With Dealer and Customer

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 30, 10 February 1928, Page 2

With Dealer and Customer

Getting Together To Solve Radio Problems

--gueee)] O doubt during the eni a @| suing year a great number of electric pickups fox combining gramephone reproduction with audio valve amplification in conjunction with radio sets will be sold in New Zealand. Both traders and the public will be faced 1 on tle difficulty of making a judicious selection of these electric pickups when purchasing. One of the besetting faults of some makes of these pickups is their weight on the gramophone records. Some pickups bear down so heavily on the records

tLat the springs of some gramophones _cannot maintain their normal function, and have to be more frequently Yound up to keep the records vevolving. In fact there are some 1 -er-priced gramophones which cann.$ rum a complete record without k.ving to be re-wound, when some of these electric pickups are resting on the records. Plainly these pickups are too heavy. Then some of these electric pickups are inclined to "chatter" when the records are loud. This can be cured only by opening up the needle unit of the pickup and making certain alterations, but this is the work of an expert. On the other hand electric pickups are being sold which .have neither of these faults; this is published only as a guide to purchasers of an article which is new on the market, and of which there is relatively little experience in New. Zealand. GRAMOPHONE AMPLIFIERS. separate audio amplifier for the gramophone electric pickup is preferred by many instead of using -the amplifier in the radio set. Besides, in New Zealand there are many gramophone enthusiasts who cannot be induced to take up radio at present. The alert radio dealer cannot overlook the potentialities of catering for this section of the public, and he will have audio amplifiers built up solely for gramophone electrical amplification.

If the special amplifier is transformer coupled it does not need more than two valves, and if the best audio quality obtainable will be comparable to the most expensive and up-to-date. gramophone, If only a moderate loudspeaker volume is required from the circuit, the last valve may be a 112A as well as the first. The plate voltage on the last valve then should be cut to 157 volts and the grid voltage (C bat- ‘) to 104 to 12 volts. When this valve is used as the output valve it is not necessary to employ any filter, ut the speaker may be connected directly to the plate circuit.

The amplifier may be mounted on an ebonite or similar sub-panel 7 x 10 inches, or on a sub-panel made of ply wood, asbestos board, or metal of the same dimensions. Thus assembled the amplifier can be tucked away in a compartment of the gramophone cabinet in connection with which it will be operated. There will be room in the majority of larger cabinets to install the batteries and the A battery charger as well. — AN ECONOMIC CLEAN-UP IN NEW ZEALAND. (QoOME of the weaker elements in New Zealand radio trading circles are now experiencing an economic clean-up, inasmuch as some of those enterprises which entered the field with insufficient capital, end im many cases insufficient experience (and knowledge as well) are being forced out through the inexorable taw of bankruptcy or voluntary liquidation to avoid greater losses. In this respect we are following most countries, which have taken to radio. The temptation to make comparatively big s1oney in quick time by meeting a vopular demand for ready-made sets 1ecessarily attracted to the business s:ime not fully equipped for staying with it and giving satisfaction to the public. In addition to this inflnetice and the incapacitv of this class to huild a permanent business by rendering that follow-up service which radio demands in even

