WIRELESS NEWS

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19162, 19 November 1927, Page 10

WIRELESS NEWS

(By Listener.;

Reception from Australia is becoming increasingly difficult as' summer draws near. It is now 10.30 p.m. in Xew Zealand before the eight o'clock sessions in the Commonwealth commence, and it is only rarely that good reception can be recorded even if one waits till this late hour. Practically all loud speakers have the terminals marked with the plus and minus signs. If in doubt as to whether the polarity of the leaf} to the speaker is correct, detach the iead at flic speaker, turn the set on, and dip the cord tips in a glass of water to which a little salt lias bc<-n added. Bubbles of gas will form around the negative (or minus-sign) tip. . * * . It is a good plan lo fi.v rubber buffers on the bottom of the A battery-carry-ing crate. . These many useful purposes. They will insulate, the accumulator from the ground whilst working the pet or on the charging board, act as shock absorbers, and provide a safeguard against dampness. A crate once acid-sodden is a source of danger to the accumulator itself, and to any furniture, etc-, on which the case n:ay •be piaced. * -XEadio is perhaps the only extensive hobby that is affected adversely by Summer Time. The Australian stations' eight o'clock sessions now commence in Xew Zealand at 10.80 p.m. instead of 9.30 p.m.; Japanese and Indian broadcasting also come through, oitc hour later than before. On the other hand, for countries towards the rising sun there is an hour's less difference in time than formerly, i.e., 3i hours between KGO and New Zealand, instead of 41 hours. ■* * One of the most thrilling incidents in the history of the sea occurred recently ou the maiden voyage of the s.s. Malolo. When halfway on her journey the linen ran into a dense fog, and was rammed amidships by another ship. A huge gash appeared in the liner's side, and within three minutes both boiler-rooms were flooded. Fortunately, however, the Malolo is equipped with storage batteries, which supplied the current for illuminating the ship during the critical period following the crash. At the same time, in the wireless cabin everything proceeded with matter of fact smoothness, the operators coolly sending out their call for help, storage batteries supplying tlie power. Thanks to these safety devices, the great liner was saved from complete disaster, and not a single life was lost. The saving of the Malolo is only one 'of many instances where the safety factor has been 3)i electric storage battery.

CHOOSING A CAREER.

OPPORTUNITIES IN RADIO

With the scholastic ye-r nearing its close many parents will be giving serious thought to the problem of what career to choose for their sons. As regards the professions U will be generally conceded that. these, are '' overdone" in New Zealand at the present time, but there are many big things yet to be done in the realms of science and. engineering, and particularly in the radio field.

Tears ago a man is said to have committed suicide'because, as he said m his farewell words or rite, "Everything has 'been invented that can be invented, and so what is the use in living?" That man would bo surprised if he.came back to life in his home town now. Also, there is an old story about the professor who asked first one and then another in his class the question: "What is electricity?"—until one student got up and after making several false starts said: "I am sorry, professor, I knew what electricity was last night, But. I have forgotten now." AVhereupon the professor said, "This is awful; only one man "in the world ever knew what electricity was, and he has forgotten." That story was told years ago. Nobody knows wftat electricity is yet, but many useful applications of electricity have been inade p' >ible by.the discoveries' which have resulted froni trying to find out what electricity is. Richardson, in investigating electrical phenomena, worked out the beginning of tho electron theory. That electron theory made the study of vacuum tubes and chemistry easier. As a result'we are obtaining .more uses from vacuum tubes and chemistry. There are so many things we do not know tha£ the field for discovery and pioneer work is broad. We say that radio and light are waves in the ether. Yet we arc not sure that there is an ether, and, supposing there is an ether, what is it? The modern explorer who tries to find the ether will discover valuable things, just as our ancestors did when they put to sea to discover t v .e edge of the earth.

It is not only,the discovering that is interesting and valuable, but pioneer work is also interesting and v .luable. The pioneers follow along immediately i back of the discoverers and produce practical results., partly by making more discoveries and partly by making use of what has already been found. This country was discovered quite a while before enough pioneers came here to put it on a practical basis. Maxwell developed a theory for radio and Hertz demonstrated radio with apparatus according to Maxwell's theory, but it took time and many pioneers to put radio on a, practical basis. The pioneers who made radio practical were mere boys or not born yet when Maxwell and Hertz did their part. Maxwell and Hertz died famous. Many of the pioneers are still alive, and some of them are fatuous. There arc opportunities in science and'engineering for discovery and there are many more opportunities for very valuable' and interestng pioneer work. Possibilities in Television. Television is possible to-day, but it needs pioneer work to bring it t8 any great degree of usefulness. Speaking roughly, we might say that television is just about as practical to-day as radio was in 1900. Evidently people want moving picture's in the home by television. Pioneers will try to give them these pictures and incidentally those pioneers will probably produce some other things that we want. Assuredly the rar'io field is full of old problems and promises o' new ones. The.problems of finding out just what static is and how to prevent it from interfering with radio are very old- problems that have not been thoroughly solved, and there are still tbe old problems of finding out what radio wav. j are and how and where they travel,.

