Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/926

 Home-Training for Wireless Heroes

A phonograph and book of rules will help to qualify you for a radio operator's post

��THE wireless operator of the future who may, during the din of battle, receive a message that will result in victory for his country, or, from the deck of a ship, pick up an appeal that will save hundreds of lives, can prepare himself for such heroic acts by sitting in his home and listening to the records of a phonograph. And if he's a faithful student, he may be able to prepare him- self for these pulse-stirring roles in from three to four months.

At the beginning of the course the student merely listens to the dots and dashes as they issue from the machine and compares them with letters and figures in a booklet, ^n the first record each letter and figure is first announced orally and then signalled three times. In the second lesson he is initiated into the difficulties of punctuation and special signs, while the next step finds him struggling with sentences like this: "The quick brown fox jumped right over the lazy dog." And from this reminder of his early school days the pros- pective operator is

called on to translate

the dots and

dashes of a

"press" dis- patch-sent

just as it

would come

from the key

of a veteran

radio man at

Arlington

or Poldhu.

Static, inter- ference from

other sta- tions and the

reception of

code words

are taken

up in other

records.

���The upper picture shows the correct way of working the key. In the lower picture the student practices sending while listening to a message from phonograph

1)10

��An ordinary telegraph key was used in making the records. After the student has become familiar enough with the letters to recognize them as he hears the dots and dashes, he is advised to manipulate the phonograph so that they will reach his ears in irregular sequence, in order that his sliill in receiving may be tested.

The phonograph is employed for in- struction in sending as well as receiving. As soon as the prospective operator has become able instantly to translate the letters as they are produced by the phonograph, he is ready to begin practice with the telegraph "key. The booklet accompanying the machine gives him information regarding the position of the hand and calls attention to common faults in transmitting. Simultaneous operation of the key and listening to records will develop evenness, accuracy and speed.

Thus the student learns the preliminary essentials of how to become a wireless oper- ator. What use he will make of the instruction will be shown when he is placed in emergencies in which men of the radio key f r e - quently find themselves. In the course of time his ear will be- c o m e as familiar with the dots and dashes of the language of the air as with ordi- nary speech, and his fingers will manipulate the keys almost me- chanically.

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