HOWLS AND SQUEALS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 106, 19 April 1932, Page 5

HOWLS AND SQUEALS

Every user of a valve set knows what it is for a programme to suffer interference from a constant, highpitched whistling note. This whistle may be due to the fact that another station is working on a wave-length that is rather too close, or it may be caused by misuse of the reaction knob m your own set. You can easily tell whether you are responsible for the whistle or whether it is due to interference with stations. Just turn the tuning knob of your set slowly to and fro over two or three divisions. If the whistle does not change its note, but simply becomes softer or louder, then you are not causing it, and you caunot do anything to stop it. But if, as you move the knob, the note runs up and down the scale, then your set is oscillating, and you must immediately move the reaction knob in a counter-clockwise direction until the whistle stops.

Don’t forget that if you let your set oscillate you can interfere with the reception of all listeners within a radius of a mile or two who are trying to hear the station that your set is bringing in. Make it a rule always to keep the reaction knob turned as far anticlockwise as you can without losing signal strength, and never turn it so far clockwise that the set howls and squeals.