With Dealer and Customer

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 27, 20 January 1928, Page 2

With Dealer and Customer

Getting Together To Solve Radio Problems

P

ARTICULARLY with regarduis way is to ascertain just what the

to parts for valve sets; radio conditions and the teeds are and chen

retailers should * beware of cheapness: when purchasing stocks. Oversea "‘bagmen"’ pass thréugh New Zealand

from time. to time showing samples of low-priced radio goods, ‘These should be very critically inspected, and, when possible, tested before purchasing, Selling cheap and nasty radio goods rebounds very quickly on the retailer, and he will soon find trade diverted to the "cther man," who refuses to stock "dud" stuff, and tells his customers so. KEEP A VALVE TESTER. New Zealand radio dealers who fegard themselves as up-to-date should lave a valve-testing device, so that every buyer of a valve can see it tested before he pays for it. Many of the larger shops use valve testers, and it saves much dissatisfaction on the part of their customers. ‘These valve testers may now be purchased for about £3 and upwards. One big New Zealand importing company tests every valve in a shipment as soon as_ the cases are delivered to their warehouse "Dnd" valves are then weeded out, so that there is little risk of their being forwarded to any of the distributing agents. Naturally, in transit to the distributors there is a chance that valves will become damaged, so it is incumbent on the retailers to test them again before handing them over the counter to a customer. Besides, casualties are not infrequent in retailers’ shops, where salesmen are just as liable as any other mortals to drop a valve. THIS 1S ENTERPRISE. The trans-Tasman air flight afforded the radio dealers a fine opportunity for exercising whatever enterprise they possessed. They were splendidly served by 2YA, Wellington, which station broadcast all the latest information on the fight on the Tuesday the brave fellows sped across the Tasman. The Wellington dealers in matiy cases placed loudgpeakers where they could be heard by the public outside. One Wellington company kept a loudspeaker in operation right through the night until 2.30 o'clock on the Wednesday morning, when 2YA, Wellington, signed off. The doorway of their shop was surrounded by an eager throng until the early hours of the morning. The proprietors also painted on their shop window in large, bold letters all the latest official news regarding the Tasman flight each day, | and so that radio slop secured a wonderful advertisement. This is enterprise. A YANKEE METHOD. Instead of trying to sell a customer everything which he possesses in his shop, a certain Yankee radio trader says

sell the customer as little as possible | to retider him absolute satisfaction, telling him at the time how best to take care of it so that it will last him a maximam length of time. When he sélls two battery clips, for instance, he throws in an envelope of steel wool and instructions on how te keep them free from corrosion It means a longer time before that customer buys his. second set of battery clips, to be sure, but he hae found that the results pay in the en TRY REVERSING THE PLUG. A point which radio dealers should bear in mind is that when a receiving set is eperated with a socket powcr unit, broad tuning may be caused by the fact that the power line will act as an acrial and ground system bring: ing the signal in through the power unit which will add to or subtract from the signal received in the normal way through the regular aerial. The effect of this is apparently to broaden the tuning that sometimes causes interference from local stations. Under these circumstances the broad tuning is not in the set but is due to the power line pick-up ‘This difficulty may be eliminated by reversing the plug in the socket, NEW A.C, VALVES. The new A.C. valves, which enable the house-lighting current to be used instead of an A battery, have arrived in New Zealand, and good stocks are on the shelves. The circuits of existing redio sets must be slightly altered before the new valves can be used in them. Adapting battery-operated sets to usc the new A.C. valves presents a new sales opportunity to the industry. Several manufacturers in America have devised and are marketing apparatus to accomplish this with a minimum of re-wiring. In most instances, it is a practical undertaking. In some cases it may be expected to result unsatisfactorily. With the constants of the circuit, the valves, and the power supply individual in almost every installation, each re-wiring jab may be subjected to experimentation But, generally speaking, the plan opens up new fields of profit for the dealer through the sale of the necessary parts and accessories, as well as the service charge for doing the job. LACK OF VARIETY. Observers of window display effectiveness state that a series of well planned displays can lead the habitual window shopper to look at a display every time he or she passes. If, on the other hand, there is lack of variety in the character of the window display, the impression is soon created that that

