with whic is combined 1he Wive1css Aite JA 1926 How to tet t1e Most Out of Your LC26 Iceìver www.americanradiohistory.com gimme your radio set more power with one new Radiotron, DRIVE a car uphill beyond its power -and the motor knocks. Drive a radio set beyond its power -and the last tube hokes. But change one single tube in he set-and you have the power you eed for greater volume and finer tone. The new RCA power tubes add about fifty per cent greater efficiency to any radio set. They cost but $2.50, and need only an inexpensive adapter and a little extra current. Change the tube of the las audio stage to a new power tube, as any dealer will show you -and in ten minutes you have a new s RADIOTRON RADIOTRON Radiotron UX- I 12 UX -112 UX -120 The new storage The new dry bat- battery power tery power Radio - Radiotron UX -112 tron UX -120 may may be used in sets be used in sets that that use Radiotron use Radiotron UV- UV-201-A. 199. Radiotron UX-112-$6.50 Radiotron UX-120-$2.50 You would not use any but a Mazda lam in your lighting circuit. Why use any hut an RCA Radiotron in your radio set? They are liomade by the same skilled workers, backed by the same research laboratories. But the Radio - Iron is far more delicate to make. Radiotron UX-120 RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA NEW YORK . CHICAGO . SAN FRANCISCO RCA ftud i otro n MADE BY THE MAKERS OF RADIOLAS www.americanradiohistory.com The Best in Radio Equipment Brandes EXPERTS IN RADIO ACOUSTICS SINCE 1908 TheTypeH a horn of graceful lines and antique green and black finish. The Brandes Cabinet of Great in volume - mahogany, finished in wal- The Brandes Cone -a true in tone. Ad- nut brown. The same unit, truly decorative bit of justable. quality of tone and even furniture that conceals greater volume than the a remarkable speaker. Type H Speaker. The Adjustable Table -Talker. Gooseneck horn. Finished in brown -felt -padded base. The Superior Matched Adjustable. A most Tone Headset is now, as The Audio Transformer - always, ideal to tune in amplifies at an unusually satisfactory buy. listen undisturbed with -to high ratio - 1 to 5. Two and undisturbing. steps of amplification may be used without trans- former distortion. Send for an interesting The new Brandes Speak- booklet describing ers- perfected now after Acoustics by Brandes. many busy years of ex- periment -give new clar- Brandes Products Corp. ified mellowness to the 200 Mt. Pleasant Ave. low tones, new rounded Newark, N. J. sweetness to the high. Be sure your set is in its best voice - always -with acoustics by Brandes. The Phonograph Attach- ment -a splendid speaker with any good phonograph. V Same unit as type H horn. Adjustable and furnished with a connection to fit all phonographs. o Copyrighted by Brandes Products Corp., 1926 All apparatus advertised in this magazine has been tested and approved by POPULAR RADIO LABORATORY www.americanradiohistory.com POPULAR RADIO WITH WHICH IS COMBINED "THE WIRELESS AGE" EDITED by KENDALL BANNING FOUNDED 1911 CONTENTS for JANUARY, 1926 (Cover design by Frank B. Masters) VOLUME IX NUMBER 1 The Modern Tower of Babel FRONTISPIECE The New Wave -Transmission Phonograph Henry C. Harrison..... Page 3 How to Get the Most Out of Your LC -26 Receiver L M. Cockaday and S. G. Taylor 10 Will Radio Kill the Small Newspapers' Paul Dupuy . 22 The Atom William Bragg 24 Article No. 4: The Nature of Crystals Some New and Useful Facts About Cols D. R. Clemons 30 When Your Set Won't Work Edgar H. Felix 40 A Measurement Chart Raoul J. Hoffman 45 No. 13: For Use When Selecting a Rheostat for a Multi -Tube Circuit Straight- Line -Frequency Condensers Herbert J. Harries 48 Simple "How -to- Build" Articles for Beginners. Laurence M. Cockaday 56 No. 14: How to Build a One -Tube Regenerative Receiver for Use With the New UX -199 Tube Handy Tools for Radio Fans The Technical Staff 60 No 9: The Hand Drill DEPARTMENTS In the World's Laboratories E E. Free 61 What's New in Radio Apparatus The Technical Staff 69 The Broadcast Listener Raymond Francis Yates.. 74 In the Experimenter's Laboratory Laurence M. Cockaday... 80 Some Methods for Determining the Distributed Capacity of Coils 80 How to Simplify Connections 83 A Milliammeter as an Aid in Preserving Batteries 83 Making the Tuned Radio - Frequency Receiver More Selective 83 The Old Reliable Single -Layer Solenoid Coil ß3 Pure DC Power Supply for a Five -Watt Transmitter ß4 Balancing the Single Control Superheterodyne 87 Broadcasts J Andrew White 89 With the Inventors William G. H. Finch. 