RADIO PAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 27 November 1926, Page 22

RADIO PAGE

(Conducted by

“B.C.L.”)

THE TRAGEDY OF “CYNTHIA.” In England recently, a mosquito was induced to broadcast its song. Heaven knows why everyone should have wanted to engage a mosquito as soloist; too many sleepless nights are associated with the insect. But, anyway, the experiment was tried, and so Cynthia, the only contralto mosquito doing the “big time” in London, was engaged. She arrived at the studio on time, was given a little respite to recover her breath, and was asked to sit on the microphone. It was then the tragedy happened. Whether the metal gave her cold feet, or whether she had cold feet when she came to do her trying stunt will now never be known. Cynthia died at the very moment of switching on—died mute, uncomplaining, ready to do her duty, though snatched by death in the very moment of its accomplishment. This is a true tale. Iler photograph is in the Radio Times —a death mask apparently, because there is an absence of that ready good nature one is accustomed to associate with the live insect.

ELIMiNATOR ADVANTAGES The battery eliminator has certainly come, to stay, judging by experience of those in other lands who have carried this device beyond the experimental stage. Only for a portion of their period of use do* B batteries give their maximum efficiency. Unless the city power fluctuates materially, the output from the eliminator, however, will be uniform, and herein lies its greatest advantage. It also saves replacements and shopping worries. In the matter of cost, the saving with a small set may be negligible, but the craze to-day is for large sets with a power tube in the last stage. The drain of this valve soon piles up the B battery bill, for it may exhaust one within a month. In this case the new device is an undoubted economy. Many of its early types suffered from '-being marketed while they were yet in the untried experimental stage, but they have now progressed beyond this, and in both England and America, where they are becoming increasingly popular, they have 'been found to give satisfaction. THE REVIVAL OF POETRY “I have just learnt,” says “Hello,” of Melbourne, “that in consequence of broadcasting, poetry is once again coming into its own. Poetry used once to be read and admired by everyone, and was be_ admired when read aloud by a competent person. Browning Societies, Shakespeare circles, even Ella Wheeler Wilcox saloons were mediums for the popularisation of poetry. “Then came this queer Georgian poetry ’which was emphatically not meant to be read aloud, because it meant nothing and sounded worse than a dog fight. Jt was when this queer stuff was at the height of its vogue, and people with sense were giving up the reading of poetry altogether, because so much balderbash was being written that broadcasting came in. Immediately poetry was read through the microphone, and the only poetry possible for this treatment -was the despised old stuff of Shelley, Keats, Byron and Tennyson. Listeners loved it, and poets took heart of grace and began to write the real authentic poetry once more. 3LO has engaged two or three excellent readers to read verse, and it has become most popular. Everywhere, from the most unlikely sources, I am hearing quotations I thought h%d been murdered by the Georgian poets. Happily, they have survived, and there is some grace in the world again. For this, thank the radio.”

HOW TO CHOOSE A LOUD SPEAKER. - Strictly speaking, the way to. test a lound speaker is on your own set. In fact, very often one loud speaker will not give good results with a set, but another loud speaker of exactly the same make and type will be quite satisfactory. The most, popular loud speakers are of three, different types: the horn, the cone, and the cabinet. The tone production of the three is characteristically different, and the enthusiast should feel sure before buying that the speaker whose appearance appeals to him gives the tone-quality lie wants. There are four effective tests which may be applied to a loud speaker, as follows: 1. Is the sound clear at all pitches’ 2. Do sounds of equal volume sent through the microphone produce equally loud sounds through the loud speaker, no matter what the pitch? 3. Do group-tones (a number of instruments or a number of voices) come through the loud speaker so that each instrument or each voice is reproduced in proper volume? 4. Is the natural sound of the loudspeaker reduced so as not to affect the tones of the broadcast voice or instrument ? POLITICS AND WIRELESS “I was speaking the other days,” says / Melbourne writer, “to a well-known politician who spoke bitterly of the use made of the radio for pushing the views of political parties. I remarked that in years to come broadcastng would be seen to be the greatest agent of democracy in our national life. In one of the English papers to-day I see that the same thought has been used bf'a writer. “Democracy depends on the free exchange of ideas. When the world was larger, which means when moans of communication were more difficult, tyranny was possible, because there were scant means of getting to the people and welding them into a lighting force to resist the few powerful men whose posesssion of the Government gave them power. “With each widening of intercourse ( and facility of interchange of views, democracy has increased. First of all the enforcing on Kings of a Parliament of the people brought about a democratic change. Then Parliament, once elect'd, and secure of interference from flic people who put its members there, began to tyrannis? itself. It relied on the necessary difficulty in -acquainting the people of their usurpation of power. It was the cheap printing-press that brought about the end of this tyranny, by letting light into (lark places.

“'Then the newspapers, grown tremendously powerful, tended to misuse their power, and this move was countered by the democratization of the Press some years ago. Even now, however, the news of political happenings is coloured by the views of the newspapers which report them. Labour papers see everything from their point of view; Tory hard-shell papers from theirs. Something was necessary to enable the real people to judge for themselves, and from their own opinions. The radio lias brought this about, and there can be little doubt that in the near future it will be possible for listeners to hoar every word of Parliamentary debates or big industrial conferences, judging for themselves without the interpretation of leading, articles just what their leaders and their opponents are projecting. Surely when this comes about electors will be free and untrammelled, and will, in every truth, govern themselves. “3LO has done a good deal to bring about this state of things. Impartially

it lias allowed leaders of each party to state their views, so that there is no excuse, for the public to complain of misrepresentation. Future years will bring about an enormous extension of this, and democracy will be real.” AFFECTING CONDITIONS. Recent research has demonstrated that areas of different barometric pressure have a marked effect upon the strength of radio waves. Reception has been found to be much clearer when the waves travel across an area in which the air pressure throughout is even. This applies to both high and low pressures, though the signals are somewhat weaker in the latter case. Reception is generally poorer when the waves pass through a high-pressure belt and then a low-pressure one between transmitter and receiver. Local weather itself does not determine the degree of clarity with which we may hear distant stations. If we had a series of daily barometric reading from Sydney across the Tasman to Auckland, it would probably be possible to predict the condtions that would be experienced by listeners. MICROPHONIC NOISES. You have probably noticed that when you tap your valves the loud speaker or phones emit a resounding “pong,” rather like the noise made by striking a g° n g gently. This unseemly and quite undesirable solo may continue for some seconds, becoming fainter and fainter, until it finally dies away. Some valves lire worse than others in this respect. These microphonic noises arc due, as a rule, to vibration of the grid and anode, which varies the distances between them. If you are troubled by these rfoises, see that the table which supports the set is not standing on the bare boards. A strip of carpet or even i a few folded newspapers placed be- , neath the legs of the table will often make a wonderful improvement, if not an entire cure. A SERVICEABLE EARTH. To make a good serviceable earth for a wireless set get eight or nine feet of. 1-inch galvanised iron gas-pipe. Carefully file and sandpaper clean one end. Place that end near fire to warm. Then solder on to that end a couple of turns of copper wire thicker than that used for your aerial. Then drive the pipe into the ground as near as possible to where your set will be worked. Run the copper wire from the pipe to your set by the most direct route, being careful to insulate it wherever it touches wood or stone. (Best to use double cotton covered or similar insulated copper wire.) Throw a bucket of water (in which a pound of common salt? has been dissolved) on the earth where the pipe has been inserted and you will have as good an “earth” as anyone can desire. “MISS NEW ZEALAND” SPEAKS. At 9.30 to-night “Miss New Zealand” will speak from IYA (Auckland).