San Antonio Evening News, June 23, 1920, page 5:
WIRELESS MUSIC JAZZES UP ELKS 8 MILES AWAY
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Rhythmic Tunes Float Through Wave Currents of Air From Brooks Field
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WIRELESS music has been flitting through the air around San Antonio just about every Thursday evening for the past three months, much of it originating at the radio station at Brooks Field, according to Sergeant Claude Sheldon, in charge of the radio school there.
He was interested to see where modern jazz went tearing across the quiet atmosphere that hung over the old town, while most of the inhabitants were asleep Monday evening, and the strains of the famous Kelly Field Band playing at the Officers' Club furnished time for dancing on the Elks Club roof about eight miles distant. Some one on the program committee thought this was the first time music was so uniquely transmitted.
Many amateur radio operators in and near the city have been "listening in" on such music played many miles away and sometimes it is furnished by only one man in the radio office at Brooks Field, Sergt. Sheldon said yesterday evening.
Two men assist him in carrying on the concert at times, both being helpers at the balloon field wireless station. They are Pvts. Ottho J. Maxwell and H. H. Adams. Neither of them musicians, just privates in the balloon division of the Air Service.
It doesn't cost any money either to take in the concerts furnished by the Brooks Field "orchestra," according to its director. All that's necessary to become one of the audience, he says, is to have a wireless receiving station and be equipped with the vacuum tube detector, a sensitive detector necessary to wireless telephony.
About eight amateurs among the wireless stations in the San Antonio vicinity "pick up" the music every Thursday night when the atmospheric conditions are favorable. One station near New Braunfels generally lends an ear.
Because the concerts are becoming popular and because it has been found necessary to have a more powerful wireless outfit at the field for official use, Sergt. Sheldon has announced that a 2-kilowatt Marconi transmitting set will soon be established at Brooks Field.
At present only a ½-kilowatt set is being used. When the new one is set up, it will rank about fourth is size among the stations of the Southern Department. It will then be as large as the important station at Brownsville now is, he said.
Another radio activity at Brooks Field which promises to be of considerable importance is the setting up of a wireless set for the new dirigible that will soon be completed at Brooks Field, and will be the only dirigible in the department.
As the dirigible travels through space, she will have a transmitting power on the telegraph of approximately 100 miles and will be able to send telephone messages to earth if she gets as high as 20 miles above the surface, Sheldon says. She will be able to receive messages from any distance, and can be kept in touch with on a trip between here and El Paso, so that if necessary she can be turned about and headed home or brought to land at any point on the long trip.
In addition to his official duties at the field with a class of students learning radio work, Sergt. Sheldon takes an active interest in all the amateur wireless work in these parts. He is a member of the San Antonio Radio Club, which counts a number of soldiers and ex-service men in its membership.
This club will take up active work to promote amateur radio experiments through the installation of an extensive relay program at a meeting early in July, Sheldon says. Because, many small stations have not sending sets which will reach more than a few hundred miles, they have been limited to a rather small area and consequently have not been able to keep in touch with important stations.
The relay program will permit of the sending and receiving here of messages from all parts of the globe and will not only land additional interest but be of great educational value to students, he asserts. In the San Antonio club this program will be under the supervision of Karl K. Newhn, a civilian radio experimenter of several years' experience.