AERIALISMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 971, 14 May 1930, Page 6

AERIALISMS

The world's most powerful broadcasting equipment is the new transmitter of W'GY Schenectady, New York. It underwent tests recently, but reports indicate that it will not be used for some time yet for regular broadcasts. The power used in the recent test was 200 kilowatts’ New Zealand's most powerful station, at Wellington, 2YA, is 5 kilowatts. The engineers at WGY are confident that, with the latest devices, they can control this mighty broadcasting output so that WGY will give greater public service than ever before, without causing interference to other stations.

Every American mail brings considerable correspondence to the N'ew Zealand Broadcasting Company from listeners in that continent who pick up programmes or portions of them from Station 2YA Wellington. Station 2YA is of course, 10 times as powerful as any of the other A class broadcasting stations in this Dominion, and consequently the transmissions from Wellington reach considerably farther across the oceans than the broadcast items from the other New Zealand centres. An elderly listener in the City of Atlanta, Illinois, which is well over toward the Atlantic seaboard of America in reporting reception of Station 2YA Wellington, says that he is 62 years old and has been an enthusiastic raido “fan” for eight years, and is willing to get up at 3 a.m. any ! day to get such a good programme 1 from so far away a broadcasting station as 2YA in New Zealand. He | further states “that he does not bother the stations in his own country by \ advising them of his receptions of j their programmes, and will not annoy ; 2YA by writing again.” In referring to the recent Byrd conversation from Dunedin to his friends in America the “New York Times” says that "Byrd's chuckle came through more clearly than any of his replies.” It was broadcast through the United States on the National Broadcasting Company’s chain of stations and to Europe by station WGY Schenectady. Russell Owen’s “Ha, Ha, Ha,” when asked if it was true he had lost 40 pounds in weight, could be heard around the world. “His laugh and Byrd's chuckle,” it continues, “enabled American listeners to judge the condition of the Antarctic party as much as anything in the broadcast. In the studio at Schenectady, as soon as the voices from Dunedin reached WGY, the operators of a sound-news reel for the Paramount Pictures set their machinery in motion at the scene in the studio, and the General Electric Company also commenced to make a sound recording film of the conversations across the world. * * * It is announced in an Australian magazine that a proposal for the establishment of a high-powdered broadcasting station at Canberra has been submitted to the Cabinet by Mr. J. C. Eldridge, M.H.R. Among the uses suggested for the station, is the broadcasting of parliamentary debates and Ministerial pronouncements. The suggestion, which is couched in a formally written document, embraces the following proposals:—(1) That the Federal station should be constructed to operate on both long and short waves as follows: (a) Long waves for communication with the Commonwealth, New Zealand and Oceania; (b) short waves for world communication. (2) The operations of the station should include: (a) The broadcasting of Ministerial pronouncements; (b) broadcasting Parliamentary debates: (c) Morse communication, Government traffic; (d) broadcasting entertainment, relays and local broadcasting. * » * At the recent Melbourne Radio Ex- | hibition there was an amateur announcer’s competition. Each even- | ing a number of aspirants read their set pieces into a microphone on the stage. While the visitors to the ' exhibition heard their actual voices, i the judges sat in an upstairs room and | noted the transmissions. Marks were allotted for voice quality, diction and pronunciation, personality and general style. The five best competitiors received one guinea each, and the opportunity of taking part in a final test of actual broadcasting from station 3DB Melbourne. Quite a number of women entered for the preliminary contest and two of them divided one of the prizes. Rope is not very serviceable as a j halyard for an aerial. Exposure to the weather and rain will very soon bring it to a condition where any strain Put on it by shrinkage in wet weather w-ill cause it to break and run through the pulley at the top of the pole, allowing the aerial to fall to tile ground and necessitating taking the pole down to put matters right. Sashcord soaked in linseed oil will last longer than ordinary rope, but for permanent safety pliable stranded wire should be used. ORIGINAL LIGHT EFFECT An original electric light bracket is made to imitate a spray of clematis growing from the wall. The flowers ana leaves are made of clouded glass and are attached to a realistic piece of moss or bark. This is screwed to the wall and the light from the bulb, which is hidden beneath the flowers, gives a soft glow and adds to the impression that the plant is alive.