Round the World with Two Valves

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 37, 30 March 1928, Page 16

Round the World with Two Valves

How New Zealand Station Were Heard in U.S.A.

Walter R. Pierce, with an out-of-date two-valve set, on R hode Island, off the Atlantic Coast of the United States, has heard 694 broadcast stations, including the four New Zealand stations. He attributes his success to a remarkable ‘‘earth’’ he has devised,

mal, wlio have been holding / @: records for long-distance i reception of broadcasts, and those whose imaginations have placed them in the wees} Cluss with world champions, now can retire from the limelight (writes Armstrong Perry in the New York "Radio News’). Waiter Rodman Pierce, Junior, a 17-year-old boy of Saunderstown, Rhode Island, seems to have all the other known DX artists backed coripletely off the boards with a record of 694 stations in 41 countries. When Pierce’s friend and brother "ham," Franklin R. Rowell (IAMU), of Pawtucket, told me at a recent New England convention of the American Radio Relay League that Pierce was regeiving broadcasts from Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and other countries in all parts of the world, on two tubes, it sounded like the result of a Buperheated imagination. But Pierce appeared to be an honest young man; atid he gave me from memory the call letters and locations of so many stations that he said he had logged, that I knew he must heve either heard most of them many times or else spent most of his time memorising the call books. He said that he had letters and cards from many of these stations, verifying his reception. Still, his record was so remarkable, so nearly incredible, that I decided to visit his home and see the evidence hefore making any unqualified platement, Several months later I yisited Saunerstown. Pierce’s home, I found, was a farm hack in the woods. A grocer on the highway took me over in his truck. I talked with him and with members of the boy’s fainily while I waited for the bov to come home from Behool. The house is in a good radio location, on a hill that rises west of Narragansett Bay, opposite Newport. Pierce’s receiver is a Radiola TIT, a Ewo-tube set which was well known 28 few vears ago, but which is now entirely bff the market. He had the little set na table in the living room; it was ooked un to three dry cells and two 45-volt "R’’ batteries. He was using tubes of the 199 type, with adapters, Instead of the WD-11 type for which the Yet was designed. EA0. eae

ELABORATE GROUND SYSTEM From the looks of the outfit, I would Have said that New York would have been DX for it; hut outside the window \bere was something unusual The wire Jhat led from the ground connection on the receiver out through the window ended at « binding post on a porcelain base. From this post twelve wires led to the same number of pipes or other ieces of metal embedded in the ground see illustration). Pierce said that he ound that «each new ground connection | creased selectivity and reduced the bffect of hody capacity; so he added one after another, A leaky automobile radiator was sunk In the ground, at the end of the row of ipes, with its caps just above the surace so that water could be poured into t. Circumstances alter cases. Ona evice for keeping the ground connecrar, that radiator conld only have inBpired profanity; here it was an ideal

tions wet. The ground clamps on the tipes were bright. Pierce said that he put on new ones every few weeks. It became evident that his phenomenal record was not the result of accident. AN ORDINARY AERIAL. The aerial is 110 feet long and 26 feet high; it points N.N.If., with the set at the southerly end. ‘Two glass insulators in series at each end prevented the escape of energy. The wire was of hare copper which, Pierce said, gives better results than tinned copper. He puts up new wire, to replace the old every few months, or as soon as Cor rosion becomes noticeable. ‘the aerial is kept taut, to prevent swinging. ACROSS THE OCEANS. It was still daylight, though late in the afternoon, when I sat down at the receiver, As soon as the tongue of the rheostat touched the first turn of wire, a station jumped at ine. So many

came in as 1 turned the knob that I adyanced it only an eighth of the way to the maximum setting. These stations were within a radius of about 200 miles Pierce took charge of the set and turned the rheostat knob to the maximum position. There was another rheostat at the batteries, adjusted so that it was impossible to injure the tubes by turning the one at the set too far. Almost immediately he Drought in 210, London, England! When we tired of tuning in stations, we took off the ’phones and cut in the loudspeaker, an ordinary low-priced horn. Providence and New York stations came in with volume enough to fill the room and be heard anywhere in the house. Like his ’phones, his loudspeaker is a stanaurd device, of a {kind sold in most radio shops. There is not a piece of apparatus in the whole outfit that is of special design or expensive. Tierce is a farm boy, attending high school, and has little money to spend on luxuries. He said he had used the same ‘B" batteries for two years.