particular window is always the same and warrants no attention. NEW AUDIO . TRANSFORMER. An American , radio manufacturim, company is now making a revolutionary new atidio-transtormer built on a ‘radically new principle, being entitely without laminations It is said that the new transformer produces an amazing unprovement in both volume and quality on distant stations-and better quality on locals, This new transformer has a solid core, cast from a new highresistance copper-nickel-iron alloy called: "A" metal. This core, cast in two pieces and fitted together, forms both core and shield. It completely encloses the winding, doing away with all need for further electrical or magnetic shielding. It is claimed that the ‘"Acast’? has the same efficiency in either first or second stages due to the fact that the D.C flux set up by the ‘plate current produces but a neglibie effect upon the properties of the mag‘netic circuit used in this transformer CANNOT RENDER SERVICE, Some New Zealand wholesale radio importers have made the egregious blunder of granting agencies to shopkeepers who have not the remotest idea of radio, and thus are quite unable to render service. An Americal observer says: "1 have in mind just now a case where a harness and carriage merchant plunged into the radio business. He secured the agency for a very popular make of machine and at first sold a great number of them, but when the service calls came in he was lost. He could not check a circuit. He could not repair a machine. Some sixteen or eighteen of his patrons had to go elsewhere with the machines that he had sold, but on which he could not give service. Now this kind of treatment is a money loser for the manufacturer of that set because this same dealer is having hard work to-day selling his sets. The machine is not at fault-it is one of the best makes but the people of his district have turned against it. The radio dealérs who know how to service machines are slow to take up an agency on machines that have been buichered by grocerymen, hardwaremen, candy, and cigar merchants." CORRECT C BATTERY. Go into the shops of many New Zealand radio dealers and ask what amount of C battery is required by one of the popular makes of valves, and the dealer will look at you nonplussed, The time has arrived when every set employing audio frequency requires a grid-biasing battery. LSC-Loudspeaker coupling of either choke coil and by-pass condenser or output transformer of 1 to 1, or stepdown ratio, recommended wherever plate current (I).C.) exceeds 10 milliamperes. ‘Tlie device known as a "siftron’? serves the purpose adequately.

TO HOLD THE ATTENTION. Winning attention is largely a matter of utilising the influence of motion, colour, and variety. Having once caught the passer’s eye, attention must be held by what is in the window. ‘hat formula scems childishly simple, yet many an attention-attracting display which has aroused curiosity fails immediately after accomplishing that important step because there is nothnig in it to warrant {utther inspection. The successful window concenrates the attention, once wou by use of motion or colour, on a single central object in the window. Do not expect a passerby to conduct a treasure) hunt for the particular thing which he or she wauts. This is a fundamental of successful windows-concentration of atteniton on a single leading article, a piece of merchandise liaving wide selling appeal. CORRECT VOLTMETER USAGE. Service men employed by radio dealers should remember, in testing any hattery with a voltmeter, the battery should be connected to the receiver on which it is to be used and tested, with the receiver turned on to give an accurate test of the actual voltage being delivered to the set. Occasionally batteries will test O.K. when not connected, because the high-grade voltmeters lave a very low current drain. When the battery is actually connected to the set, with the set turned on, it may prove defective or of insufficient power. ‘This also applics to power units. They should be tested when connected to the set with the set turned on, and such a reading with an accurate high-resistance voltmeter will shower the power being delivered. DEMONSTRATION ROOMS. The larger radio concerns in New Zealand should follow the example of some of the big gramophone companies, | and haye proper sound-proof demonstration rooms. In constructing a "demonstration room" proportion and the correct use of sound-absorbing materials are the two main factors to consider. ‘Ihe room. should not be unusually high or long with respect to its width. Most small rooms are entirely satisfactory. It is only with rooms longer than 25 feet that proportion must be considered, ‘The ideal demonstration room should be soundinsulated, and, to a certain extent, but not wholly, reverberation-proof. Too much deadening kills the overtones and tinging qualities of good music. Air spaces and sound absorbing material between the outer and inner partitions will serve to isolate the room from forcign noise, In America most demon-

stration rooms haye the upper part of at least three of the walls made of glass Fortunately there still remains ample surface which can be treated for reverberation, and which will go a long way toward improving tonal reception conditions. The ceiling, for -¢xample, may be completely covered with a souud-absorbing material. ‘There are a Number of different styles of such felt-like compositions now on the market. In many cases these are finished like plaster and mav be tinted. This same material should also be used against the panels below the glass on the side walls, if sound-absorbing fabric is placed on the surface of the inside wall of the room it will do douhle duty by reducing the intensity of soundwave reflections, and preventing the reception of sounds from the outside Do not forget the floor. By all means cover it with a soft rug or a lined carpet.