greater measure wan most retail busifnesses, there is Lemg- experienced a pack-wash from American auldivaniatous, wiielt mean reductions im the nuntker of compecitive sets likely to | remaimm permanently om the market, {n the cleaning-np process it is unfortunate, but imevitabie, that two important groups shall suifter-uamely, the wholesaler who bas supplied the weakening retailer with govds, and is left /With a bad debt, znd the buying public, who may Gnd they have relied upon men of straw for inforimation and service in a tieid where the bnyers’ j}own fznorance .iade them the more dependent on good advice. The outcome of both effects is a higher cost of radio to the ;unblic, for the whlrolesaler must provide a margin to recoup his losses, and the public must frequently face further expenditure to secure satisfaction. | BETTER WITH FEWER DEALERS. ig is true that dcaicrs have been required to be licensed, but that license has carried with it no obligation on the license to really know anything of radio ot be in a position to reliably serve fhe public. It has been merely a revenue-carniug license, tot a guaratitee uf capacity or ability. In this respect fhe present position and its difficnltics and losses might have been mitigated by the Government benefiting «10m overseas know- | ledge, and invposing . heavier trading license fee, and recniring a standard of knowledge on the wart of dealers, as a protection to the iublic. But no such requirements have been imposed, and as an outcome it *s Iefi to the slower hut sure process of economic adjustment to right the rosition. The position is being wgehted, and the first visible resnlt will, be a distinet rednetion in dealers’ licenses after March 31 Far too many have engaged in the business. Competition here has not meant lowered costs, but has meant the maintenance of an unnecessarify hivl overlicad. "t will he far heiter for the public, and more condneive to hetter seryice at lesser rates, for fewer dealers to he in the business. | varticularly fewer of the tyne whol ve inainiy secured 9 denlers’ license |

to profit. on discoants. The interests of the buying public require first consideration, aud they are more likely Lo be properly conserved by trading bemg in the hands + capable and fegitimate traders, who are im the business ts stay. The publi. can hasten the betterment of conditions generally, and ensnre their own «: tisfaction, by concentrating upov touse houses and deal‘ts of standing who are handling quality nes, and «tre definitely in the npnsimess to stay. ADVISE CALIBRATION. r¥T would seem hardly necessary to advise radio traders to tell their novice customers, when they buy a radio set, that, much time will be saved in finding distant stations, after they have once been tuned in, by keeping a record of the tuning dial settings. Yet one often sees novices helplessly searching night after night for some of the Australian stations. although they have tuned them in on previous occasions. Traders are apt to overlook some details when handling novices, but it is to the dealer’s own interest to leave no stone unturned to assist his customer in obtaining the greatest amount of pleasure possible from his new radio set. | This is essentially good business pol‘icy. One well-known company whicn manufactures an extensive line of valves, exceedingly popular in New Zealand, distributes, gratis, a neatly printed card with a table of the New Zealand broadcast stations and the chief Australian stations with ruled spaces for writing in the dail numbers of the radio set. The card bears an advertisement about the valves, and the idea is calculated to prove capital for publicity purposes. | POINTS ON TIME-PAYMENT SALES. New Zealand radio traders go into the time-payment — sales system they will find some interesting points in the following advice published by the New York "Radio Dealer" :-

"Always self for cash when possible. "The salesman who springs ‘easy ‘terms’ on the customers at the outset is doing you no service. Instalment terms should always be reserved for those who find immediate cash payments inconvenient. Sell on time only when it will benefit the customer. Does he want Radio badly enough to go into debt for it? And will he keep on wanting it? "Get as Jarge a down payment as possible. "Where some dealers fall down,’ said a Radio merchant, "is in selling serms instead of merchandise. 1 sell Radio, with terms inciderital. The first thing the average customer asks is: ‘How much cash is required?’ Our salesmen are instructed to come back with, ‘How much can you pay?’ The customer’s pride. asserts itself. You’d be surprised to know how often he names a figure above our required minimum." "Boesn’é that sound like good sense? ‘And it’s right in line with the advice recently given by Curtis C. Cooper, President of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, to his organisation. "Without in any way restricting the salesman’s ability to close a sale,’" aid Mr. Cooper, "an effort could be made to secure the most conservative ‘erms adapted to the purchaser’s cir--umstances....It would inerease the veneral average of all down payments....reduce the average term 5£ all outstanding notes, and ‘there‘2 require less money to carry them. The loss experience would be lower. There would be fewer reyossessions. Less collection effort would be required. There would be more satisfied customers, and sales would stick....The dealer’s credit line would be greater in proportion ‘o his capital, increasing his turnover and increasing his ratio of profit."