1YA, AUCKLAND HEARD. After a night’s rest, we rose at early dawn and went back to the set to listen for stations on the other side of the earth. Station 1YA, Auckland, New Zealaud, was one of the first to come in. The carrier wave was strong, but the music and announcements were weak. An orchestra was playing. When_ it stopped, the announcement SLYA, Auckland Station," was heard. This was between 5.35 and 5.87 a.m., Rastern standard time, on November 1, 1927. The announcement was logged again at 5.45. ZL A number of stations in the Antipodes, including JOCK, Nagoya, and JOAK (no joke!), Tokio, Japan, and BYA, Wellington, New Zealand, were recognised by their carrier waves. The average broadcast listener may doubt the ability of any person to identify stations by the sounds of their carrier waves; but some may have discovered, ‘as Pierce did, that it can be done. Vor two years he has operated his set sev-

eral hours a day, fishing for distant stations. He knows his dials as a navigator knows his vompass, He ‘knows the schedules of many of the broadeast stations. He can start at zero on the dial scale and tell what station he is going to bring in at each mark, and between the marks. While a station 10,000 miles away was coming in near 4 on the scale, WGY, Schenectady, was working on a wave-length near it. Pierce separated them, and after seeing him do it, I did. His set increased its selectivity as he added extra ground wires and, as his mother says, he can "adjust the tuning lever to the sixteenth of a hair’s breadth.,"’ CONVINCING EVIDENCE. Pierce has more convincing evidence of his achievements in world-wide broadcast reception than the testimony of a visitor. When he hears enough of a programme to tell definitely whether the number was a piano solo, an orchestral selection or something else, he writes to the station to secure confirmation of the record in his log. -- — @

Some-of the stations are so far away that four months elapse before the reply comes back, Among the letters and cards that he showed me were some from LOX, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 40G, Brisbane, Australia; 5CL, Adelaide, Australia; KGBU, Ketchikan, Alaska; CZE, Mexico City; HHK, Port au Prince, Haiti. Several Euglish stations answered his letters, but their replies were somewhat indefinite. He has many verifications from stations in the United States and Canada, from coast to coast, but he considers nothing as real DX except from auother continent or its islands. SOME OF THE FOREIGN STATIONS. Among the stations outside of, the United States and Canada that Pierce has logged, many of them several times, are :- Mexico: CYX, CZE, CYJ, CZI, CYO, CYB, CYH, Mexico City; CYS, Monterey; CYY, Merida; CYE, Tampico; FAM, Guadalajara; CYR, Mazatlan; CYU, Puebla; CYQ, Tampico. Cuba: PWX, 2BB, 2u:P, 2HC, 2HP, 20K, @RK, VW, Havana; TSR, Central Elia; 6KW, Tuinucu (this station came in louder than any other that Pierce ever received. On December 30, 1926, he thought it was going to burn ont his loudspeaker) ; 8JQ, Santiago de Cuba; 6HS, Santa Clara ; 7BY, ~Camaguey. Haiti: HFK, Port au Prince. Central America: AQM, San Salvador. open: «a.sm din ~~

