LISTENING TO AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 7

LISTENING TO AMERICA.

A SUCCESSFUL METHOD. SPECIAL WIRING THE SECRET. . Within the last weelc a special test was made with a view to ascertaining the limits of listening-in to America by English receivers. It was more or less authoritatively stated that at least a two-valve set was necessary to obtain any success in listening-in on this occasion. The reception, however, was not good, owing to atmospherics, although curiously enough America heard Loudon calling quite clearly. . ; We hear to-day, however, of a "successful listening-in by a London experimenter. Major Kenyon Secretan, using a three-valve outfit, although lots of people with ci.v or seven valves and more J were only able to pick up London.. The secret of Major Secretan's success appear to lie in his special mode of wiring, for, apart from that, his apparatus contains only what thousands of other sets have. His peculiar method of wiring and arrangement of the coils appear to be the determining fixtures in his being able to hear. A great deal of efficiency is lost, and "howling" and loose tuning becomes rampant, through self-inductance. The wiring of Major Secretan's set is carried out in rigid copper strand, forming curious and seemingly unnecessary angles. Yet each connecting wire is shaped so as to have a definite influence on its neighbour, and thus reduces selfcapacity. Further, the tuned anode coil is allowed to act on the aerial coil, and the reaction coil is coupled to the plate circuit of the detector valve, giving triple amplification on all valves. Actually the detector valve functions also as a second high-frcquencv valve. The inventor gave a demonstration at his amateur station SLF, at Lowther Parade, Barnes, last night, when he said: 'A two-valve or three-valve set is all the gear required to listen-in to the bjc American stations, and most of the ama° teurs as well. All that has to be done is to re-wire any ordinary 'broadcast' set according to my system, which has taken mc many months to perfect.'"