USING A COUNTERPOISE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 17

USING A COUNTERPOISE

To "Grid Bias."

_ Sir, —As 'a change from the discussion regarding the quality of programmes and the. decapitating or detailing of . "g-o-o-o-o-o-d-night," may I tell you briefly of ■■ something of a technical nature, the reason for which no doubt is obvious to the experts, and the recording of which may be of interest to novices. I took a crystal set to, a seaside suburb to help while away some of my holiday evenings, and employed a tap as an earth, the wire to the set being fairly long—perhaps twelve feet or even more. The reception from a 100 ft aerial erected only about Bft or 10ft from the ground was quite good, but as an experiment I tried using the aerial as a counterpoise underneath another aerial some 20ft high and disconnecting the earth wire from the tap. The effect was most marked, reception being vastly improved, so much bo, that whereas with the earth wire to the tap I could only pull in '2ZW with difficulty at its Sunday morning session, I got it clearly and easily with the counterpoise. The reason I suppose is that the water pipe went down into somewhat sandy soil. —I am, etc.,

A TWIDDLES),

"M.L." -writes to clear up any doubts there may be as to the correct pronunciation of Sousa's name (referred to in an article in this column last week on "8.8.C. and English"). He states that a recent American dictionary gives the composer's name in full—"Sousa, ' John Philip," and clearly indicates that the first syllable in his name should be pronounced to rhyme with the "o" in the word "move." In corroboratioji it may be added that "Grid Bias" had the pleasure of meeting Mr. and Mrs. Sousa when they visited New, Zealand many years ago, and can confirm the statement that the "ou" is pronounced "oo."