Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 9, 14 September 1928, Page 2

Radio Round the World

~ HB prefix "micro" means "million," So one microfarad is a millionth part of a farad, and one microhenry is a millionth part of a henry, ete. "THE B.B.C. sets listeners a good example in the matter of overhauling aerials; in no station is the aerial permitted to be up longer than six months without being overhauled for the removal of dirt, etc. ? A MISSING dance partner, wooden legs, false teeth and attache cases by the score are among the things which the B.B.C, has at some time or other been asked to trace. TA COMMENTARY on the recent shooting match at Bisley, England, for the King’s Prize was broadcast by Captain E. H. Robinson, a former King’s Prizeman (1923). BROADCASTING in Ceylon is confined to Colombo, where a station -of 1.75 K.W. broadcasts regular programmes on a wavelength of 9800 metres. ; HE Japanese listener pays a license fee of 2s. a month to the ‘Broadcasting Association; in addition the Government levies an annual charge of 2s. for expenses. { China, Shanghai and Hong-Kong have a broadcasting station each, the former under American auspices, having a power of 500 watts, and the latter 1.5 K.W. SQWEDEN heads the world in respect ™ of the number of licenses issued, viz, 57.8 per thousand inhabitants. Two additional high-power stations are ta be constructed, one 50 k.w.

FIVE-MIN UTE appeals on Sundays from the B.B.C. stations realised over £40,000 in 1927. O fewer than 800 stations in America, excluding amateurs, are operating on the broadcast band. : Hi first concert broadcast in Wneglish waters took place in 1907, when speech by wireless was considered almost an impossibility. "THE episode of the meeting between Lucie Manette and her father after his release from the Bastille, from "Mhe Tale of Two Cities," formed the basis of a play recently broadcast from Cardiff. "THE song of the nightingale can now be regarded as an annual event to European listeners. Continental people look forward to this broadcast from the Surrey woods almost as keenly as do British listeners. TH Cincinatti station, WLW, goes up to 50 kilowatts on the 17th of this month. It should be quite easily veceivable in the Dominion, as are the Pacific Coast stations, which are at present being heard at good loudspeaker strength here. THE Berlin Gonservatory of Music has installed a radio receiver and transmitter for test purposes. Students ean thus be trained in the art of broadcasting over the radio. _A checkup can be made upon. ‘the ‘students’ microphone technique and faults ‘cor: rected. ‘

OMBE time ago the Adelaide station 5CL caused consternation amongst some listeners by broadcasting an imaginery "Invasion of Australia," while in England 2LO almost caused a panic by 2 too-vivid account of an imaginary national disaster. HE British Broadeasting Corporation’s report for 1927 shows a total income for the year of £901,600, of which £800,900 was received for licenses. The sum of £490,000 was spent on programmes. VIDENCE that the popularity of radio is growing is evidenced in England, where the number of licenses issued in 1927 was 217,000 greater than those issued in 1926. They now total 2,395,174. AN enterprising company has set up the "Ceylon Radio Times," and has produced a very fine paper of fiftyfour pages. One note indicates what proadeasting in the Bast is "up against." "My keen listeners are unable to understand the Sinhalese and Tamil musical programmes." AN Auckland daily paper makes the following comment: "Quite muarked is the increase in the number of gramophone records in use in local programmes of late. The interspersing of the world’s best, as obtainable from the records, is doing much for the improvement of local entertainment, for the judicious use of the gramophone is commendable. This use can, of course, be overdone."

