RADIO AND ITS RECEIVERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 753, 28 August 1929, Page 16

RADIO AND ITS RECEIVERS

Conducted for THE SUN by

R. F. HAYCOCK.

MUSIC COPYRIGHTS

CHANGE IN AUSTRALIA NEW ARRANGEMENT MADE The directors of the Australian : Broadcasting Company, Ltd., announce I that Mr. Prank Albert, a director, actj ing on their behalf, has been success- | ful in negotiating arrangements with | the Australasian Copyright Owners’ | Association for a variation of the | copyright fees that hare been in I vogue for some years in connection j with broadcasting from the A sta--1 tions throughout Australia. ! This arrangement applies to all programmes supplied by the Australian Broadcasting Company from the National Broadcasting Service. The principal advantages of the arrangement are that the company has unrestricted rights to broadcast ■ music. In the past, the arrangement has been that only a definite quan--1 tity of numbers was permitted to be broadcast, and a scale of charges each 1,000 numbers was imposed thereafter. Under the new arrangement, however, the Australian Broadcasting Company can put on the air music in an unrestricted manner, and there is no penalty imposed in accordance with the amount of music that is broadcast. It is only by an arrangement of this description that it is 1 possible for the A class stations to put on the air the quantity of music ! that is now going out. It is obvious in the past that, to prevent copyright fees from being so high that it would be impossible to carry on, a large amount of the time for broadcasting ■ had to be devoted to oral subjects or to non-copyright music. Under the circumstances, the new i broadcasting company will have considerable advantages over the old 1 companies, and this will materially 1 assist in improving the service of I music for the listening public. The arrangement has the approval of the Postmaster-General's department, and the agreement is for three years. One of the best forms of counterpoise is to make a replica of the aerial erected at a height of ten or twelve feet from the ground and well 1 insulated.

EXPERTS SAY

In testing the voltage of an H.T. mains unit the voltmeter used must be of the high-resistance type. Scraping noises and a puzzling absence of signals are often caused when the terminal of a valve holder works loose in its socket and is no longer making proper connection to the leg of the valve. The method of controlling volume by means of a potentiometer—the slider of which is connected to the grid of the valve so controlled—is a good one. provided a realy high-resist-ance potentiometer is used. The resistance should be approximately equal to that of the grid leak used in the same circumstances, i.e., a quarter megohm or so.