N.Z.'S CHAMPION LISTENER

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 6, 26 August 1927, Page 2

N.Z.'S CHAMPION LISTENER

59 STATIONS WITH FIVE VALVES -_- MEET MR. CLAUDE P. GREY -__-_-

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Who is New Zealand’s champion ‘pProadcast listener? Permit me, kindly, to rominate Mr. Claude P. Grey, of Shannon, about 50 miles north of Wellington. If anyone has a colt to beat him, trot him ont. I.mean a champion 5-yalve-set broadcast listener, Remember, please, Mr. Grey is practically a novice, and what he doesn’t know about radio would fill a public ‘Hibrary. Yet, this young gentleman has some 59 scalps of broadcast sta_tions hanging on his belt. Here is a chap who just reaches out and gets what you want, if the station happens "to be on the-air at the moment. Now, take this from me, this 1s the cinkum stuff, and I promise any gentleman who desires to investigate this claim to drop in on Mr. Grey any evening, and he’ll be convinced in the flicker of a dial. And, mind you, you will find Mr. Grey with his Jondspeaker at worka ny old morning till 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, and (whisper) he’s been scooping in a "beyond-the-beyond" stranger lately at 3 a.m. The newcomer, I’m game to wager my pet 200A, is one of those new Indian "Big Bertha" ontfits. Of course, Mr. Grey doesn't count this among his scalps until he gets the call, or has honest-to-goodness knowledge what station it actually is. He never guesses, and doesn’t believe that eating raw steak will make him hear more stations,

A WONDERFUL LIST, Just ponder over this list of stations definitely heard by Mr. Grey per loudspeaker :- Philippine Islands-KZKZ, and KZRM. Yotal 2, Japan.-No call (318 metres) — No call (335 metres), JOCK, JOAK, JO BK. Total 6. United States --KFXD, KFON, KF. SD, KSL, KNX, KFVD, KFRC, KFW B, KDKA, KFAB, WBBM, KEF, KF WI, KOA, KMYTR, KCC, WGY, WLW, KPO, KFI. ‘Yotal 20. Australia.-4QG, 2MK, 2UW, 2KY, 2UE, 2GB, 2BL, 2FC, 8L0, 8AR, 3DB, 3BY, 8SW, 8DA, 5CL, 5KA, 5DN, 7ZL, 7RS, THL. Total 20. New Zealand.-1YA, 1ZB, 1ZQ, 2ZF, QAX, QYK, 2VA, BVA, 4¥A, 4AC, 4AK, 4ZB. Yotal 12. Grand aggregate, 59 stations. Yes, they are a magnificent muster, and I truly envy that modest young fellow up in Shannon. He admits he doesn’t know anything about circuits, and I know he couldn’t telt you from memory what type of valves he’s using. Claude {I beg his pardon) I mean Mr. Grey, just went along and bought an imported receiving set and got the dealer to show him how to shnffle and cut the dials of his "snake-box.’"? So, gentle reader, it is not necessary to be a radio expert to scoop in the longdistance stations if you have a good set, and perseverance-and a good position. . RECEIVING SET AND AERIAL. Mr. Grey’s set is a five-valve Yank with just two dials and 4.5 volt valves of the right make. It’s a simple-con-trol arrangement so that your mother-in-law could operate it. My gosh, fellers, he’s got a loudspeaker, too, that absolutely entrances listeners. Here comes the cream of the thingClaude’s (Beg Pardon-well, he calls me ‘Bill and EI call him Claude).-Mr. Grey’s aerial system. Length of aerial, 105ft.. on top, or including lead-in a total of 185ft. Oh boys, it’s the goods, Wait a moment and Pil tell you about it. The further mast is 45ft. in height

(sure it’s a danger to the sexugulls) and the nearer mast stands 27ft. Just a nice slope down towards his set so the radio waves can sit right down and slide into the. Grey chateau. Here’s another startler-(Don’t know where he got this idea from); he’s got a hollow copper ball (lifted from a cistern} inserted im his aerial at the lead-in end so that the radio waves have to skate over, under or around this ball before they can get down and tickle his valves. He’s got the copper ball polished and then varnished to protect it from being corroded by the weather. No, no, no-it’s no use you asking me "whatfor.* There it is, this copper ball, and it doesn’t harm the dear little radio waves. Anyway, there it is, and anyone who wants to remove it Tuns the risk of waking up the next | week in the blissful quietness of a casualty watd with a nice kind nurse to put a thermometer in his thirsty mouth. For Mr. Grey knows plenty about up-per-cuts, under-cuts, right swings, straight lefts, ete. Go and ask him, yourself, about that copper ball, but. Pll wager you he couldn’t explain the radio-electrical effect of the thing. , A SPLENDID EARTH. Naturally, he’s got an "earth and it’s a good’un, too. In fact there are two, He’s soldered the earth connection of his set to the end of a 3ft. cable which is spread out as a sort of earth mat and buried two feet below the surface. A foot further on he’s driven a hollow pipe 6ft. inte the North Island, and the earth connection of the set is also soldered to this pipe. In dry weather Claude (beg pardan), Mr. | Grey pours champagne or water (I forget which} into this pipe, and there ‘you have it, an "earth the Duke of York would be proud to own. ABSORPTION AROUND WELLINGTON. Let’s be serious now. This fine record of Mr, Grey's I’m going to nail to the mast, and if anyone can pull it down let him write me‘particnlars. We poor ordinary plain listeners in Wel-

lington can’t hope te beat this, and Pil tell you just why. There’s a something in the bowl-like hills surrounding 2YA-ville which reaches out and licks up the long-distance stuff that. comes squirting through the ether. "Absorption" the experts dub it. Whatever it is it’s rough on the long-dis-tance stuff. Not that it can grab all the Australian waves, but it catches the stragglers, and any hardened old Wel‘lington broadeast listener who goes up country a few miles will get the sur-. prise of his life the way those radio waves from beyond the heaving ocean smack up the loudspeaker. I know, *cause I’ve tried it out. Ask Billing, Megan, Ralph, Wilberfoss, G. Robertson, Wyles. and other members of the. tadio hierarchy and they’ll tell you the same thing from personal experience.