231 STATIONS VERIFIED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 517, 21 November 1928, Page 14

231 STATIONS VERIFIED

How Mr. Kenton Gets Them

RExYDERS who remember the account published some few months ago of the excellent work achieved by Mr. Philip C. Kenton, of California, in logging 231 stations, will read with interest a letter received from him by last mail. Radio fans will note his remarks regarding his desire to have letters from them.

2655, Terminus Av.. Lons Beach. Calif.. Oct. 17. 1928. “I was greatly surprised to find the article regarding my reception in your paper when I opened it, and I wish to congratulate you on your spelling of my name. As tf”rule, the newspapers spell it wrong, which is, I consider, a compliment to your fine paper. “In your letter you asked me for a copy of my circuit, but I am sorry to say that I cannot supply you with such at this time, as I have not the time to make one out. I am only 17 years old, and attend the Long Beach Junior College. Besides attending college. 1 am manager of the student body of the school, and consequently I am kept very busy. I will, however, send you a copy of my circuit at some later date. As to my set, I use a five-tube ‘American’ receiver. It is a stock make, having only a home-made aerial booster hooked on fox* selectivity. This consists of 57 turns* of 22 gauge wire on a 3in. coil base, being tapped in the centre (27£ turns) and each end. The aerial taps on to the centre tap, the end taps going to to fifteen plate condenser. A wire leads from the stator of the condenser to the aerial post on the set. My aerial is 50ft. long, and about 25ft. above the ground. On the aerial wire there are six copper triangles about 3in. long. These are soldered on, and help to make the aerial more efficient and also reduce length. For a ground connection, I use a copper cone filled with copper sulphate crystals. The copper sulphate draws tho moisture, and the copper cone makes a positive connection with the earth. This is buried about 3ft. deep. I use 90 volts of dry ‘B’ batteries and a o’-volt wet ‘A’ battery. I believe that batteries are better than electric sets lor distance; at least, they were when I bought my set, some two years ago. *‘As I said before, I do not have much time to play the radio or write, so consequently I have not received any very distant stations lately. 1 showed your paper to Mr. Dobyns, of KGEH, and he was certainly pleased with the article concerning his station. Incidentally, as perhaps you know, KFON has increased its power to 1,000 HAVE YOU DONE IT? A correspondent writes: "I have discovered to my cost that these battery eliminators may on occasion be traps for the thoughtless or the worried. I run my H.T. from the mains, but not my L.T. The other night, the speaker being in full blast, some small domestic crisis arose. Spmeone said, “For goodness sake stop that din!’* Snap went the switch and the desired silence ensued. But this morning 1 found that the valves had been on duty all night and that my accumulator had not the kick of a fly left in it!

watts, and is located about a mile from its previous situation.

“As to my verifications of the 231 stations which you mention, they are verified by letter and verification stamp. I sent a sample of these stamps to Grant Coles at Station Road, Papatoetoe, Auckland. They are very nice to keep in an album. The st,amp he has is one which I took from my collection, an it is for 2YA.

“These stamps can only be got from the EKKO Company in Chicago. They make them for you on receipt of a letter of verification from the station, and cost 10 cents. “As to the stations in our country ‘blanketing,’ as you say in your paper, it is true that our stations do interfere with each other, but with a good selective set this can be eliminated as a rule. Our stations are foi'ced. by the Government to stay exactly on their given wave-length, which keeps them 10 kilocycles apart. The best time for distant stations is after 11 p.m., as most of. our local stations are off by that time. Most foreign stations can only be received between 12.30 a.m. and 4 a.m. The people living on the East Coast have a great advantage over us in point of time, because their clocks are three hours ahead of ours. Most of their stations sign off about 11 p.m., their time, and consequently all the Pacific Coast stations are broadcasting because it is only 8 p.m. here The people on tho Atlantic Coa3t are also closer to Europe than we are, and naturally this helps them in distance. Because of these reasons many people on the East Coast have quite large logs, receiving 200 to 300 stations without as much trouble as we have. “I believe the chief characteristic of a good operator is patience. When the stations are weak patience is absolutely necessary. “I will not take any more of your time but will ‘sign off.’ I will be very glad to give you any additional information you may wish, and I would also like to hear from radio fans in your country. “Yours for better international radio.” PHILIP C. KENTON. 3ZC DOUBLING POWER The gale in Christchurch last week caused shch extensive damage to the aerial system of station 3ZC that it will not be able to resume its sessions till the end of this week. One of the steel masts supporting the antenna crashed during the gale, and caused extensive damage in its fall. Advantage is being taken of 3ZC’s enforced silence to instal a new generating plant, which is capable of giving the station double the power it has hitherto been operating on. When the station resumes its daily sessions, it is hoped to increase its hours of transmission from three to five daily. The station’s short-wave sessions will also be inaugurated as soon as the new generator is installed.