Notes From Far and Nean

THE LICENSE PROBLEM. SHOULD CRYSTAL USERS TAY LESS ? One frequently hears discussions concerning the broadcast listeners' license tecs. A usual point of argument is the question why should Brown with a simple crystal set pay the same license fee ;is Kobiuson who has a de-luxu superheterodyne? Brown can only hear the local stations —and more often than is desirable, only one station at that — while Kobiuson can tune in practically all the statious in Australia and New Zealand. It docs seem at tlic first glance that there is something like inequitable treatment iu the method of charging for the service. In the first case the aiir nual license fee is nearly as much as the cost of the set, while in Robinson's case the 30s is only a slight addition to the cost of the set. Upon reflection, however, it, will be seen that there are several reasons for the authorities not discriminating in the license fees. In the first case, when considered'in the light of what might be termed practical polities, we will .find rather serious drawbacks to the apparently ideal scheme of charging a lee on some basis of ratio to cost and usefulness of the receiving, equipment. If there were to be a cheaper license fee for crystal sets it is not difficult to see, human nature being what it is, ;i large demand for such licenses —a larger demand than the number of crystal sets would justify. There would be no means of checking up a statement by an applicant, for a license who had a 4-valve set, that his set was'really a crystal set. And even where no suggestion of misstatement entered! into the case, one can readily conceive the circumstances in which a household has both a. crystal set and a valve set in use. Furthermore, Robinson may start oft' with a crystal set and subsequently obtain his super without remembering to change his license. A more important reason for the uniform license fee rests on the fact'that a broadcasting service, or services, are available to listeners. They arc entitled to take as much of the service as they care to receive. It costs the broadcasting company just as much to provide the service for Brown with his crystal set as for Kobiuson with his superheterodyne. Hence it is not unreasonable to maintain a uniform fee. And if Brown can only get 3YA with his crystal set it is liis. own fault that be pays the same license fee as tho owners of the valve sets. The uniformity of license fee docs not obtain in the outer zones of larjer sets. That seems a fair thing for the authorities to do, as the extent of service with any kind of receiver varies with the distance from the station. There may appear in that to'be a slight contradiction of the previous reference to the equity of the license fee, but it does not really upset the arguments in favour of the contention that the fee should be a uniform one. PROGRESS IN JAPAN. j

FOUR LARGE'STATIONS. Japan is taking official cognisance of radio broadcasting as well as commercial wireless communication. The Department of Communications control both phases of radio. To-day there are several large and • many small radio telegraph stations and four broadcasting stations in service. An association composed of three broadcasting organisations operates under the supervision of the Government in the Tokio, Osaka, and N.agoya districts, which serve some 300,000 subscribers. Listeners pay fees of one yen a month to the local broadcasting companies and'one yen a year to the Government. These broadcasting associations arc non-profit-making associations, whose members consist of those s interested in the development of radio. They furnish programmes, average about eight hours a day,- of a comparatively serious nature. Only one-third may be classified as amusements. Npws and educational features constitute a very important part of the programmes. Language instruction in French, and German is also offered to subscribers.

It:is estimated that 80 per cent, of the receiving sets are of the- crystal type. Japan offers a poor field for broadcasting over long distances, owing to topographical and meteorological features. The Japan Broadcasting Association, a national organisation, plans to make radio broadcasting available for the smaller cities and' isolated communities. For the isolated districts lowpower relay stations, interconnected by wire lines with the large city stations, will probably be used. The following stations are now in operation: JOAK, Tokio, 1000 watts power, wave length 375 metres. JOBK, Osaka, 500 watts, soon to be 1000 watts, 385 metres. JOCK, Nagoya, 1000 watts, 360 metres. JODK, Seoul (chosen), 1000 watts, 3-15 metres. Those desiring to instal radio sets for receiving broadcast programmes must present applications to the chief of the communications bureau describing the object of the installation, the place where the apparatus is to be installed, its specifications, and the name of the broadcasting station froni which programmes are to be received. It is specifically stated that sets shall be of a type approved by the electrical laboratory, that wave lengths over 600 metres cannot be received, that no electrical .oscillation will be caused in the antenna and that sets shall be sealed by a Government inspector, so that no changes can be made without breaking the seals. Certain types of radio receivers of domestic manufacture have been approved by the Government and may be installed without submitting specifications of the apparatus. One. of the provisions was included to eliminate regenerative receivers, but permission to instal this type generally has been denied, except when measures have been taken to prevent feed-back into the antenna.

If the efficiency of jour set varies from time to time, beware of moisture due to condensation on ebonite and like surfaces. A wireless set is as sensitive to changes of temperature as any musical instrument, and should be treated with as much care and respect at all times.

An opportunity was recently given a "Press' man to learn the number of "listeners-in" using crystal sets and J.I.S. 2 stage amplifiers and so get loud-speaker strength. This information proved that the large majority of Amplifiers in use have been supplied by J. I. Smail, pioneer radio firm. —6