OPERATE YOUR OWN "MIKE." A new device is ont in America which is of special interest to radio dealers, ‘The manufacturers announce the following purposes of the device :-- 1. Allows you to cut in at will on your loudspeaker and make announcements personally through it. 2. Allows you to hook up phonograph with loudspeaker, 8. Allows regular use of radio londspeaker. (Any of these three steps with the simple throw of a switch.) The purpose of this set is to enable the radio and phonograph dealers to readily make announcements through the amplifier and speaker of radio or phonograph. It consists of a highpower differential type microphone and a control box having a cord, with an_ adapter for slipping over the prongs of the detector tube, for attaching to the radio set. Three pin jacks are provided in the side of the control box to receive the microphone cord Two additional pin jacks are also provided to receive the terminals of a magnetic pick-up for playing phonograph _ records, where desired,. The control box is also provided with a volume control, and a_ three-position key type switch for turning off the radio programme while using either the microphone or phonograph pick-up with the radio set. As this set can he quicklv attached to the radio, and the radio or either type of transmitter can he instantly switched on or off at will, it makes an ideal arrangement for the dealer who wishes to take advantage of the direct advertising possibilities of such a combination. The device should be useful to delcrs of occasions such as the transTasman flight, when they could make near announcements to the public.

POOR JUDGMENT. One would scarcely credit the lack. of commonsense some New Zealand | radio traders exhibit. One man who has a line of low-priced loudspeakers he wished to boom, persists in having one of these loudspe akers in operation when broadcasting is in progress. This loud‘speaker is a tolerably good performerat the price--and would he hard to eclipse at that price, but as a public demonstrator at a shop-door it is a deCidedly poor advertisement for broadcasting. ‘his trader has much better loudspeakers in stock, but he wants to "push? the low-priced line. ‘The latter is all right in its way for those who cannot afford a better loudspeaker, but the general public which knows little or nothing about radio is apt to judge it by shop-door demonstrations. Traders, for the sake of the good name of radio, should never operate any but their best loudspeakers at their shop doors. MIND YOUR WINDOW. One prominent American radio mannufacturer’s service manager stated recently that only 20 per cent. of the hundreds of dealer stores he had observed use their windows in a wav Which helps their sales, while 80 per cent. discourage one element or another of the public by fundamental er- | |

tors in appearance. There is no doubt that many a radio store is overlooking the opportunity which intelligent wiudow display offers The habitual appearance of your window bespeaks the tharacter of your merchandise and establishes a definite opinion of your store in the iminds of the people of your community, whether they are prospécts for radio or not, Effective window displays often create a sales impression on an individual which may not le capitalised for a year or more Yet many a radio store tells its prospective customers that it is an electrical] junk shop, an engineering establishment, ot a music store catering only to the wealthy when, in reality, it is attemptnx to sell radio to the average citizen.

VOLUME CONTROL

as METHODS, GOOD AND BAD. Many of the sets in use to-day do not incorporate any special form of volume control. Excellent and casily-fitted devices are now obtainable with which the degree of sound from the loudspeaker can be regulated to a nicety, but where these are not employed rough-and-readv methods are apt to prevail. Some of these are sound, but some are inherently bad, and inevitably give rise to distortion. Cause of Distortion. . Decreasing B battery tension, for instance, is still quite a common method of reducing signals which are too loud. And, generally, as the volume is lowered by this method, distortion is introduced, though mercifully this is partly mitigated by the decrease in power! In general reduction of B battery tension, may be classed as @ very unsatisfactory form of volume control, bevanse it throws the working point of the valve off the proper sinnlifving slope. De-tuning the acrial circuit is another favourite method of controlling strength, with many listeners. But unlike the B battery method, there is nothing inherently detrimental to aualify in this. When the aerial cirenit is out of tune, the input to the first valve is corresnondingly reduced. but no noticeable distortion is introduced on this account. so such de-tuning is preferable to B batterv adiustments. How do filament adiustments show up when regarded as yolume controllers? The answer to this chieflv denends vnon which filament is meant, for whilst incorrect audio freaueney Mament-adinstments are sure to introduce distortion, a radio freauency, filament ean often he dulled to reduce -valnme withont the sliettest trace of Mistortion heeoming sannarent. The reason for this is partly a moter of Aeoree of erid-savine--the erid voltaces of the anudin freanency valves are normally swineng near the daneer noint for distortion, hut the emaller voliaee jnuont whieh the radio free anenew yalees heap will ellow verv rreat rednetion in filament enrrent without affecting muritv of ainplification. Another Method. . Oecasionally, but not often, one sees grid bias used as a yolume control The method is bed, for the same reason that B battery reduciion and the dimming of audio amplificr’s filament is bad--i.e., it throws the value off its correct position for amplification, ‘which is on the straight steep part of its slope. Another method of volume control, which is guite efficient, and has no noticeable effect on the purity of reproduction, is to emplov a lrich-resist-epnee potentiometer across the secondary one or other of the audio freauerey transformers, if this tyne cf andio freaueney coupling is emploved The potentiometer must he capable of smooth control and shonld have a value of ahout 500.000 ohms, and. the clider is taken to the erid of the valve. Grid bias is connected to one end of the iransformer secondary as usual,