NOTES AND COMMENTS

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 1, 20 July 1928, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

By

Switch

AS'T Sunday week we all got a shock when we attempted to fune in the Anstralian stations for their evening programmes. The majority of the Aussies were inaudible, and the few were a mere whisper. ATURALLY, sets were blamed by many listeners, and "Switch" heard of several amusing experiences. @ne young man tested all his yalves, his transformers and his loudspeaker eord-then went to bed. ) NOTHER undid seyeral of his wired connections in his set (a home-built affair) and put his soldering iron into comniission. Eventually he gave the thing up and carted his set down to a professional the next morning to get him to run over it. YET another listener blamed his outiit and tested his B batteries. He did make a useful discovery, however, and that was that one block of 45 yolts was down to 35 volts. This block was respectfully interred in the dust-bin next morning, "GQ WITCH" had already tried out 3xyA, Christchurch, and 1¥A, Auckland, and found both = stations @ebilitated. .Atmospherics and induetion, on the other hand, were suffiviently lively to indicate that his set was OK. On reaching ou. for the Aussie stations, "Switch" realised there was something wrong in the air, and his mind flew back to some four years ago, recalling a similar experience. ‘PT all came about through a magnetic storm which was sweeping around this stodgy old earth of ours. ‘The Press cables brought news of the Aurora Australis having been wituess--ec in Sydney and Melbourne, and an- . -other message from Christchurch re"ported a like oceurrence down there. LATER eables related a disruption ' o£ the radio beam and cable services, magnetic storms in Canada, with . ‘vivid displays of the- Aurora Borealis. The period of this kick-up coincided . with the Sunday: night's experience + dn New Zealand. {VPOTHER Earth, apparently, was ; . suffering from an overdose of electricity, and was undergoing an attack of magnetic fever. This in- : Yariably plays havoe with wireless and eable communication. "oWwitcH" promptly telephoned seyeral radio friends on the Sunday night, and relieved their anxiety as to Whether their sets or the atmosphere were to blame. One gentleman, quite a veteran at the game, had forgotten the possibility of a magnetic . storm and had .spent haif an hour going over his outfit. He was much relieved when "Switch" related his own experience and suggested an electrical phenomenon as the culprit. I NOTICH in last week's. "Radio Record" an up-country correspondent condemning the soliciting, by broadcast performers, of contracts from listeners regarding their contributions. The thing used to be rather frequent in Australia, but evidently it has now been stopped by the broadcasting company, who apparently recognised that . the practice is undesirable. AS a matter of fact, the broadcasting companies are directly responsible to the listeners for their services and therefore criticisms should be addressed direct to the broadcasting companies -not intercepted by the performers. This is a clearly logical contention. OR example, "Mr, Loudvoice" is’ ’ tried out: with‘a "new and novel act, quite unique in its way." "My, Loudyoice"’ announces to listeners: "Vd like listeners to write to me stating whether they appreciated my contributions." The broadcasting. company wonders how the listeners liked "Mr. Loudvoice," but the comments are diverted to that gentleman, and the company is left wondering. TERE is a first-rate little station in Sydney-2UE-which on occafions gives New Zealanders splendid fitems from their loudspeakers... 2UE is only a squib with regard to aerial input, which is only a fraction of its power according to the Australian rating, which is set down at 250 watts, FPHOSE who operate four or fivevalve sets will, on some evenings, get fair loudspeaker reception from 2UB, Sydney. This station will he found on about 293 metres (1023.8 kilocycles) or a little below the waveJength, in metres, of SYA, Christ. ‘ ¢hureh, . ANOTHER minor Syduney- station, 26GB, 316 metres (9584 kiloeycles) is heard quite well in New Zealand on many evenings in a month. 2GB has a tendency to get tangled up in 8YA, Christchurch, and several listeners have told me they get a pnbb heterodyne whistle from 2GB ‘fone: im. SYA, Chrigigharen.

AY HEN one says the Australian stations regularly supply the New. Zealand newspapers with their pregrammes it is not their fault if they do not reach our papers regularly. The inter-State mail service has been so disorganised by the recent prolonged hold up of the Ulimaroa that not infrequently the Australian programmes have reached the New Zealand Press a week too late. Now that the sea-cooks bave agreed to cook again and the Ulimaroa has resumed running things have improved in the mail services.

TTHERD was some mention, in Australian files recently, of a: realloeation of the wavelengths of the Australian broadcast stations. In case that the wavelengths of the New Zealand stations are likely to be overlooked by the Commonwealth authorities, it would not be amiss for one of our radio societies to drop the Australian Posi-master-General, Canberra, N.S.W., a letter giving the wavelengths of all the ~ Dominion broadcasting stations, not forgetting the litile ones at Gisborne, Auckland, Palmerston North, Chrisichurch, ete. ¢} UDGING by the announcements of the Australian "Uncles" and "Aunts" during the children’s evening sessions, there is a considerable amount of correspondence received from New Zealand by the Aussie stations. And the Australian broadcasting companies much appreciate the fact that they have numerous listeners in New Zealand, As evidence of this they regularly supply the New Zealand papers with their programmes for publication, "THE aerial power of the Chelmsford, 5S8W, English short-wave ‘experimental station is 15 kw. This is the station which New Zealandets have heard relaying 2LO, London.

