther. With this information, district headquarters would know just where the blame should be placed and by mail, he could find out if it could be corrected and if so, how.

&emsp;A thing, which would help, would be to publish in QST, every month, the records of the work of each Trunk Line. Then, the League could offer a prize each month to the headquarters who made the most credible showing, just as the different sections on a railroad are given regular prizes for,the best showing section on the road.

&emsp;In closing, the writer wants to put in his plea for help on the matter of selecting, District Headquarters. We cannot do this at Headquarters, because we do not know enough. The local stations in or near Chicago or Philadelphia, or San Francisco know who the best station is for District Headquarters, all things considered. Therefore, a vote is wanted from each of these three different places, said vote to be sent in to main Headquarters at Hartford, and only those who know something about the station voted for to cast a vote.

NORRISTOWN RADIO ASSOCIATION HOLDS MEETING

&emsp;At a meeting of the Norristown Radio Ass’n held on, January third the following members were elected to office for an period of six months: Randolph Roland, Pres., Harold Gresh, Vice Pres., Wilbur Heyser, Treas., and Donald Walker, Sec. The organization would be pleased to hear from similar associations and request that all mail be addressed to Donald Walker, 552 Kohn St., Norristown, Pa.