SOME FREAK AERIALS

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 97, 18 January 1933, Page 6

SOME FREAK AERIALS

Spiral Springs and Cages With regard to aerials, says Dr. Roberts in "Popular Wireless,” I suppose some of- the latest recruits to radio will not remember the various cage aerials which had rather a run some few. years back. You may, however, still- sometimes see one of these perched on a mast on the house-top. All kinds of spiral spring aerials have also been brought forward from time, to time, claiming to have special advantages in collecting radio signal energy from the ether. The. spiral aerial has one advantage, particularly for indoor work, and that is that it can be extended to any desired length and remains fairly taut. But all things considered, there seems to be a tendency to revert to a more or less simple form of aerial consisting of a single or stranded wire with as much height as possible. Of course, I am talking about those who still use aerials at all, but on the other hand, there is a great tendency now, especially with all-electric sets, to do away with the aerial altogether and to bring in the signal energy on the electric light connections. I should like to mention, by the way, that if you use an earth connection this- often has a very similar effect to using an aerial, and it is. of ten much easier, to make a good earth connection than it is to erect any sort of aerial.