NOTES AND COMMENTS

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 28, 27 January 1928, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

(By

Switch

In many areas in New Zealand there are persistent complaints of interference: by electric-line leakages. The thing is rapidly coming to a head, and the listeners’ societies should concentrate upon some solution of the. difficulty. Lhe main obstacle seems to be the actual discovery of the point from whence the . interference originates. Power Board engineers know full well that these leakages are evidence of trouble, occasioning electric losses and inefficiency. If the committee of any | listeners’ league can definitely place the "source of the trouble, the Power Boards may be relied upon to have it rectified. Therefore, what appears to be the most expeditions method of combating the trouble on the part of listeners’ leagues is to devise some sure-fire means of locating its source. This is something to place before a national conference of "the listeners’ leagues Power line leakages have proved as elusive as the will-o’-the-wisp in the Wellington district. From what one can gather a most diligent search, with | the aid of motor-cars and portable loop sets, by competent radio men, including a qualified electrical engineer, proved ineffectual. ‘The baffling part. of the whole thing is that the trouble originates at one point and then radiates along the lines for many miles. Therefore the pursuit has been for the greatest point of intensity, but even this foiled the pursuers. , | The unsatisfactory reception of tralian stations is perturbing not a few recent purchasers of high-priced receiving sets. hese novices should remember that, owing to "daylight saving" in New Zealand, it is still daylight, at present, in Australia when the clocks in the Dominion show 10,30 p.m. The effect of daylight should, by now, be well known even to novices, and they cannot reasonably expect good reception from Australia until after 11.30 p.m. "Atiode" (Hastings) writes that he is thinking of purchasing a set for reception of the Australian stations, but is disgusted with the results he has observed when visiting the homes of neighbouring listeners. ‘Anode’ will find a vast improvement in the reception of the Australian stations within about six- weeks; when the period of the operation of ‘daylight saving’? terminstes, "Imperialist"? (Carterton) sends a chatty little letter urging the advantages of trade within the Empire. He proposes to order a high-class receiving set from Iingland, and asks whether the linglish sets are suitable for New Zealaud conditions. My friend should first ask the manufacturers to send a schematic diagram of the circuit of the set, as many English circuits are prohibited in New Zealand, owing to their tendency to energise the acrial unduly, thus causing interference with other listeners. "Switch" also advises "Imperialist" to ascertain the waveleugths to which the set will tune. More than one private importer has burnt his fingers, so to speak, through landing a set with a prohibited circuit, which had to be altcred at a heavy expeuse. "Switch’’ has also seen a costly English set which could not tune below 300 metres. The other day ‘Switch’ heard a discussion on the prices of radio sets in England. It was contended by one person that the English sets of highclass standard were sold at less than half the price of the American sets out here, "Switch" has looked into the matter, and finds that the prices at Home are not at all low, and to the cost must be added freight and incidental expenses. A fairly good fivevalve set in England is sold at £25, in addition to which one has to pay extra jor tlie batteries, loudSpeaker, aerial, and Marconi royalties, the last-mentioned amounting to about £3, ‘To these items must be added freight, insurance, wharf charges, cartage, ete. Anyone contemplating the importation of his receiving set may experience the annoyatice of a lengthy delivery if he sends to the United States. "Switch" received a complaint last week from a Taranaki listener who remitted the price of a set.to an American mannfactuting corporation of good tepute. After waiting four months for a reply, which did not come, the listener wrote a strongly-worded complaint to the manufacturers, Ten weeks later he received a reply from the corporation apologising for the delay, and Stating that his letter and money-or-der had been accidentally pigeon-hol-ed! Another three months elapsed before the set arrived in New Zealand! This is not an isolated instance of this sort of treatment hv American radio cvompanies, A Wellington man wrote twice in seven months without receiying a reply to his order and moncyorder. Only after he went to the expense of cabling that he proposed to take legal action did he receive an apologetic letter. ‘en weeks more elapsed before the set arrived, Apparently it had never heen factory-test-ed, and the importer had to pay over £3 for having faulty incks and a‘ "dud" * valve socket replacedt

The Adelaide station, 5CL, employed four microphones perched on the Tow Hall on New Year’s Eve to relay the celebrations at midnight. One micros phone picked up the street sounds, one for the band music, otie for thg carols by the Y.M.C. Choir, and the fourth the announcer describing the events. If one imports a set from abroad hé is faced’ with the question of. service, When a set is bought in New Zealand the trader gives full service if there is any trouble in the set not due tq any fault of the purchaser. ‘‘Switch’s knows of two private persons who ime ported their own sets, found that thé shaking-up they had receivéd in steams er transit had caused internal deranges ment in their sets, not noticeable until an attempt was made to operate them, ‘As the sets had been taken delivery} of and then carried by rail, the impore ters were unable to establish an insura ance claim. By the time they had paid for a radio mechanic to put the sets right, the importers found they could have bought better sets in New Zeas# land at less total cost. — -----

