Radio and the Motor

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 47, 7 June 1929, Page 31

Radio and the Motor

Possibilities of the Portable HB following account of the use of portable sets has been written by R. W. Beare, to an English daily. It is interesting and highly instructive, and in view of the increasing popularity of this type of receiver is worth republishing. One of the features of this motoring Baster has been-and still is-the immense number of roadside picnic parties that have been enlivened, or othervise, by the strains of wireless music C some cases "strain" is just the right word for it. My own personal opinion is that the portable set carried on the ear ought to be used with discretion, and quite a lot of it. It is all right to listen to your own radio set; but if the party in the next glade is pumping ot 5GB while you are receiving 2LO -well, you see where the strain comes in? However, there is quite a knack in ‘using a portable to best advantage, and out of the considerable number. of motorists who have purchased sets of this type during the winter there must be many who are now using them in proper conditions-that is, as real portables, carried on the car-and who are not yet up to all their little tricks. In the first place, while the majority of portables have quite good rangey getting qualities, there are only two or three stations which can be received in a manner suitable for outdoor listening. They are the nearest main local station and the two Daventrys. Unless the music is fairly -powerful it is liable to be dissipated to the four winds immediately it leaves the loudspeaker. and the result is worse than the tinniness of a bad gramophone. Distant stations, especially in the daylight conditions in which the portable is almost invariably used-until. at least, a heat wave makes midnight motoring popular again-can seldom be received with that roundness of tone that alone makes wireless worth listening to. ' ‘

How to Improve Results. HE moral is obvious-don’t try any tricks with the wireless set out of doors. Be content with the good reception of the nearest main station. because, although you »ersonally may

be tickled to death to get Radio Toulouse in dayliceht, other people within hearing have not your theoretical and technical interest. Very often, also, results can be improved enormously by attaching a length of rubber-covered flex to the aerial or earth terminal, if these are fitted, and slinging the free end of the wire over the highest branch of a tree that can be reached. With the majority of portables this has the effect of completely destroying whatever pretensions to selectivity they may have had, so that it is impossible to tune out the local station. Since, in the publie interest, you ought not to want to receive anything but the local, this does not matter, and your reception vill have that fullness of which I have spoken as being so vital to satisfactory outdoor reception. Using an external aerial or earth, or both, in this way. also neutralises the natural directional tendencies of the frame aerial contained within the eabinet. This becomes now merely a large tuning coil, and it is necessary to turn the whole set this way and that in order to: find the best position for any given station. If the outside aerial is not used, however, it should be remembered that this directional t ndency is very strongly marked, and that quite a small movement either way may make a disproportionately large difference in both quality and strength of reception. Car Interference. HERE are two other points that might be mentioned. Firstly, it will often be found that much better results can be obtained if the set is placed on a light picnic table, or even if it can be securely slung by a cord from the low branches of a tree, than if it is placed directly on the ground And. secondly, do not be too disappointed if it proves impossible to have a wireless accompaniment to the movement of the car. It is very seldom. indeed, that such reception is entirely free from interference from the dynamo and other electric gear of the engine, and usually the noise is simply ghastly. Even if there were no such interference, I am not at all sure that it is a good thing to risk taking the driver’s attention off his job.