OW-priced valve sets are replacing erystal sets as radio grows strongly in interest in Sweden. .John B. Osborne, United States consul-general at Stockholm, reports to the Department of Commerce that the number of licensed listeners increased by 23,000 in February. This brings the. total to 351,000. The broadeasting station at Linkoping has been closed. It was about fifty miles from the high-power station at Kotala, and therefore considered superfluous. HERE are an enormous number of broadcast listeners who are totally unaware of the utility of the grid-leak. They assume that the leak may be of any value and just placed in the detector circuit as an aid to oscillation. The wise radio home-construetor will always have on hand several values of grid-leaks in order to change them for best ‘results, There is really a definite reason for changing the gridleak nceording to whether local or distant reception is required. It is quite a simple matter in most receivers, aud only the work of an instant to change one leak fer another. It is generally well-known that the higher the resistance value of the grid-leak the more sensitive is the functioning of the detector. Unfortunately, however, the ‘tone quality when the detector valve is responsive to strong signals is inclined to become distorted. Another feature of the high resistance leak is that the tuning of the set is broadened considerably on strong signals. Con--yersely the strong signal is rendered sharply tuned by the use of a lower Value of resistance. TIE broudcust listener who is using | his short-wave "converter" for the first time frequently finds there are one or more points on,the dial at which the receiver cannot be made to oscillate. This phenomenon, which is familiar to all amateurs, results from the fact that the receiver is tuned to tl resonant frequency of the aerial or to a harmonic of this frequency. When the two are resonant considerable power is absorbed by the aerial, which makes it difficult to produce oscillations in the receiver. This trouble is never encountered at ordinary broadeast frequencies because a very small "aperiodic" primary is used and the natural frequency of the aerial circuit is very high. The trouble may be remedied either by loosening the aerial coupling or by connecting a small series ecnpacity In the aerial which will shift the resonant frequency to some part of the band which is not in use. AYN unxious listener showed me an anonymous letter he received the other day which has somewhat bewildered him. It reads-"Unless you stop your wretched set from howling the whole night you will find your aerial chopped down." The owner of the alleged "wretched set" uses only a crystal outfit! Will the writer | of the anunymous letter please note? HE owners of the Johannesburg broadeasting station are 100 per -eent. optimists. A letter has been received in Wellington inviting listeners to listen-in to their daylight reports of the All Blacks y. Springboks foothall matches. Their station employs an aerial power of 1250 watts and the wave-length in the 400 metres band, They also state that they have had reports of reception of their station from New Zealand listeners. Well, that’s too bad; to think that some of our listeners have been picking up the Johannesburg station and have neyer let us know about it. Our own modesty could not compare With this sort of thing. TPIS reminds one of an up-country listener who used to brag about receiving a certain mosquito-like distant Australian broadcast station. A dear friend wrote across to the director of the said station to check up on the other man's reception. A reply cume back that the station had been closed down for oyer a year! NATURALLY mistakes in call letters will occur at times, but in a case in which a 10-watt station is believed to be heard over 1500 miles on the ordinary broadeast wavelength band it would be more discreet for the listener to check up with the station director, by letter, before claiming any prodigious feat. A FRIEND buttonholed. me the other day and unburdened his soul as follows: "I want your advice about my set. Every time I point my loudspeaker towards it a loud moaning howl comes out of the speaker. What do you advise me to do?’ An easy cure was not ness of his detector valve, which was affected by the sound-wayes from his loudspeaker impinging on the. glass bulb of the yalye. A cure suggested, and which proved successful, was the placing of a piece of an old inner rubber bicycle tire as a sleeve over the detector valve. PART from the risk of breaking ' them, headphones should never be dropped or subjected to a severe knock. The jar weakens the sensitiveness of the magnets within the phones, to point the speaker towards the set, | but I did not pull this on him. The trouble was due to the super-sensitive-