Recently 5CL,, Adelaide, broadcast ‘sounds from several different parts of the city. The first broadcast took place from the City Market, in New Adelaide. Mr. W. C. Smallacombe, well known to listeners as Uncle Radio, first of all described. the market, after Which the various vendors’ cries were heard. A welay was later carried out from both Rundle and King William Streets, where the noises of the bus Friday night traffic were plainly heard. Much fun was caused when Uncle Radio asked an Italian vendor of statues to describe one of the statues he had for sale, When asked what one statue represented, the Italian auswered in broken English, ‘"Twentytwo and seex!’’ The finest and most reliable radio sets in the world are being retailed in New Zealand, and as a rule they are sold in the Dominion with a full guarautee that they will operate efficiently. If they fail to perform satisfactorily, free service is given until they conform with the guarantee. It is, therefore, unwise of a private buyer to attempt to import his own set, in view of the tisk of delay in delivery, extra cost for service if the set fails to operate successtully, and the failure of muchiboomed sets to come up to expectations when tried out under New Zealand conditions. One of the most interesting results of an analysis of British broadcast progranunes is that it has shown that the amount of time spent in broadcasting talks amounts to 20.83 per cent. of the tctal time the stations are working. Music occupies 62.2 per cent. of the total time, drama 1.6 per cent., special features, such as the "stunts" undertaken from time tu time 1.67 per cent. religious services 4.18 per cent., the children’s hour 7.4 per cent., and misecllancous items 2.06 per cent. of the time. The time spent in broadcasting classical musie represents 10.02 per cent, of the total transmission time. Light orchestral music and comic opera oecupics 11.83 per cent., popular music 26.53 per cent., dance music 12.5 per cent., and gramophone music 1.27 per cent. of the time. Of the total time devoted to talks, news bulletins occupy about one-quarter, and practically the whole of the remainder is given to the broadcasting of educational talks. rom the biting cold of a typical winter (Shristinas ive in London the chimes of Big Ben were wafted over the ether to the congenial heat of an Anstralian summer night when the special Christinas Eve programme transmitted by the British Station 5SW Chelmsford, was picked up and rebroadcast by the big Australian Station 8LO Melbourne. Although Christmas carols were not, unfortunately, included in the programme, the other items were clearly heard, whilst the striking of the hour of 4 o’clock by Big Ben as rebroadcast by 8L0O Melbourne, was heard thronghout Australia, New Zealand, and the South Seas just as distinctly as the feimiliar sound could be heard in Lonfon. Listeners did not mind sitting up until 2 a.m. Christmas morning in Australia to hear Big Ben strike 4 p.m. on Christmas Kye in London Although the majority of factory-made portable sets are expensive and fairly elaborate, mainly because they are intended for use without an aerial, an efficient camping-out or seaside "‘bach’’ outfit can generally be improvised from one’s owt receiver, There is very little difficulty in providing an aerial when one is campitg, or staying at a holiday house. Two trees, or fairly long props ean easily be used to support a single wire, about 100ft. in length, and a piece of wire lying in a creek, an iron rod driven into the ground, a wire fence, or even a wirelying along the ground under the aerial will give good service as "an earth." A coil of about 200ft. of No. 14 gauge wire will provide ample material for making the aerial and earth equipment for the receiver. _ The three stages of amplication can seldom be used after the two trans‘former coupled stages as the result would be distorted signals without an appreciable increase in volume. Ir you are desirous of obtaining greater volume from your set, nse a_ threestage resistance amplifier after the first transformer coupled stage in the receiver. The stages should be equipped with valves having suitable characteristics to render their efficient operation in the various positions, ‘The last stage should be equipped with a suitable power valve, which will require a very high plate potential before maximum amplification can be obtained, and correct grid-bias. The inventor of the nentrodyne receiving circuit does not advocate the use of regeneration in this circuit. Capacity reaction, however, can be add. ed. A condenser of 0.00035 mfd. will tune the reaction coil, which is one of approximately 30 turns and placed at a distance of about one inch from the grid end of the second neutroformer, ‘The distance between the base of each neutroformer should be no less than 6in. apart, The "A" battery can be connected either way, The filament ballasts and rheostats are usually connected in the filament negative lead, In any case it is advisable to control the temperature of the detector valve with a rheostat, as there ig a certain amount of feedback,

