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How the B.B.C. is Conquering Interference

"THE enclosed article from "The Times," "The B.B.C. and Its Clients," is of much interest, writes Mr. J. H. Owen, of Wellington, to the "Radio Record." Due to the proximity of Great Britain to the Continent, a good deal of interference is occasioned by the number of foreign stations and their numerous wave-lengths. It is especially at night time that this trouble happens. Now eleven B.B.C. stations which formerly had their own separate wave-lengths will become relay stations with one common wave-length, whieh will be an exclusive one. If pandemonium has to some extent prevailed in Great Britain, how much more must it exist in Canada and the States, where there is little or no control? I see by recent news that those countries are trying to take steps whereby some 160 small stations, which at present litter the air, shall be eliminated. This will be a difficult and an unpleasant task for the PostmasterGenerals. I see by the "Radio Record" that an application is likely to be made for a license to erect a chain of stations in New Zealand shortly. It is to be hoped that the Postmaster-General will refuse all applications of this sort. Once granted, they would (after the novelty wore off) be a constant source of annoyance to the New Zealand Broadcasting Company and to every listener in the Dominion, whilst the whole existing system would be imperiiled. The Annual Radio Exhibition takes nlace at Olwmnpia this month,

22nd to 29th, and IT am looking forward to a treat.-

J. H.

Owen

(THE new plan, announced by the 3.B.C., and commented upon by our Wireless correspondent recently by which it is intended that listeners to the B.B.C.’s relay stations shall be relieved of the growing annoyance of interference, is a drastic measure, but one clearly needed inasmuch as it will bring relief to some four or five millions of listeners, mostly owners of crystal sets, in a number of thickly populated areas where enjoyment of the programmes has of late been much impaired. Indeed, this large body of listeners may be supposed to have expected that the B.B.C. would take up their case; and they are now going to have a remedy given them, which, though admittedly temporary pending the introduction of the regional system, should remove all hardship and cause of dissatisfaction. Whether other nations will follow the B.B.C.’s lead in this matter remains to be seen ; but it is an example of the B.B.C.’s pioneering foresight, and, as it happens, it is a kind of sequel to the famous Geneva plan, towards the settlement of which the B.B.C. took the initiative. By that plan each nation in Europe was allotted so many shared and so many exclusive wave-lengths, Great Britain at present having eleven shared, and ten exclusive. Now, by the application of one of the exclusive wave lengths to the relay stations, the B.B.C. has found a way of restoring to listeners at those stations a means of hearing such as they have not been able freely to enjoy for some time. iow badly they have suffered from various forms of interference due to the broadeasting of foreign programmes on shared wave lengths can be judged by the fact that in some instances the local programme has been to all intents and purposes efficient ‘only at so short a range as half a mile, while at three miles distance interference is received. This is, of course, at night, when that otherwise beneficent layer of electricity, the Heaviside layer, exerts its potency about sixty miles up in the atmos. phere. By means of that layer, which Sir Oliver Lodge called "an unexpect: ed bonus on the part of Providence," long-distance tr ansmission, as in trans: Atlantic telephony, and in the beam | systém, is achieved; but it happéns to —

be too good a reflector of waves by night to be compatible with comfortable reception from stations using shared wave lengths. HE waves in fact, of Continental stations have travelled farther than is desirable. Transmission over long distances is not wanted in broadcasting, or interference with the pleasure of others ensues. The nuisance, moreover, has been growing worse, as the Continental stations have been trying too shout their neighbours down, and with their ally in the Heaviside layer,they have largely succeeded, especially as they have been increasing their powers while our relay stations have been kept at the same strength. Hence the need for an escape from pandemonium. ‘The stations affected are not the main stations, which all have exclusive wavelengths; in their case working has. proved on the whole satisfactory throughout the country, though there have been occasions when some Continental station has wandered a little in wavelength and caused interference to a programme set out on one of our exclusive wavelengths. The sufferers are the relay stationsDundee, Edinburgh, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Hull, Liverpool, Stoke, Nottingham, Plymouth, and Swansea-all populous places where the listeners are inainly crystal users and fairly close to the station. It is to these stations that the B.B.C. has resolved to devote one of the exclusive wavelengths pending the full introduction of the regional scheme. | All’relay stations will therefore use the same wavelength, and interference among the relay stations themselves will be mitigated by arranging for the relay stations to have the same programme. ‘Technically this is quite sound, and very little interference should be experienced tyy | to ranges of five miles at night, while the day range should be even greater. | "THERE is one conceivable drawback to the plan, and that is the discouragement which it gives to local programmes. Even here, however, for one reason and another, the disadvantage iS not so great as may seem at first. The effects .of the Heaviside layer come into force only after sun-

down, and it may be possible, there- — fore, for a local station, at any rate in summer, to retain part of its local features. It is a question, however, in reality not so much of local programmes against a common = pro-_ gramme, as of good hearing against pad, and over that issue there can be no doubt which way the majority of listeners would vote. When at length it is established, the long-expected regional system will bring with it a greater choice of programmes, and there is good reason to suppose that by then there will be a far more general use of valve sets than there is now. For one thing, there is every prospect of their becoming much cheaper very soon, while they also bid fair to become much more efficient. In the last resort the enjoyment of wireless rests on the excellence with which sound is received; the better the sets, the better the finer points of a good musical programme can be appreciated. That itself is likely to react on the preference of listeners, who will be disposed more and more to welcome performances of a standard to which purely local talent can hardly be expected to attain. While no one would wish wantonly to damp down local patriotism there is a tendency for it to shrink of its own accord in face of undeniably superior merit; and there are grounds already for believing that, strong as it still is in certain sections and in some centres perhaps stronger than in others, the tide of fashion is on the whole setting away from it. With management, in those quarters where to deny it scope would be unfair, there may still be room for a certain amount of it in the future; but even the B.B.C., resourceful as it is, is not omnipotent. It intends for the time being to get millions of its humbler clients out of a difficulty which leaves them for the present with no other alternative to a single programme than chaos; and

when two years hence, as it is hoped, the change-over to the regional system will have been everywhere accomplished, there is little question that large numbers of listeners on the cheaper sets will have facilities given

to them which are now out of their reach.

This article text was automatically generated and may include errors. View the full page to see article in its original form.I whakaputaina aunoatia ēnei kuputuhi tuhinga, e kitea ai pea ētahi hapa i roto. Tirohia te whārangi katoa kia kitea te āhuatanga taketake o te tuhinga.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/RADREC19281019.2.9

Bibliographic details
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Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 14, 19 October 1928, Page 4

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1,353

How the B.B.C. is Conquering Interference Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 14, 19 October 1928, Page 4

How the B.B.C. is Conquering Interference Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 14, 19 October 1928, Page 4

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