News and Notes

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 332, 18 April 1928, Page 14

News and Notes

ARE YOU HEARING PCJJ ?

The Philips experimental short-wave j broadcasting station at Hilversum is now transmitting regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 6 and 9 p.m., British time, on a wavelength of 30.2 metres.

CAT-MADE STATIC

While the leading lights of science have been earnestly engaged in seeking the origin of atmospherics, it appears that, in not a few cases, the real cause must have been literally “under their noses.” This, at all events, is the opinion of a Washington experimenter, N. U. Parham, who points out, in a letter to the American Radio Manufacturers’ Association, that there is a good deal of electricity generated in a cat’s fur. Although this form of generator is more or less quiescent at normal periods, Mr. Parham considers that interference may be caused when pussy parades on the backyard fence. In this case the more common audiofrequency manifestations may apparently be augmented by feline radiofrequency phenomena.

SO SIMPLE!

Congratulations are due to the institute of Patentees for the following, which we cull from their list of “What’s Wanted”: “A wireless loud-speaker to translate any foreign language into English.”

HUMMING WITH ELIMINATORS

Slight humming on the multi-valve set when using a HT battery eliminator can often be overcome by arranging a separate anode potential for the detector valve, i.e., the use of a smail HT battery which will last a very long time as the drain from the detector is very small.

RADIO IN JAPAN

The Nippon Electric Company, which secured the order for three 15 k.w. Geneva-rating transmitters from the Japanese Broadcasting Association, states that the association aims at bringing the whole of Japan within the range of crystal sets. Six :15kilowatt stations will be completed before very long at Tokyo, Hiroshima, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai and Kumamoto.

DUD'* TRANSFORMERS

Uo not throw away a “dud” or burntout transformer of the iron-core type; it is useful. First ascertain with a pocket battery and a pair of phones which winding has gone. To do this, place one of the battery tags on the input of the primary or secondary winding, the other battery tag connecting with one of the phone tags, and the remaining phone tag being taken to the output of the primary or secondary. In each case, if the winding is intact, a click will be heard. The sound winding may often be used as a low-frequency iron-core choke for experimental purposes.

STATION 2AQ

Listeners who wait up for the Australian stations will be interested in the broadcasting station 2AQ, operated by Mr. Coutts, of Taihape. The volume is excellent, quite as loud as 3YA is, but the transmission is at present experimental, and abnormal fading, generator hum and patches of distortion have yet to be rectified. The wave-length used is somewhere about 290 metres.

ARTISTS 3,000 MILES APART

REMARKABLE CONCERT IN U.S.A. What is thought to be the greatest mechanical achievement in radio telephony and the most costly programme yet given, was enjoyed by 30,000,000 listeners in the United States of America on the night of January 4. Will Rogers, Fred Stone, Paul Whiteman and A 1 Jolson, four entertainers of world-wide reputation, were on the programme. The mechanical devices which brought this group together belie the ordinary conception of a small unit broadcasting studio. Paul White man and his band were in New York. One thousand miles west in Chicago was Fred Stone. The master of ceremonies, Will Rogers, was stationed on the extreme western coast, in the moving picture colony town, Hollywood. California, more than three thousand miles from the broadcasting centre. And A 1 Jolson was located in New Orleans, in the extreme southern section of the country. The four corners of the country were knit together in a broadcasting station. More than 12,000 miles of wire connected the entertainers, the central station and the 33 broadcasting stations throughout the country which were included in the link-up. The programme was also unique in that it marks the first time radio has ever been used to introduce an article of merchandise. Advertising campaigns have incorporated the radio many times, but this is the first instance where broadcasting was the opening gun. The programme was sponsored by Uodge Brothers, automobile manufacturers, who introduced the New Victory Six, their latest development.

In explaining why the radio was used to introduce the new car it was said that the Victory Six, incorporating so many new principles of motor construction, was worthy of an entirely novel introduction. The introduction via the air was the flrst step in an extensive advertising programme. The sponsors of the programme utilised the facilities of the American Telphone and Telegraph Company the stations of the National Broadcasting Company for the feat. Three transcontinental circuits were utilised, one to connect the 33 stations in the link-up, one to transmit the programmes of the various entertainers to New York, the central broadcasting point, and one for emergency purpose. Hundreds of engineers were at work on the three lines, both prior to and during the broadcasting. The intricate mechanism and manner of broadcasting brings some interesting sidelights. Will Rogers, in his corner in the south-west section of the country, heard his introduction from New York yia the loud speaker. Stepping to the microphone he talked. His voice, travelling more than three thousand miles to New York on special wire, then on the special loop to all broadcasting stations and more than three thousand miles back to the local station in California, came to him in a fraction of a second over the loud speaker.

Rogers introduced A 1 Jolson in New Orleans, and so the programme moved on. More than 30,000,000 - people scattered throughout the United States listened to the programme, according to the estimate of M. H. Anyleswortk, president of the National Broadcasting Company. “The four corners of the United States were a broadcasting studio, ’* said Mr. Anylesworth, “and I think that the sponsors of the programme are to be congratulated upon their novel plan for the utilisation of the radio, the fineness of the programme and the amount of interest that Hicnlat'ad.li