Although Cairo, Egypt, is a good distance away from most of the Kuropean stations, a Mr, W. Day, of that city, has, with his eight-valve super-het., received the following broadcast stations :-Radio, Paris, Daventry, Moscow, Constantinople Berlin (1250 metres), Vienua (577 metres), Berlin (566 metres), Budapest, Munich, Vienna, Aberdeen, Zurich, Bourvemouth, Berlin, Langenburg, Rome, Bruna, Frankford, Berne, Hamburg, Toulouse, Manchester, Stuttgart, Madrid, Leipzig, London, Graz, Pragne, Barcelona, Naples, Milan, Breslau, Newcastle. Many Australian listeners were curious to know why the fifth Empire programme broadcast from 2FC, Syd-’ ney, was not relayed by the B.B.C. London, as the reception was not sufficiently satisfactory to warrant this. The explanation is simple. When it was decided that the B.B.C. would relay the programme from 2FC Sydney at Christmas time, they were asked to provide a similar programme for reception in Australia. Tests were carried out and 2FC was advised by the engineers of Amalgamated Wireless that the best time to send a programme to London was between midnight and 2 a.m. to be received in England between 2 p.m. and and 4 p.m. the previous afternoon, ‘The programme 2FC gave on boxing morning for reception in London on Christmas Day was set down for this time, but the B.B.C. advised at the last moment that they could not relay the programme until four hours later, which of course meant that the reception would be unsatisfactory, and to keep faith with the Commonwealth Band and the artists that had been arranged for the programme was given between 4 and 5 a.m. on Monday morning, but its reception in England was not satisfactory. Radio "BY" and "C" batteries that are partly run down can be temporarily pepped up by drilling a series of small holes into the battery and then filling the holes with a solution composed of either sal-ammoniac, vinegar, or diluted sulphuric acid. The battery should be allowed to stand idle for several hours before using, after wluch additional acid should be added. ‘The holes can be plugged’ up with sealing wax or soft soap. Russia has instituted a number of public broadcast receiving Stations, through which cencerts are heard by the people. Mexico has experimenied with the same idea. Probably our friend RIN, Siberia, is heard through public loudspeakers gver wide areas in that country. Many of us will recall the well-known | school book story of how the brave little Hiollander, on discovering a hole in one of the dykes, and realising the danger to life shonld the water widen the break, placed his hand over the hole until help arrived and the damage was repaired. Recently in Brisbane a member of 4QG’s staff agreed to emulate the brave little Hollander, but in this case the trouble was a_ part of 4QG’s intricate plant. The part, became loose, causing a how] in the transmission, and to adjust matters it might have been necessary to close down for a few minutes, but the member of the staff placed his finger on the affected part, keeping it there for fully an hour until the station closed down, allowing the programme to proceed uninterruptedly.

Recently the unmber of licensed broadcast listeners in the State of Queensland totalled 25,200. Queensland is rather a sparsely populated State, so the above figures evidence a Wholesome interest in broadcasting. A letter is to hand from ‘Sylyia" (Hataitai), as follows :- Mr. Gerald Marcuse, the English amateur (2NM), will be transmitting on 32.5 metres until April 1, 1928, probably dropping down to 28 metres at a later date. His schedule will be 6.60 on Tuesday and Sunday mornings, and on Sunday evenings from 18.00 to 20.00 G.M.T.

| Germany has twenty-three broadcasting stations in twenty-one cities.* All of the stations are owned by the postal service, License fees from receiving sets pay expenses. . : Ifxperiments in wireless reception on @ moving train are being repeated on the Warsaw-Zyradow lines. The experiments will, be made with the apparatus on a far distant train. If these experiments prove successful, other trains are likely toe be equipped with receiving apparatus. 2C, Sydney, have a truly novel "turn" by two gentlemen, "I Jotsam’’ and ‘Jetsam’? who enter into discnssions, sometimes considerably heated, on the topics of the day.: These discussions, sometimes considerably heated, develop into arguments and the dialogues are frequently most mirth-provoking. One rejoices vigorously at anything new in broadcast entertainment, In a letter addressed to a 2B, announcer, Mr. Donald Wright, of San Pedro, California, inter alia, states :- "J have a DX radio den where I invite people to listen in to 2YA, Wellington, New Zealand, who is coming in good"? Mr. Wright remarks that the broadcast stations in this part of the world "are better made than U.S.A. stations, or the air is better; they sure de come in,’’