MOST POWERFUL STATION

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1061, 27 August 1930, Page 6

MOST POWERFUL STATION

KDKA WANTS TO USE 400,000 WATTS EXPERIMENTAL TRANSMITTER Request for a licence for what woou be the most powerful broadcasts station in the world was made ? cently, when the Radio Commissi™ received an application from th e inghouse Electric and Manufacture Company, Pittsburgh, U.S.A., for tl! erection of a 400,000-watt transmits for station KDKA. Although under present regulation, broadcasting stations are limited a maximum of 50,000 watts, the aust cation for the KDKA transmitter ear" for an experimental permit for oration during the hours of l and s,. It was explained that the request* made to permit experimentation air development of higher power as wS as seek solutions to many 0 f problems which are retaring furtS* advancement of broadcasting. “ The station, if permission is grant* will be erected at the present siteTKDKA at Saxonburg, Pa., which about 20 miles outside of ’ Pittsburr*’ The transmitter for the supernoJT broadcaster, according to figures gn* out by Westinghouse officials. will, 172,000 dollars. While the is rated at a maximum outwit 400,000 watts, the set would hare range as low as 50.000. In requesting the ex penman*' licence, the station’s officials stated.”is “in interest of developing broadening equipment with special referas* to the development of specific wot lems. Engineers hope to design • antenna to reduce or eliminate blanfe ing effect in nearby areas; to dereiohigher powered vacuum tubes; desir frequency control apparatus for higae powered transmitters; the develop ment of phase pool type mercury recti tiers for use in radio transmitted where extremely high voltages ad necessary; to study receiving tioiis over a wide area and to stndr fading conditions over the counm when two stations of considerable power are synchronised. KDKA is heard regularly in Zealand and listeners will be inteested to know if the licence is grantee

Radio developments in foreign cositries this var, both in brisk aettotr and ambitious scope, are unpre cedented. The new stations beitt built, the extension of existing radkcommunication systems, the increase in power for communication, and th» interlinking of provinces by beat stations, are so numerous and wide spread among the various countries s to suggest concerted action for worldwide radio communication. Ser stations, or increased power with old ones, are being equipped in China. Japan. Morocco, Afghanistan, Spain, British East Africa, Nicaragua, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland. Guatemala. Manchuria, and many other countries!