South America: Csr, = sorliiliasv, Chile; SOTG, Sao Paulo, Brazil; AYRT, Caracas, Venezuela; CBC, Santiago, Chile; OAX, Lima, Pern; LOX, Buenos Aires, Argentina; CMAT, Tacna, Chile; CWOZ, Montevideo, Uruguay; Pernambuco, Brazil; LOP, Buenos Aires, Argentina; LOS, Buenos Aires, Argentina; CWOR, Montevideo, Uruguay; CNA, Valparaiso, Chile ; Rio Janeiro, Brazil (no call letters announced) ; LOY, Buenos Aires, Argentina; LOV, Buenos Aires, Argentina ; CMAB, Santiago, Chile; SPR, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; LOU, Mendoza, Argentina; LOZ, Buenos Aires, Argentina; LOR, Buenos Aires, Argentina; LOT, Buenos Aires, Argentina; CWOS, Montevideo, Uruguay. Greenland: OGG, Godthaaven. Tevland: Reykjavik. Alaska: KGBU, Ketchikan; KFOD, Anchorage. Iturope: 21,0, London; TAT3. Cadiz, Spain; IMI, Milan, Itely; 5PY, Plymouth, England; Skattudden, Finland ; Oslo, Norway; Berne, Switzerland; AJ7, Madrid, Spain; SRB, Brussels, Belgium; FPTYT, Paris, France; 2ZY, Manchester, England; 5SC, Glasgow, Scotland; 5IT, Birmingham, England; 5NO, Newcastle, England; MAJ1, Barcelona, Spain; Li, Paris, France; LA, Langenberg, Germany; 2RN, Dublin, Ireland; ISAJ4, Madrid, Spain; EAJ12, Oviedo, Spain; Stuttgart, Germany; ItAJ2, Madrid, Spain; TAJ22, Salamanca, Spain (this was the loudest Iuropean station heard); HA, Hamburg, Germany; PTT, ‘Toulouse, France ; INA, Naples, Italy; 6CK, Cork, Ireland; Copenhagen, Denmark; TWAJ13, Barcelona, Spain; Bordeaux, Trance; ) WAJ25, Malaga, Spain. re :

Africa: Senegal, West Africa; WAMG, Capetown, Souti Africa; Radio Casa Blanca, Morocco. Asia: KZUY, Baguio, Philippine Islands; JOAK, ‘Tokio, Japan; JOCK, Nagoya, Japan; JOBK, Osaka, Japan; JODK, Keijo, Japan; KZRQ, Manila, Philippine Islands; 1S, Singapore (reception uncertain); KRC, Shanghai, China; 5HK, Hongkong, China; 7CA, Calentta, India; KZRM, Manila, Philippine Islands; XOL, ‘Tientsin, China. Australasia: 2BL, Sydney, Australia; 5bCL, Adelaide, Australia; 4QG, Brisbane, Australia; 8L0, Melbourne, Australia; 4YA, Dunedin, New Zeaalnd ; SAR, Melbourne, Australia; 21°C, Sydney, Australia; 1YA, Auckland, New Zealand; 4RN, Rockhampton, Australia; 9KY, Sydney, Australia; 2YA, Wellington, New Zealand; 3YA, Christchurch, tel Zealand; 5DN, Adelaide, Ausiraia. Hawaii: KGU, Honolulu. Pierce logged Australian stations every month in 1927, They and others in the antipodes came in best about 4.80 to 5 o'clock in the morning, when he had to get up to do the milking and other chores. European stations were best from 4.30 to 7 p.m., and South American stations from 5 to 11 p.m.

THE BEST RADIO NIGHT. During the evening of March 18, 1927, Pierce startled his family by loud whoops of joy. It was one of those rare nights when radio was at its best. He logged ‘the following:-KGU, Honolulu; KGBU, Alaska; AGM, San_ Salvador, Central America; CNAD, CMAT and CMAB in Chile; LOX, LOZ, LOV, LOP, and LOY in Argentina; IAJ22, Spain; SQUG, Brazil; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (no call ktters announced) ; CWOZ, Uruguay; OAX, Peru; Durban, South Africa; CYR and CYU in Mexico and V’WX, Havana, Pacific Coast stations in the United States came in almost as easily as those near home. Unidentified foreign stations came in on 815, 288, and 307 nietres, ;

Pierce’s radio log, kept with painstaking care for two years, will conyince anyone who examines it that it is an authentic record. Many of his records are verified by letters or cards from the stations heard. And there is other evidence almost as strong, or perhaps stronger. The character and reputation of the family are above question. They live on the homestead where their ancestors settled more than a century ago. The father is a farmer who supports the fine old traditions of a line o: forbears with a record stretching back to the days of William the Conqueror. Mrs. Pierce held a responsible position in business before her marriage, and is a leader in the Parent-Teachers’ Association of the local schools. I met five other members of the family. Fond parents may oyerrate a boy’s achievements, but little brothers and sisters are brutally frank. From "Baby"? in the third grade of school to big sister in the Rhode Island State College, they all believe that Brother Walter is a marvel. They too have heard the distant stations, and they repeat the announcements and call } 2tters with all the linguistic colloquialisms of Spain, Australia, and the rest.