A Radio Story

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 35, 14 March 1930, Page 11

A Radio Story

ee Berlin on a Crystal AN amusing story from Denmark is told of a radio dealer in a Danish town, who woke up one morning to find he had on his hands a number of unsaleable erystal-detector sets. On his consulting a friend who happened to be an enthusiastic radio amateur and the proud possessor of a shortwave transmitter, the friend begged permission to remake one of the sets, and shortly afterwards demonstrated to the astonished dealer that he was able, apparently, to hear Berlin on the set. , The dealer, unable to resist the temptation, passed on the good news to the proprietor of a general store, who also found to his satisfaction that Berlin came through quite well; and in a very short time the sets-remodelled in the meanwhile-had changed hands. The general storesman then wished to give a demonstration in. his stores of his newly-acquired "crystal!detector sets "with guaranteed reception of foreign stations," and, learning

this, the dealer rang up his friend the amateur and asked him to oblige again with the necessary "Berlin programme" from his transmitter. When, however, the radio amateur, announcing as before in his best German: "Achtung! Achtung! Meine Damen und Herren wir senden Schallplattenkonzert," ete, Was just about to put on the first gramophone record, a shrill feminine voice was heard exclaiming in Danish: "Karl, komer du til Frokosten eller ikke!" (Charles, are you coming fo breakfast or not’). The words of Karl’s landlad: put an abrupt end to the tran: mission from "Berlin," and th customers, possibly thinking tli demonstration was a queer sort of joke gradually faded away. It is said that the case even reached the law courts, where it caused so much amusement that the two offenders (the general storesman having acted in good faith) got off lightly. ---