SEARCHERS OF THE ETHER

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 4

SEARCHERS OF THE ETHER

ITEMS FOR THE DX-ERS The power interference has eased slightly, with the result that DX fields have been widened. The smaller powered stations, however, are still fairly hard to bring through sometimes. Only the high-powered evening Americans are coming in at anything like good volume, but are not as consistent as they could be. Occasionally several thousand waiters, including KFSO, San Francisco (560 kc); KHQ, Spokane (590 kc) ; KFSD, San Diego (600 kc) ; and KFRC, San Francisco (610 kc), both the latter'stations being heterodyned by the Australians 7ZL and 2FC respectively, are heard. The higher frequency thousand watters, such as EGER, Long Beach (1,360 kc). provided a much better signal that the above lower frequency ones. The volume of the Australian stations has been all that can be desired, and as further frequency changes arc meditaW DX-ers will have plenty to do. As these changes occur they will be made known in this column. Besides moving to an unknown frequency, one of the recent commercial stations —2LV, Inverell (N.S.W.), on 820 kc—is going to change its call sign, so those DX-ers ’who have not logged it should not waste any time. The low-powered Australian amateurs operating on the broadcast band have been very good, but since last week no new calls have been heard. Week nights, or rather mornings, are also profitable for these stations, as many not heard during the week-ends are on them. The Eastern stations have been fairly good, especially the Japanese, and many of the lower powered ones can be heard at good volume. Tn a recent letter JOGK, Kumamoto, states that the name “ Japan ” has been changed to “ Nippon,” and when addressing correspondence listeners are asked to use the latter name. The Chinese have not been up to the usual mark, so that it takes a little patience in making a logging. The stations located on the continent of Europe have been fair, but a rise in volume can be expected any day as the season advances. Always make sure that it is a European station which is being logged and not a Chinese. Many of the latter, including XHHG, Shanghai (1,020 kc). broadcast until 6 a.m., and can easily be mistaken for one of the former by a beginner, LOCAL BRANCH MEETING. Despite the heavy snowstorm a good attendance of members was recorded at the meeting of the Dunedin branch of th New Zealand DX Radio Association, held on Thursday, September 3. After the business there was the usual interesting DX chat, in which members gave a resume of their loggings for the previous fortnight. Some very good verifications were on display, including the first one from the latest and hardest to log, B station 4VL, Charleville, Queensland (1,430 kc). Other good verifications were from JOLK, JOVK (Japan), VPB (Ceylon), KGDM. KERN, KOMA, WSM (U.S.A.), and KHBO (Hawaii). The competitions resulted as follow: Senior.—North America; KERN, B. Henry. East: VPB, E. Niven. eJunior.—Australia; 3HS, C. Sutherland. VK: VK3FL. J. Ruthsay. North America: KHBC, A. Greenway. East: JOVK, J. Robertson. The best on broadcast was from VPB, Colombo, Ceylon, operating on a frequency of 705 kc with a power of 1,750 watts and usually closing at 4 a.m. (New Zealand time). The best on short wave was J. Robertson’s 50-watt English amateur, GSJO, Cambridge. SOUTH DUNEDIN MEETING. The fortnightly meeting of tho South Dunedin branch of the New Zealand DX Radio Association was held on September 2, there being a good attendance of members. Broadcast band verifications were not very numerous, but from short wave stations they included ones from HJIABP, WJ2R, LOIDA, XEIV, VE3DF, VE4CW, VK2BH, VK6MW, HPSJ, HH2V CO2LL, SPW, G6XR, using 10 watts, and VKP (owned by the City Council Electrical Department, Brisbane). Tho short wave log for tho branch stands at 402. Progress in the Elrey Cup competition is as follows:—J. E. A. Sanderson 82, E. J. Gray 68, H. R. Isaacs 54, C. P. Race 34, R. Musson 34. Broadcast competition results were: New Zealand: W. Crooke, IZB, Australian A: C. P. Race and W. Singleton, 2NR. Australian B; J. Sanderson. SDN. Eastern: J. Sanderson, HS7PJ. SHORT WAVE WANDERINGS. Full volume, with excellent quality, has been obtained from the main stations in operation between 5 p.m. and midnight. DJB, opening at 5 o’clock, is just like a local. It now fasts much longer than last month, and continues to improve nightly. Each evening at 6.25 the station announcer extends greetings to selected listeners who have reported to the station. Radio Colonial, Paris, on ll,Bßokc, is now well worth listening to, providing an R 8 signal at 6.30." Tho two Daventry transmitters, GSB-D, are also good, but hardly come up to the standard of DJB. The new Suva transmitter, VPD2 (9,540 kc), operating at 10 p.m., provides yet another chain of programme. This station gives a session of recordings, intermingled with advertisements for Australian firms. Reception at this time is much better than that from the No. 1 station on 13,075 kc, heard at 5 p.m. Other stations on the air during the evening are VK2ME, 3ME, and 3LR

(Australia), JVM and JVN (Japan). DJA-N-E (Germany), and WIXK (America), all of which are well received. The day is not very good except for the 49-metre Americans and the Europeans operating on that band in the early morning hours. Several local listeners have reported good loggings on 20 metres. It is only within the last few weeks that the English amateurs have been heard during the evenings, but quite a number of them can now be picked up. A few of these heard are G2HU, XV. MV. LV, SLK, XG, YY, RV, Ml, 6DH, DL, LL, and XR. A strange signal heard quite frequently lately is from HIOXDA, the call sign of the sailing ship Effie Morrisy, at present located off the east coast of Greenland. It should be tuned for on the low-frequency end of the band at 11 p.m.

A [french radio census showed that at the end of March this year there were still 06,312 listeners using crystal sets among a total of licenses of 2,852,587.