RADIO AND ITS RECEIVERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 871, 15 January 1930, Page 14

RADIO AND ITS RECEIVERS

Conducted for THE SUN by R. F. HAYCOCK. World Programmes ENTERPRISE OF STATION KDKA Entertainment for Arctic THE We.stinghotuse Broadcasting Station KDKA reeently started its new Arctic broadcast schedule for the winter of 1929-30, thus opening its seventh annual service of news and messages to the isolated dwellers and explorers of the far north and sub-arctic. The schedules for these broadcasts were distributed by north-bound steamers and other expeditionary vessels, to the various Royal Canadian Police, missionary and trading posts, so that everyone in the wilds who can reach a radio receiver during the northern winter can listen in at the times specified. These broadcasts are made once a fortnight, and started on October 19 last, and will be continued up to February 13, 1930.

Programmes will begin at 11 p.m. • Eastern standard time). There also will be emergency messages sent out wit i the broadcasts on the first night following the receipt of these messages for dispatch. The service was commenced at the Canadian branch of the company in 1922, and has since become one of the important factors of Arctic life. The scope of KDKA reaches not only north, but also to the explorers in the Antarctic, and the programmes and messages are regularly heard by shortwave listeners in Auckland and other portions of New Zealand. Not only is this station equipped for broadcast transmission of news, and messages all over the earth, but it has established one of the finest listening posts for reception from literally “anywhere" that it would be possible to imagine, and one that would certainly prove to be a radio fan's idea of heaven. Here, seated before three of the finest short-wave receivers that radio engineers could devise, one can listen to the high-frequency stations of the entire world. Short-wave stations in England, Holland, Africa. Java. Australia and in fact, any other widely separated spots on earth can be brought in at will on Jhe delicately tuned receivers. It is

true the listener would have to be a talented linguist to. understand all he could hear, for the languages that would be received would be polyglot, and might need many interpreters. The present short-wave receiving station is located on the William Penn Highway, several miles from the KDKA transmitter in East Pittsburg. All the world has heard of some of the exploits engineered through this little station. Big Ben, the famous Westminster clock, has sent its deep tones to America via this short-wave station, and the KDKA broadcast transmitter. Holland, Germany and 2JVIE Sydney have sent programmes to the station which have been rebroadcast for American listeners. The ordinary KDKA broadcast receiving station is equipped with three receiving sets; two of them were built especially for the station, and the other is a standard type set. The two special sets are so arranged that they can be hooked together, and their incoming signals combined. At the same time the two are connected to different aerial equipments. In this way when the signal is fading on one set it may be full strength on the other. This makes possible more even reception. One of the interesting phenomena of the broadcasting art is the amount of time the waves take to go from one point to another. Of course this is very short, yet it is noticeable. One of the most common examples at the short-wave station may be demonstrated by tuning in on KDKA with a regular broadcast band receiver, and at the same time on a California station rebroadcasting from a relay line the same programme. In this case the programme from KDKA will be heard approximately onetenth of a second ahead of the same one reecived by short-wave from California. The time lag is mostly in the relay wires from New York to the short-wave station rather than in the air time from California back to New York. One of the most interesting examples is explained as follows: England was celebrating the recovery of King George with an all-Empire radio programme. This was broadcast b> 6SW Chelmsford. From there it went to a Canadian station and then to Australia and New Zealand. KDKA engineers listened to the programme, not from England or Canada, but from Australia. This meant that the programme travelled approximately 3,500 miles to Canada. 10,000 miles to Australia, then 9,000 miles to Pittsburg. At the same time another short-wave receiver was tuned in directly on SSW. The time lag was very noticeable by the way of Canada and Australia, sounding like an echo to the direct programme. Owing to the directional antenna used by KDKA when broadcasting programmes to the Arctic, it is unlikely that the transmissions could be heard in Auckland, but those to the Antarctic are readily heard here on Sunday afternoons. Advice has recently been received in New Zealand from KDKA that this station now broadcasts on a wavelength of 20.8 metres (14,420 kilocycles). This short-wave transmitter rebroadcasts the ordinary broadcastband programmes of KDKA every evening from 8 o’clock to 12 o’clock (Eastern standard time) or 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. New Zealand time. This station also has a special broadcast on 63 metres (4,7G0 kilocycle) for television experiments from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Friday (E.S.T.), or 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. New Zealand summer time.