RADIO NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 101, 23 January 1935, Page 6

RADIO NOTES

Anti-Static Campaign MOVE IN AMERICA A Committee of Scientists

(By

Ether.)

America has now launched an offensive against man-made static. Tho Institute of Radio Engineers, in collaboration with the Radio Manufacturers’ Association, is calling a committee of outstanding radio scientists to attack tho problem. The major effort will be to -induce electrical equipment manufacturers to fit proper shielding devices in apparatus turned out from the factories. Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, the Wellknown radio engineer, has been designated chairman. One committee member will be provided by each of the following:— Federal Communications Commission, Bureau of Standards, Edison Electrical Institute, American Radio Relay League, Radio Branch of Department of Marine, Dominion of Canada, National Association of Broadcasters, Electrical Testing Laboratories, Institute of Radio Engineers, and the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Shoriwaves in Germany. The German broadcasting authorities have carried out experiments on various wave-lengths, using a Post Office experimental transmitter at Doberitz. to find suitable wave-lengths for the various new zones which are being opened for the regular short-wave broadcasts. As a result the new transmitter DJN begun a regular service on December 1 for tho benefit of Southern Asia. It works from 8.45 to 16.30 (G.M.T.) on a wavelength of 31.45 metres. With another beam aerial, experimental transmissions are provided to Central America between 22.13 and 3.25 (G.M.T.). The German short-wave station has also reserved the following wavelengths < for possible future use: DJM, 49.35 metres; DJO, 25.43 metres; DJL, 19.85 metres; DJR, 19.36 metres. 1 The average listener is unaware of the gradual improvement that has been made in the last few years in the broadcasting and recording of gramophone records. As each side of a record has a playing time limited to 4} minutes, it must be of considerable interest to listeners to know how the 8.8. C. is. able to give programmes of records often lasting a quarter of an hour or more without an interval, the Change-over from one record to another being’ l imperceptible. Multiturntables are, of-course, used in the 8.8. C. studios, and it is understood that an ingenious method has been adopted by members of the 8.8. C. staff to ensure that the change-over is made without a break when a work is being broadcast that is recorded on two <Jt more sides of dises. The usual procedure adopted by 8.8. C. announcers is to play through the records before a broadcast and note a distinctive phrase, such as a drum beat, in each record about a quarter of an inch from the end. The needle is then placed ■ m the record just before this, phrase, and as soon as it occurs a stop watch is>sthrted and immediately the record'is finished the watch is stopped ; for example, we will say that the time occupied is twenty-live seconds. The next record of the work is then placed on the turn-table and the stop watch started as soon as tho needle is slid into the first groove, and stopped as soon as the performance is recommenced. This may give a reading of four seconds, which shows how long it. takes to grooves on the beginning' of the 1 record"oil which no entertainment fe .recorded.LTl.ie.--procedure which is--. then adopted ■ tlui'lng the actual tfttneinisSipn is tliat wheu'tKc distinctive phrase on the first record is reached a stop watch is started, and when it shows twenty-one seconds the needle is lowered into the first groove of the second record; thus, immediately the music on one record is finished it should be carried on by that from the second, and so on.

Leads for Speakers. It has come as rather a surprise to find how very few manufacturers design sets with the intention that the loud speaker should be used separated from the set itself, says "The Wireless World.” When there are so many advantages from the listener’s point of view in having two instruments so arranged that they can be separated and the speaker placed in the most convenient position in the room, it seems astonishing to us that each manufacturer should not have arranged that at least one of his models should be so designed. : ■” Many sets are provided with an extra pair of terminals for an extension loud sjieaker, but this is not the same thing. Tn sueh cases the manufacturers almost invariably have in mind that the extension speaker would be in use in some other nart of the house and listened to whilst the main set was also in operation. There are hardly any sets where the provision for the extension loud speaker is not quite subservient to the rest of the design, even though a good many-now make provision for turning off the loud speaker contained in the set whilst leaving the extension speaker in operation. It would be fair to say that in the case of the large radio-gramophones there is considerable justification for incorporating the speaker Or battery of speakers in the same cabinet. In the case of a battery of speakers, connections, etc., might be unduly complicated for separation, and the solid construction of the cabinet is sUCh as to provide a goou baffle and freedom from box resonances.

Skating Rink Studio. The largest broadcasting studio in Great Britain, which has recently been opened by the 8.8. C. nt M nll J a \ ale, London, has a floor area of 110 feet by 72 feet, and a volume of 220.000 cubic feet. The premises were originally a roller skating rink, and new studio has been built inside the original structure. A special control room has been installed with the necessary equipment and permanent line connections with Broadcasting House. , The studio is adequately served \yitli listening rooms, control cubicles, artists waiting rooms, etc. The building also contains additional accommodation tor recording apparatus. It is possible that eventually the remaining space in tin building will be used for further studios made necessary by the expansion in the Home and Empire Programmes Services. There are now a total ot twenty studios available for the transmission of every type of programme in London. Pulpit Messages.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, who recently delivered an Empire message by the shortwave station in England, haw many distinctions —one of llie greate.>n perhaps, being that he i« the only Archbishop of Canterbury the Refornntion who has never been a diocesan bishop. When, in 1909, Mr Asquith had the responsibility of choowing the 1 rimate of England, rumour has it that lie told his Cabinet of his intention to make an appointment of a rather unusual kind, and that every member of the Cabinet guessed what this was—to take the Suffragan Bishop of Stepney (as Dr. Lang then was), and send him straight to York, without, the usual intermedilite step of a diocesan bishopric. ' This appointment has a special interest for Empire listeners, ns. n few (lny« before Mi‘. Asquith’s offer came. Dr. Lnug received an unanimous request from the selecting obdy of a Canadian diocese to come over and lead them ns their bishop. Dr. Lang is now one of the lending orators in England—whether from pulpit or platform, or in the more restricted atmosphere of the House of Lords—and each yenr .he sends out his message from the historic pulpit of Canterbury Cathedral