"THE LISTENERS' GUIDE

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 48, 15 June 1928, Page 4

"THE LISTENERS' GUIDE

e AN EXPERT'S APPRECIATION, \ R, D. NEILU KEITH, a wireless expert of standing and long experience, now resident in Wellington (after haying been closely associated with radio work in the war) writes as follows:-"I have carefully perused my copy of ‘The New Zealand Latdio Listeners’ Guide," 1928-29, and would like to congratulate you on the excellent little book you have produced, "J have read a good many handbooks, guides, and text-books since I was fi:.t interested in wireless (which was as_ far back as 1906), spending hours in agood many libraries, especially the Library of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Victoria Mmbankment, London, and I ¢an without hesitation say that the information contained in the 154 pages is the most useful I have come across for the amateur or listener, in one book. "In your publication, you do not indulge in mathematical gymnastics, but the whole subject is in the simplest language possible, so that the non-tech-nical reader ¢an wnderstand it, and therefore tuke an interest in it. "The subjects you have touched on are numerous, but brief and tu the point (without diving into the deep mysteries of the ‘whys and wherefory’ ), merely stating facts either historical or technical. Your ‘construction’ section, for example, describes a few useful ¢rystal and yalvye sets without encroaching on the province of your weekly publication, ‘The Radio Record.’ "So many of the so-called ‘Guides’ to wireless concentrate on one particular line, and do not include such items as ‘laws relating to wireless licenses,’ ‘valve guides,’ ‘useful Morse abbreviations,’ ‘glossary of wireless term: ete.; others start off with the theory and elements of electricity and magnetism, but the balance you have preseryed on the whole subject of wireless. commencing from the ‘Karly Days of Radio’ (which, wthough T am not ‘oneof the ancients, I well remember, for I was a student at one of the large engineering colleges at the time), right up to the present day with ‘screened grid valves,’ ete!, is one which makes the book so useful as a ‘Ginide.’ "Phe article on shortwave reception by Mr. F. W..Sellens is brief and interesting, and the table of ‘shortwave ‘stations on telephony heard in New Zealand,’ also by the same author, is most useful to every shortwave enthusiast. "My experience in ‘wireless’ has been too‘long for me to be carried away into superlatives, but I felt I must write to you as one who has, perhaps, seen more handbooks, guides, or text-books (call them what you like) than anyone in New Zealand, and congratulate you and your technical associates on getling so much useful Information into such a small space."