Show TWO WAY RADIO TO CUT FOREST FIRES fishing pole antennae will assure wide reception washington firefighting fire fighting vehicles of the united states forest service will soon be equipped with new two way radio facilities using fishing pole antennae which are elpe expected acted to increase greatly the usefulness of the service the equipment developed by A G simpson a forest service radio engineer will enable the vehicles to remain in constant touch with the dispatcher firefighting fire fighting headquarters can order fire trucks toward a conflagration and later when the truck is under way give detailed instructions the dispatcher also will be able to recall the truck and send it to a more dangerous or more recently reported fire the radios protecting an area equal to new england penn vania and missouri combined will operate on the regular short wave band instead of the ultra high frequency band used by police cars and the forest services portable radio equipment the regular short wave band will assure broadcast reception for at least 25 miles in the worst weather and in fair weather 1 I 1 up to miles these distances are phenomenal said simpson when it is considered that the antenna used is only a 7 foot metal fish pole of ordinary hardware store variety costing about 60 cents but the outstanding feature of the apparatus is a small iron box containing the matching unit which permits unusual efficiency in transferring energy from the transmitter to the antenna and conversely from the antenna to the receiver A coil and condenser combination is used to adjust the impedance impe dence of the antenna to the transmitter so 1 that they are brought in perfect i tune |