ISARORI listener, a newspaper man, receives 2YA Wellington quite agreeably audible from his loudspeaker using only a crystal receiving set. He has 30ft. galvanised iron pipe masts and a water-pipe earth. HE arrival on the New Zealand market of Australian-built A.C.yalve sets and electrified sets has caused a bit of a sensation in trade circles, "Switch" has seen these lines, and they certainly have the finished appearance of the highest class sets yet imported from anywhere. The components are a revelation in design and workmanship. All the components are of British manufacture, nearly all being made in Australia. GEEMS as though our brothers across the Tasman. are showing the Home manufacturers that the New Zealand demand is not beneath contempt. The Australian-manufactured Sets are completely suited to New Zealand conditions, and this is where the Home trade has failed to rise to the occasion. Hence the way the Ameriean sets have swept the New Zealand market in the past. A WELLINGTON trader informs me that as soon as he lands the high-priced American exponential loudspeakers they are sold right out. The New Zealanders have been quick to realise the wonderful tone and yolume of the exponential loudspeakers. BATCIL of American exponential loudspeakers lately landed in New Zealand were found to be badly broken in transit. The insurance failed to cover the actual loss to the importer, This shoula act as a warning to listeners who are thinking about importing their own exponentials. ‘This is not by any means the first shipment of exponentials which has been landed in a broken condition. SOMEONE played a funny trick on x Marconi's (London) the other day. Apparently quite in the ordinary way of business a person telephoned to their Central Radio office asking for 2 messenger to be sent to a city address to collect a radiogram. The messenger on arrival found the place locked, bolted and barred. Raised Cain with the bell, and succeeded in raising the janitor also. Explained his errand, and was admitted. Toddled up to the office of the firm he was after-and found a locked-in clerk, who expressed his gratitude for his release. That clerk should go far! Til electric hair-clippers now used by several New Zealand barbers are a possible cause of interference with radio reception by listeners in proximity to such hairdressers’ saloons. A Melbourne radio editor recently réceived the following query :-‘"I am living in a Iocality where there is a barber’s shop at which place are used electric clippers, and every time they are used there is a continuous buzz which drowns even the loudest signals, Is there any way of cutting out this row?" The editor replied: "The interference might possibly be prevented at its source. An adjustment to the mechanism of the clippers might be necessary in conjunction with the r.f. chokes necessary to preyent the interference om feeding back into the power ines.’ ON’T use long leads from an indoor loop aerial to the set. An Australian experimenter states: "To test out whether shortening the leads con-' necting my loop to my set would in-' crease selectivity and assist me in bringing in outside stations through the local barrage, I cnt down the leads gradually, and finding improvement, finally cut off the base of the loop and fastened it to the cabinet so that now the wiring of the loop is attached directly to the loop posts on the set, and there are no leads at all. The result is very gratifying. The selectivity is wonderfully improved." ONE clock to beat time for the world is the remarkable proposal of Professor Arthur Korn, noted German inventor of a radio picture transmitting process. From some central observatory its ticks would be broadeast instantly by radio to the whole civilised world, giving a single, accurate time, Through such a plan, advocated by Dr. Albert Einstein and other worldfamous savants, clocks throughout the world would be brought to agreement as close as one one hundred-thousandth of a second. Elaborate plans of Professor Korn include the use of television devices to synchronise the earth’s clocks with the master timepiece. At present each country sets its clocks from its own national astronomical observatory, by radio and tele|}graph; and between clocks of various countries, Professor Korn points out, there is often a discrepancy of a fifth of a second. To the layman this is unimportant; but astronomers and others {need a universal time. ERE is a question an Australian radio editor recently received :- "Tg there any firm in Melbourne or Sydney which repairs blown-out yalves? I have some which have only done little work." The editor replied: "We know of no such firm, In any case, the cost of repairing the tubes would probably be more than one would pay for the tube itself"

‘FEATURES.- (Continued.) Duncan, Miss Billie Lorraine, and Mr, Billy Gay. Piano-accordion and murimba solos"and pets will be played by Messrs. Heeney and Dalziel, there will be novelty piano solos by Mr. T. ¥.: Anson, and humorous items by Mr. Keith Stronach and Major F. H. Lampen, A humorous sketeh will be given by Miss Billie Lorraine and Major Lampen. AN hour's excellent concert will precetie the danee session on Friday evening. Contributing will be Miss Dorothy Skinner (contralto) and Mr. Neil Black (bass). Instrumental pieces will be played by Mrs. Ernest Drake (piano), Mz. Charles &. Gibbons

a 4 (flute), and Mr. D. J. Robertson (corneti. CAIN a first-rate concert will be broadcast on Saturday evening. Miss Irene Horniblow (L.R.A.M.), Miss Agnes Guy, Mr. Arthur Lungley, and Mr. J. Ferguson will be singing. Eloeutiourry numbers will be contributed by Miss Molly Gallagher, IF.T,C.I.., whose items will be "Making Reuben Propose," a seene from "The School for Seandal," and "How to ask and how to aceept." As a violin solo, Mr. Harold Riddle will play Van Biene’s "Broken Melody" and Drdla’s "Serenade." ’Cello solos will be played by Mr. P. J. Palmer and piano solos by Mrs. FE. Drake, while the three instrumentalists will be heard in trio pieces.