New Radio Transmitter Will Not Broadcast 'Over the Air'

With all its parts sheathed in insulating boxes, the transmitter of the Crimson Radio Network will not send out waves "over the air" for more than 25 or 30 feet, but it will "pipe" them into every corner of the University, Charles W. Oliphant '41, technical director of the Network, stated yesterday.

Every effort has been made to check the most important characteristic of commercial transmitters -- a large radiation of waves into the ether. Instead, all the radiations have been funneled into the real "network" of the new system, the heating pipes that wind under the University through a labyrinth of tunnels.

"The principal reason why radio waves will follow the heating system," Oliphant explained, "is that their frequencies are so high. Currents of lower frequency would immediately jump into the ground, despite the abestos insulation." The same experiment made at Brown last year probably failed because of insufficient pipe insulation.

A certain amount of the current does radiate from the pipes in the form of radio waves. These can be picked up almost anywhere in the University. No attachment to the radio is necessary, although a wire connected to a radiator will increase the volume.

Before they decided that the present arrangement would be practical, the Crimson Network technicians conducted many experiments to determine if reception would be clear throughout the University. For hours they crept shirtless through the superheated tunnels that lie under the Yard and the Houses. At short intervals they hooked up a receiver to the pipes to make sure that the waves being transmitted were not leaking away into the ground.

Such experiments proving remarkably successful, the transmitter on the second floor of the Naval Science building, the Network's permanent home, was given a try. Agents requested entrance into rooms on every floor of every house and hall, and in almost all places the radios gave clear and loud reception. Dunster House and the halls along Massachusetts Avenue proved slightly weak, but these will soon be supplied by special wires.