Notes from Auckland

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 45, 25 May 1928, Page 4

Notes from Auckland

(By

Listener

THE one topic in, radio circles this week is the promised orchestra for 1YA. ‘The announcement in the "Record" has been hailed with delight. All valve set owners here are keenly interested in the presentations by the fine band of musicians at 2YA, and few miss going on to 420 metres when that orchestra is scheduled. It has provided us, at this distance, with a rare musical treat, and now that 1YA is also to haye its orchestra, there is keen appreciation of the enterprise of the Broadcasting Company, and there fre smiles on the faces of many dealers, who foresee a big influx of new business from the additional attraction. Our local trio is an excellent little combination, and to some it has a decided appeal, but it cannot hope to catch the favour of the general body of listeners in the way that a full orchestra will do. The talent is here, and the capabilities of Mr. Bellingham for welding it into a body of which not only the station but also the city will'be proud, are undoubted. All radio fans will anxiously await his coming North, as the sign that the promise is within short distance of fulfilment. [z must be a yery pessimistic listener who continues to grumble at the local programmes. Byery week they show some distinctive feature of improvement, They are accumulating brightness and variety and the generality of listeners quickly comment upon the fact. The Saturday football relays have missed the genial Mr. W. J. Meredith, who is very well qualified to describe the game he has refereed so long. Mr. Meredith has been away on sick leaye, but is now back at the microphone at Eden Park, where he is always a prominent figure, Enthusiastic amateurs whose gréatest delight is to contemplate anything new in the way of radio sets, have found niuch to interest them in the wireless room of the Nauru Chief, the supply ship of the British Phosphate Commission. This vessel carried a half kilowatt telephone set, working on a wave of 720 metres, and effective over a daylight range of 700

miles. The set is used solely to converse with the shore stations of the commission on Nauru and Ocean Islands, each of which has a similar equipment. These two shore stations also proyide continuous two-way conversations between the two islands, which are nearly two hundred miles | apart. The ship's plant is a splendid example of British workmanship, and, | from the accounts of the officers, has. fully justified its installation. It has sayed the mendless detail, and avoids all that rush of preparation that would otherwise arise when the Nauru Chief arrives at the islands. Officials returning from holiday are enabled to converse with friends ashore, and to pass along instructions eyen to the preparation of the dinner on day of arrival. Me. Jordan, operator of the Nauru Chief, has a very high opinion of 1YA. Despite its comparatively low power, it reaches as far up into the Pacific as its bigger Australian cousins, and for clarity of announcement in particular it .stands supreme. Missionaries in the Solomons, and traders throughout the South Pacific, all know 1YA, which does as much as any other broadcasting plant to relieve -the monotony of island life. Hearing it 1500 miles away, and comparing it with 2YA, it is hard to believe that it is only one tenth of the power of the Wellington station. WELLINGTON reception here just now is better than it has ever been. Whether this is due to exceptional atmospheric conditions, or to improvements in the South the writer knows. not, but, both by day and by night 2YA comes in with splendid audibility, and without that pronounced fading that marked its operation some months ago, And, as for the programmes-well, they are better than the Auckland ones, and that is saying something. )