A few days later Frank, who was poring over the latest issue of a radio magazine, uttered an exclamation. “Gosh! here’s the scheme,” he cried. “Now we can find out who that mysterious chap is.”
“What’s the big idea?” queried Tom, who was busy making a new vario-coupler.
“Loop aërial,” replied his chum. “Here’s an article all about it. It says they’re used aboard
ships to find the location of other vessels and are called compass aërials.”
Tom dropped his work and hurried to Frank’s side.
“Well,” he remarked, after a few moments’ study of the article and the diagrams, “I don’t see how that would work in our case. It says one ship can find another or can work its way into port by using the loop aërial like a compass, but the trouble is the ship’s moving and so the thing will work, but we can’t go running around New York City or the state with a set in one hand and a big loop aërial in the other.”
“No,” admitted Frank rather regretfully, “but we can tell in which direction his station is.”
“Yes, and it will be fun to make one and experiment with it,” agreed Tom, “especially as the article says the thing cuts out static and interferences and it’s getting on towards warm weather now when the air will be full of static.”
“Well, let’s make one then,” suggested Frank.
As a result, the boys had constructed their loop aërial and a special set to go with it and the very first time they tested the odd affair they were overjoyed