Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 16, 2 November 1928, Page 30

Notes and Comments

By

Switch

Cry listeners have a good deal to contend with in the form of power-line leakages and interference from other electrical sources, In one of Wellington’s suburbs listeners are perturbed over interference from a kinema theatre, and good "outside" reception is not possible within a considerable radius of the theatre until the show closes down. It is possible, how. ever, to greatly reduce, if not completely eliminate, the trouble at its souree if a competent man is put on te the job. OME seaside localities around Wellington are proving bad fo: longdistance reception. owing to the poorness of the "earth." One Lyall Bay listener has driven a fifteen-foot copper tube into the sandy soil of his section, and has poured gallons of water down the tube, but the water apparently runs away as quickly as it is poured down. Fhe section is too high above sea-level to strike water, although the site is really not a high one. The waterpipe through passing through sand is equally unsatisfactory. The said listener now proposes to pour a chemical solution down the tube to form an artificial "earth." | ONDITIONS for long-distance reception around Wellington have been most irregular since the return flight of the Southern Cross. There have been some exceptionally good

nights, but they have been few and far between. Static has raged heavily on many nights, and the oversea stations have been frequently weak. Still, when summer sets in properly quite probably some excellent long-distance reception will be available, with a minimum of static. Some of the best: periods of DX reception have been experienced during the New Zealand summer months. ° HE advent of winter in the Northern Hemisphere is commencing to have an unusual effect in bringing in the Japanese and Californian stations. Listeners residing just outside the inner city area of Wellington are finding some of the oversea stations coming in better than ever on favourable nights. The area close to the city is somewhat screened by the surrounding high lands, and three listeners residing in that area are unable to obtain the long-distance results available to those located a mile or two further out. WELLIX GTON listeners have noticed a distinet difference in the reception of Australian stations during the early evening since the introduction of the half-hour’s "daylight

saving" in the Dominion, and the lengthening out of the days. One has to wait now well into the night to obtain the peak of reception from across the Tasman Sea. QTATION 3AR, Melbourne, has been specialising in gramophone recitals, which have become thoroughly popular in Australia. A prize was recently awarded for the following letter on the subject :-- "A word in appreciation of the gramophone recital now being broadeast from 8AR each evening. This service was long overdue, however. In -spite of Press criticism of the broadcasting of records from A class stations, there is-no doubt that many thousands of listeners will hail with delight this extension of the field of entertainment, especially those who were not able to hear the B class stations, or, at most, only indifferently. ‘The modern gramophone record is a masterpiece of ingenuity, enabling the A class stations to give listeners the most faultless rendering of those great masters who might otherwise never be heard." HB most consistent performer so far as Wellington listeners are concerned, is ZBL, Sydney, which is

easily the loudest of the Australian stations, though, perhaps a trifle inferior to 2FC, Sydney, in tone. That onetime regular visitor, 5CL, Adelaide, is not coming in with anything like its punch of two years ago. TZ, Hobart, has also gone to the pack. The greatest improvement among the Australian stations as compared with other days is the reception of 3AR, Melbourne. This station’s recent overhaul has put it well on the may for Wellington listeners. WV ELLINGTON listeners in the past have not entirely appreciated the presence of a warship in port, and the arrival of H.M.S. Dunedin last week on a month’s visit has not aroused any enthusiasm among listeners. In past years a good deal of unnecessary interference to broadcast listening was caus ed by radio operators on visiting cruisers sending out messages during broadsausting hours. The last straw was when one of our New Zealand cruisers was detected sending out cricket scores to another cruiser, right. in the middle of a local broadeast programme, which was chopped to pieces while the "brass pounder’ was hammering away at his morse. Protests were sent in to the P. and T. Department, and thence forth the cruiser’s morse was silent until after 10 p.m.

‘HESH New Zealand cruisers have exceedingly powerful transmitters, and when they are berthed at Wellington their morse blots out reception by listeners for two or three miles around. It must be remembered that not a multi-valve set is sold in New Zealand unless it is guaranteed to pick up the Australian stations, and it is unfair of any cruiser to interfere with the pleasure of hundreds of licensees by sending out unnecessary morse messages after 6 p.m. and before midnight. A FEW Wellington listeners are inquiring about the possibility of obtaining apparatus to pick up the pictures transmitted by some of the American stations. Long-distance picture re-

ception is not likely to be practicable for some time to come yet. As far as } results are concerned, fairly good pictures have been received in U.S.A. with amateur apparatus up to distances of 700 miles, although it is readily admit-, ted by those interested in this work that the transmission of pictures is essentially a short-range proposition. Wellington listeners who sit up after 10.30 p.m. should tap the 800-metre mark occasionally as a new up-to-date broadcast station on that wave-length. is to commence operating in HongKong before long, using the eall letters GOW. It is proposed to relay programmes sent out from England by the short-wave station 5SW. "Switch" would be pleased to hear from any listener who picks up GOW. Maybe Claude P. Grey, of Shannon, at his famous listening post, will let us know when the Hong-Kong station "arrives." ‘HE electro-dynamic cone loudspeaker, Which first came to us as a costly bit of furniture, and is undoubtedly, so far, the last word on speakers, is about to make a big bid for popularity in Wellington. A local company is now importing the electro-dynamiec units, without the valve amplifiers, which are being retailed at a price of only a fraction of the figure asked for the complete article. ‘THE proprietor of a tea-room in the centre of Wellington informed "Switch" the other dav that ha ie

fe = -- — = , launching out on equipment to give his customers the very best entertainment by radio. He has an a.e. electric receiving set to which he is about to add a power pack to drive two very large cone loudspeakers with most natural tone. He proposes to put on 2YA, Wellington, and when that station is off the air he will substitute a gramophone with an electric pick-up. Well, this is certainly enterprise, and, incidentally, a good advertisement for radio. ()CCASIONALLY Wellington owners of a.c. electric sets have lost a detector valve of the "heater" type through burning out. This is almost invariably due to line voltage fluctuations. An American exchange reports: "There is no excuse now for burning out AC detector tubes. No less than a half-dozen good voltage regulators and twice that number of series resist‘ors are on the market at a reasonable price. Their function, of course, is to reduce the line voltage, where it is excessively high, before the voltage reaches the radio receiver." A firstclass voltage regulator will shortly be on the New Zealand market at a reasonable price. "THERE is strong public sentiment that Mr, McWilliams, the New Zea-

land radio operator who acquitted himself so admirably on the Southern Cross during her return flight to Australia, should have his services rewarded by a public subscription. It was through Mr. McWilliams that the wonderfully interesting broadcast of the progress of the aeroplane was made possible. This intrepid operator did not participate in the division of the £2000 the New . Zealand Government grant to the flyers.