me about yesterday; the government
lays out specific duties and makes special rules for such a station,
as in fact it does for all radio stations. Some of these rules relate
to the care of the place and the cleaning and general overhauling of
apparatus at stated intervals. There are, you see, certain instruments
which must be cleaned and readjusted every day; certain others every
week, others every month, and some every six months. It simply means
making sure that your outfit is in the pink of condition with every
part functioning as it should. There are, of course, operators who
would see that this was done anyway, rules or no rules; but like every
other profession there might be men who, off on an isolated spot with
no one to keep them up to the mark, would grow careless and slovenly.
Too much depends on wireless stations to run the risk of errors
through imperfections in the equipment."

"I can understand all that; but aren't there a score of other
regulations?"

"You mean about what they shall and shall not do?"

"Yes."

"There certainly are. There have to be because we have several
different types of land stations. Just as the shipboard stations have
their special kinds of work so do those on shore. For example, there
are two different classes of radio compass stations,--those that
operate independently and are located with a view to giving good
cross-bearings to vessels that are from fifty to a hundred miles out
to sea; and those known as harbor stations which are governed by a
central control station and designed to inform ships within thirty
miles of the entrance to outer channels of their position. The
function of each of these stations is, as you can see, quite different
and therefore each of them is obliged to have its own set of rules."

"I never knew anything about radio compass stations before," announced
Dick.

"That is because you never sailed the seas and had to call on one for
aid," smiled Bob. "If you did you would be very thankful, I guess,
that the government has so carefully provided some one to answer just
the sort of question you wished answered. I try to remember this when
I get hot under the collar because the license for our station does
not arrive. Uncle Sam can't help it if his men are slow. The plan at
the top is all right. There must be rules to govern wireless stations,
be they governmental, commercial, or private; rules to regulate the
wave lengths each may use; rules to make su