96 Listening In Lloyd Jacquet 100 VOLUME IY JANUARY, 1926 NUMBER 1 Published monthly by Popular Radio, Inc., 627 West 43rd St., New York. N. Y., telephone num- ber, Chickering 1906; Douglas H. Cooke, President and Treasurer; Kendall Banning, Vice-Pres- ident; Laurer.:e M. Cockaday, Secretary; Joseph T. Cooney, Asst. Treasurer. Price 25 cents a copy; subscription $3.00 a year in the U. S., Canada and all countries within the domestic postal zone; elsewhere $3.50 a year, payable in advance. The International News Company, I.td., No. 5 Bream's Bldg., London, E. C. 4, sole distributors in England. Entered as second class mat- ter April 7. 1922, at the Post Office at New York. N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copy- right, 1926, and title registered as a trade -mark by Popular Radio, Inc. Copyright in Great B -stain by Popular Radio, Inc.. 6 Henrietta St., Covent Garden, W. C., London, England. Printed in U. S. A. LAURENCE M. COCKADAY. Technical Editor E. E. FREE, Ph.D., Contributing Editor JOHN V. L. HOGAN, Contributing Editor For advertising rates address E. R. CRONE. & COMPANY. INC. New York: 25 Vanderbilt Avenue Chicago: 225 North Michigan Avenue 2 www.americanradiohistory.com The Best in Radio Equipment 3 240 meters \\\w1uuliiulua7,i A 50 g Ì%, \ á0 N2N .30 0 . Ói ó;..- Can Your Set Receive All Stations?' OVER 100 stations are broadcasting on less than 240 meters. How many are beyond the reach of your set? The Synchrophase can get them all. Grebe Low -Wave Extension Circuits make possible a range of from 550 down to 150 meters. This is accomplished by an auto- matic switch which enables one dial to cover two wave ranges. The first, from 550 to 240 meters, corresponds to the practical tuning range of the usual sét. The second overlaps this and extends down to 150 meters. To change from one range to the other is simplicity itself. Simply move the center dial past the 100 mark for the high range and beyond the zero mark for the low range. The Synchrophase is thus well -equipped to take care of future station assignments as well as all present ones. Ask your dealer to demonstrate this and other Grebe advances in radio development A. H. Grebe &. Co., Inc., 109 West 57th St., New York Factory: Richmond Hill, N. Y. Western Branch: 443 So. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, Cal. This company owns and operates stations WANG and WBOQ; also low wave rebroadcasting sta- tions, mobile WMU, and marine WRMU. "The Gods cannot TRADE MARK. REG. U.S. PAT, OFFR, help one who loses opportunities." -Mencius The wise man will provide against the future by securing a Synchrophase. All Grebe appa- ratus is covered by patents grant- ed and pending. The Synchrophase is also sap - plied with base for batteries and ill a de tusi Console Model. All apparatus advertised in this magazine has been tested and approved by POPULAR RADIO LABORATORY www.americanradiohistory.com PAGES WITH THE EDITOR PERHAPS some day a scheme will be devised for checking of POPULAR RADIO probably has -based on their up on the actual number of read- personal observations. ers of each copy of POPULAR RADIO. * * * ON page 449 of POPULAR ORDINARILY RADIO for Novem- a magazine publisher assumes ber (in "Practical Pointers about Trans- that there is an average of five readers to every formers" by Frederick copy. The E. Nimmcke) the circulation of POPULAR RADIO among author gives formula No. 11 radio clubs, as follows : electrical laboratories, business of- S = H + a inches. fices, schools and colleges would indicate that The author writes that the formula should this average is at least maintained and prob- have appeared thus: ably exceeded. And reports like the following S tend to =H + 2 X a inches. confirm this impression : * * * * ON page 98 of this number of POPULAR Mr. Lloyd Jacquet RADIO "A COUSIN of mine in America," writes C. R. makes his first appearance Boydell of Manchester, as the conductor of the department England, "posts In." "Listening POPULAR RADIO to me, and when I've read it I * * * pass it around to all of my radio friends, who look forward to it THIS department will be made up as they look forward to communications entirely of their meals." from broadcast listeners and * * * experimenters who have discovered useful and helpful bits of THE Editor would like information that they are willing to get reports from to share with the Other Fellow. readers about the numbers of readers each copy (Continued on, page 6) From a photogrpl, for POPULAR RADIO WHERE POPULAR RADIO'S EXPERIMENTAL WORK IS DONE In the POPULAR RADIO LABORATORY in experimental New York is conducted a large part of the and development work on which the Here, also, are articles in this magazine are based.