we CRISIS has arisen in the wireless trade in .Czecho-Slovakia. Dutring March licenses decreased by 45,000, while. dealers’ licenses increased by twenty-six. Demands are being made on the Government to alter the law re-’, lating to wireless in a more liberal sense. j Lo recently broadcast music for an old-time dance night. The announcer mentioned, ere the programme commenced, that 230 clubs and other bodies had arranged to hold radio dances to the music supplied. HE B.B.C. and Broadcasting Bureau of Sweden, each made an appeal to its listeners-in for criticism. From the Irish Free State came 389 letters; from the Swedish listeners, 140,000. The Swedes have evidently taken broadeasting seriously. A CHRISTCHURCH short-wave amateur has established a unique record. With 100 watts input transmitter and a three-valve receiver he has established two-way communication with 86 different countries, including Siam and the Newfoundland station. In all, over 700 stations have answered his call. A WIRELESS station is maintained at Willis Island, about 300 miles north-east of Townsville (Australia ) solely to give warning of tropical disturbances to the Commonwealth Meteorological Bureaux at Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. The messages sent out from this station also contain timely and valuable information to | ships at sea in the areas likely to be affected.

_aeneemee HE station at Port Darwin (Australia) is used not only to keep in touch with shipping off the coast, but to clear traffic from the Post Office inland radio station. When floods and storms occasionally demolish the landlines in the Northern Territory, the telegraph traffic of that huge area is generally cleared by this radio station. IX hundred and eight broadcasting stations in U.S.A. now enjoy the privilege of the air. The Federal Radio Commission, in order to clear the ethe1, has ordered 162 of these to close down. | Now the lawyers are on the scene, and at least 30 of the so-ordered transmitters will contest in the U.S.A. Courts the validity of the closure. T is amazing how a new song "catchc on." Requests for "Ramona" to be put on the air come pouring in to the station. Were these to be acceded to, at least in the case of 2YA, "Ramona" in its various forms would comprise not only all the afternoon session but also a very large section of the evening’s entertainment. BROADCASTING in the three countries of Scandinavia is managed by single authorities, public or semi-pub- lic, and financed partly or wholly out of license yield. A distinct feature of Sweden, due to its geographical conformation and the layout of the population, is the profusion of small relay stations all connected to one or two main programme centres.

PLYMOUTH was the first station to pring the sound of the sea to listeners’ homes. As early as the sum‘mer of 1925 a microphone was placed on the beach in Bovisana Bay, and the noises of the waves were broadeast from all stations. A remarkable feature of the transmission was that the sounds went to London and back to Plymouth before they were actually radiated from the Plymouth aerial. A FAMOUS surgeon at one of the London hospitals said recently: "Wireless in hospitals is especially useful to a patient just before and shortly after an operation. Many patients have headphones on an hour or so before they are due at the operating theatre, and in all these cases we have noted an even pulse and a low temperature which are, of course, most valuable aids to a successful operation.’

(THE U.S.A. broadeast an eye-wit-ness’s account of New York’s reception of the crew of the Bremenfrom an aeroplane. The announcer occupied a commanding, but chilly and risky, position 2000-3000 feet up. The broadcasting station sent him instructions, by radio, of the ground to be covered, during a flight of 55 minutes. He did his eye-work through binoculars. [Is this feasible for New Zealand race broadcasts ?] N Russia, broadcasting took a form special to the conditions and institutions of the U.S.S.R. The most pronounced features of a widespread system, which is, of course, State controlled, are: (a) The systematic promotion of communal listening (loudspeaker, public address system) in village halls and open spaces; (b) the over-riding influence of the State with, as its corollary, the use of radio as an organ of propaganda; (c) the development of the newspaper bulletin int» veritable spoken newspapers,

F\NGLISH manufacturers are now beginning to get busy on new apparatus for the British Radio Exhibition, which is to be held in September. This exhibition marks the opening of the wireless "season’’-the three following months are very busy ones for the manufacturers. One firm, who, during the rest of the year work a day shift only, in the autumn and winter run the factory 24 hours a day, and employ three times as many hands. A MOST important project was launched a while ago by the B.B.C., who set about the assembly of a permanent orchestra of between sixty and seventy musicians. Neither trouble nor expense has been spared to secure the world’s best available musicians. It is aimed to surpass everything of its kind. It is understood the annual cost will be £80,000. The orchestra is almost complete, but as yet a conductor has not been selected. BY a well-arranged co-ordination of services of the two big Sydney stations, Australian listeners are supplied with continuous opportunity for reception from 7 a.m. till 11.80 p.m. on all week days. During the best listening hours both 2FC and 2BL are operating, while for the whole of a 163-hour period there is no period of silence. On Sundays there is broadcasting by one or both stations from 10 a.m. to 10.30 p.m., with brief intervals at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.

