WIRELESS NEWS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18219, 1 November 1924, Page 6

WIRELESS NEWS.

| THE EXPERIMENTER'S I WORK, s ■ HOW AMATEURS HELP RADIO. •pxc.'allt w»:ttbh roR "tee rxt*s. ) i.By "Electr-i.") | A common expression neaid in - i homo that r.-'dio ii/is entered. when tae j v.be-nT.-boiit.s oi father or >wu ai '-' soucht. is, "Oil. 1:° s tooling i*h the : radio sc-c." ''l hero i» more in tlr l>hra&c than ;•> realised. W"' s : more of its dev-!opinci:t. to thi> so- | railed "fooling"' than is i-onm'.r.nly i acknowledge']. i It jo not. only amateurs wb> are <-oncorned, tor the fascination of radio i.-. ; sur-'u that, men "who have wonted at it ail day v. ill -.pond their evri.mgs ai homo fciriring ?<■ make ; a sot work better. t<> make it .simpler. ! to eliminate minor difficulties. to increase its ramjy, and. alwve all. to per- ; feet quality and purity of tone. It is i the never-ending quest lor porioetion ; which is bringing radio to new stages 1 of efficiency and useful net*. Recently great, strides have Ireeu ! made in simplifying the control <>t" ! modvrn sets. A -well-known four-tube : reilex set has -only one knob to tune ! with, and a new station can be brought- '■ in bv every turn or a, few degrees on : tlie dial. '•Radio widows" and the general ! public need net waste any sympathy | on either experts <>r amateurs who sit : up half the night "fooling with the i radio.'' The wife of the eh jet' engineer : of a well-known and important trans- ! former manufactory, which maintains • one of the leading research laboratorie- ; in the industry. stated that, her husband stayed up till 12 and 1 o'clock '.several nights a week experimenting t with til-- set in their home. "But 1 ' do not feel sorry for him," she ob- ; served. "It does not lire him. It is | not the actual amount, of work which one does that tires. I do not think uiv husl.-and gets so tired as some men who v.'Oik fewer hours, but do not j lia.ve work which so absorbs ail their : faculties- and creative instincts." I Pre-eminent among the problems of ; radio development on which novices ' and research experts alike arc now j working is the improvement/ of the j clarity and purity of tone in receiving ! sets—to secure amplification without i distortion. Without good tonal quality ; any set, whatever may he its range of : power, falls short of tho ideal of per- ; footed operation. Accurate and pure : reproauction of the voice, or of' musical I instruments, in a radio set depends, in i the 'ast analysis, upon amplification in : which the sound is multiplied but not { distorted. "BEAM" EXPERIMENTS. Marconi's experiments with the "beam" ray liavo convinced him that it is faster and cheaper than high power stations, besides providing comparative secrecy and avoiding "jamming." Tho British Postmaster-Gen-eral, however, seems to think that the "beam" system will work well only at night, and that it will be used mainly for the -transmission of deferred matter. In his view tho gigantic highpower station, which tho British Gov-

eminent is building at Rugby is still indispensable. It is tenerally admitted that the ;ntensitv ot wireless signals tends to diminish during the • daytime. But Marconi would not- accept this limit.".titm of t.!"> possibility of hi* "l>eam" system. Ho considers that, hi.? experiments from Puldhu :'.il; have ilone mtit-h to refute this !>elie, and til- 1 notion that laxge_ intM-vening t tacts of hind iri ierFere'seriously with .short-ware transmission. if is oxoerieme goes'to •ilitr.r that short-wave t*"an>n;iss.ion 1? de; o:iil;;!.'!o c.«ii in <'ayhgla. Then, of course, there i.-t the controvert whether the "'beam'' system is going in put th?. Rugby plant out of business betore i; is finished. ! The Postmaster- 1 * General k:ts ; 'N*>." •He considers it absolutely esseniia-l ; that Great Britain ahould pnssw at i least one. hrst-class wireless station t-ap-j a hie- oi' c■■;?iii>u3ni'.-.a:.inir directly with the j imtivinii parts of the British Emj (tiro, ant! :-Ue *<> broadcast message? ;-i 1)1.111Lli!U*:Jlf-IV to shins ;iIT' stations ir. ] u! 1 parts of iriic world. | HERE AND THERE. j A fk-t'l ot armoured, ears. ritied vic,h i wir»de?s equipment, has Keen commis- | sionot! hy Ibe IH-i ruit (U.KA.'i polb'e. j The -receivers • are permanently tuned j in. to headquarters. j S-.> vf.Mtiliir is wireless incoming that ; it is reported to hare upset several bridge parties recently. When you are employing a potentiometer across your accumulator, remember. vm are slowly discharsrmcc th<-> latter. If the arrangement is allowed ! u> remain when" the sot is not actually ! in. use the accumulator - will soon run j down. Therefore, it is advisable to | emplov a swiu-h and -disconnect tha ' potentiometer ant! the neciimnlator j when the set is not being used. Chemical rectifiers are used bv amateurs lor both II.T. a.ad 1.-. T. supply. It, is useless t.r> cxj>eet them to work well, however, if thev are constructed of poor materials. Aluminium of good quality should be used, otherwise the film will not form. A simple test is i.v t>b'co a. small piece of the metal in a hot lye solution. If the aluminium has a matted silver n.pjjearanee 'it- is of good quality. It i-s not good if it is streaked with black spots. CORRESPONDENCE. C.N.D.. Tfarewcod. —Your hook-up is not. correct. 1 will forward you the required c-ne hy pest. N'o. 18 will do j quite well for an aerial and is used | extensively. j 1'.H.8.. Oakhuid, California. —Yinir i letter was'a surprise. forwarding | full partictlars hy post. Correspondence is invited from leaders of this column concernino; radio experiments, etc.. conducted hy themselves. Questions on radio will also he answered. Address all letters to "filectra" c.e. The Editor. "The Press." A NEW RECORD. (sriciix to "the phiss.") DUNEDIN, October 31. For some time past the New Zealand amateur wireless entliusuasts haro been claiming various remarkable records. A great performance was trat up by Messrs F. Bell (»Shag Valley) and R. Slade and W. L. Shiel (Dunedin) wlien they set u]> two-way communication between New Zealajid and England about si fortnight ago. Now Mr Slade probably has smashed all existing records in setting up communication with England, Chile, Loa Angeles, Australia, and New Zealand in one night. Mr Blade only needed communication with South Africa and he would have been in touch with cill parts of the world. The stations communicated with last night were G3— ?; SLF, and SMN ( England); FAL (Santiago, Chile); U'i, CGO, arid UOAHP (Los Ange.lesV, A^lY ami A2BK (Australia), and Z4AK (New Zealand). Mr Slade holds that mileage, connected was .57.600. To-dav, at <i.B a.m., an effort was made t-o communicate with iSouth Africa., but unfortunately the effort failed. Mr SI axle considers that lack of arrangement is at present the stumbling block, hut lie is quite confident that shortly ono ol' the Otago enthusiasts will .get Soqith Africa.. Tlie method of communication used by Mr Slade was continuous wave Morse.