[GCARC] Wireless sets for Christmas

[Mike]

Wireless sets for Christmas
On this day 100 years ago
Thursday December 22 2022, 12.01am, The Times
*From The Times, London : December 22, 1922*

A wireless outfit is a popular Christmas present and the shops are full of
wireless sets, spare parts and material for making sets. Grown-ups as well
as boys have taken up wireless with enthusiasm, and there are wireless
societies all over the country.

The study of wireless is probably the most satisfying hobby yet found for
those who have an interest in things mechanical. Wireless sets for the
amateur vary in price and size, but an efficient set is within the means of
most people. Inquiries show that the use of wireless is more widespread in
the country than in London. This may be because Londoners have so many
amusements at their doors that they are less inclined to stay at home for
their entertainment. There are numbers of clubs, too, where wireless is
discussed and where experts give instructive lectures on the subject.

Wireless sets may be obtained with a mast for erection out of doors or with
an aerial that may be set up in a room. One manufacturer specalizes in a
set with no aerial, the instrument being simply connected with the electric
light. In many homes this Christmas there will be parties “listening-in” to
the special musical programmes.

Meanwhile, a language is being spoken by growing numbers of people every
day. It includes words like “valve”, “harmonics”, “rectifier” and
“condenser,” and schoolboys talk it with ease. For the boys, probably the
greatest fun lies in building a home-made set. The attic table, which used
to be strewn with fretsaws and sawdust, is now littered with valves and
wire, and it is a new “amplifier” rather than a new fort, or a new
“headphone” rather than a new air-gun, that is desired this Christmas. But
the real pride of the youth who takes up wireless is his ability to
entertain the family with it in the drawing-room.

At Marconi House, the London broadcasting station, a Christmas holiday
programme has been arranged. From tomorrow until Tuesday there will be
almost continuous transmissions of speeches and music for five hours daily,
between 5 and 10 pm. The juvenile section of the audience will be
considered first each evening. Addresses and
concert items for older people will occupy the middle of the evening, and
dance music will wind up the entertainment.

73 and Merry Christmas all
Mike Thompson
KG4JYA