PROGRESS OF RADIO

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 55, 2 September 1926, Page 14

PROGRESS OF RADIO

I , CONTROL IN AMERICA ■ SHIPPING AND -AEROPLANES. (From Our Own Correspondant.) SAN FBANCISCO, Bth August. Eadio sweeps onward, from one phase of progress to anothor, entering more intimately into the lives of the community. In order that coastguard vessels may bo able to locate each other in dense fogs, one hundred radio-direction finders aro being installed on the cutters of the coastguard. A model illustrating the principle of the double-beam beacon in guiding aircraft has been de- ■ signed and built by the. Eadio Laboratory of the Bureau of Standards." A miniature replica of a ground radio station, including towers and transmitting apparatus, has been subjoined to a tiny aeroplane for the purpose of demonstrating how aeroplanes are to be directed along a pre-appointed course by two radio beams or waves. An experiment of a very daring nature, .not yet fully developed, aims at devising a visual means of indicating the different characteristics o£ the signals from a double-beam radio beacon on the instrument board of an aeroplane. This is to avoid tho apparent liability of error in the use of the aural or ear method of directing an aeroplane by means of radio signals from a distant ground station. It is "held not unreasonable to assume that eventually the deflection of a needle on an electric signalling device will indicate when an aeroplane is on or off its true course. Tho newly-formed Bureau of Civil Aeronautics will use tho double-beam radio beacon extensively as an aid to navigation. The control of radio broadcasting is I the subject of a measure passed by the United States Senate, which does away with a Bill passed by the House of Bepresentatives. The latter placed the control in the hands of the Department, of Commerce, but the Senate Bill has no reference to the Department, but ■prescribes that the control of radio shall be in the hands of a commission of five, receiving £2400 a year each, to be appointed by the President for five-year terms. The Bill provides further that th 6 commission shall have power to issue licenses for the inter-State transmission of energy, communications, or signals by radio when public convenience will be served thereby, and is given complete authority to clasaify stations and oporators, to prescribe the nature of servico, to assign wave-lengths and times of operation, to determine locations, to regulate apparatus, to establish areas to be served by stations, to make inspections, to regulate radio stations on railway trains, to make regulations to prevent interference between stations, to control chain broadcasting, and to regulate radio stations where a charge is made to listeners.