A CORRESPONDENT to the Racing Commissioner of 2FC asked him to announce over the air all the grey horses that were entered in the Melbourne Cup. The writer said bis reason for asking was that he had had a dream in which he saw a grey horse win the Melbourne Cup. He stated that he had never before dreamt about horses, but he distinctly saw a grey win, and the dream was so vivid he felt justified in ascertaining the names of all the grey horses in the Melbourne Cup. T Rock Point, N.Y., there has just been erected what is said to be the most efficient type of beam transmitter yet installed. Outstanding features are its simplicity, and the efficiency with which it directs a pencil of radio waves toward distant receiving stations, resulting in economy of power and high speed transmission. From ordinary

broadeasting stations, radio Waves spread out in all directions, and most of the energy is wasted. The new system uses a system of auxiliary wires to serve as a reflector for the waves and focus them in a beam. "HERE is at least one case definitely established where life has been saved by listening to wireless programmes. An elderly man was in a very bad condition and his life was despaired of. In conversation with a nurse some days after his arrival in hospital he said that he determined to hear his home town carillon before he died, explaining that he had seen it announced as a future item. The event was a week ahead, and the doctors doubted whether his wish would be fulfilled. By sheer will power, however, he kept himself alive, and by the time the carillon was broadeast his condition had so changed for the better as to make his recovery certain. He was eventually discharged from the hospital in good health.

RAv1I0 is ever being applied in some new fields some of which are truly amazing. One of the most recent applications is thought transference, which deals with a process that ‘works with a specific band of electromagnetic waves. A specially designed radio set is used to detect the signals. PLAYS are a regular feature of broadcasting in England, some otf the more popular being :-‘‘Hal, the Highwayman," "The Daughter of the tegiment," "Recalled to Life’ (Dickens), and "Marjory." Most of these are better known extracts from wellknown plays. HERE are three broadcasting stdtions in North Africa-Radio Carthage in Tunis, Radio Casa Blanca in Morocco, and Algiers. Of these the only one of considerable power is the Tunis Station, which has 5 kw. The success of the Algiers Station has led the French Government to decide upon replacing it by one of the most modern type and of greater power. [X 1927 there were 16,000 amateur transmission stations operating in the United States. The number in the rest of the world is not available, but it is estimated at five or six thousand. principally in the British Empire, Sweden, Finland, France, Argentine, and Uruguay. In most other countries the laws are quite unfavourable to ainateur radio.

ROADCASTING in Japan began regularly in the middle of 1925, the ground having been previously prepared with characteristic thoroughness. The system shows British inflence, and is somewhat similar to that of Great Britain. JOAK, JOBK, JOCK, opened in July, 1925, have been amalgamated under the title of Broadcasting Corporation of Japan. The country has been divided into territorial broadcasting divisions, and the new corpora~« tion have installed a high-power station near Tokio, replacing the former JOAK. This is frequently heard in New Zealand. TRANGE happenings are always taking place. Some are able to be explained, some remain "freaks." A local radio dealer experienced two of these radio "puzzlers" recently. 2YA had closed down and he was listening in to 83LO coming through at its usual volume, which, with his receiver was not very great. Without indication the volume suddenly increased until it equalled that of the local station. ¥ollowing this the station maintained its volume without fading or distortion throughout the evening. This person is also the owner of an amplifier crystal set, fitted with a fila ment switch. On one occasion he was surprised to hear, although the circuit was broken, the signals from 2YA come ing, somewhat faintly from the loude speaker. :