Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 12, 16 November 1928, Page 30

Notes and Comments

By

Switch

LATELY reception from Australia has been exceptionally varying in volume, Some nights the Aussies romp in, and on others they are little more than a whisper. Beginners may feel disappointed. with the fluctuation in Australian reception, but the equinoxes are as a rule associated with the present varying conditions in* long-dis-tanee broadcast reception. A LETTER to station KGO, Oakland, California, tells of a lonely moun: taineer who was: pruning the squawks out of his loudspeaker for the church service from that general electric station, when two runaway boys stumbled into his cabin to take refuge from a freak storm raging in the Rocky Mountains. "While preparing something to eat," he writes, "I wondered how I could induce them to go back home. Suddenly the voice of Rev. George W. Phillips came through, praying for mothers whose sons had left the home hearth and had deserted them. After the boys had listened to the prayer over KGO I had no difficulty in setting them right." WELLINGTON listeners have not "gtampeded -towards' short-wave reception mainly because there is very little short-wave entertainment to be obtained in the evening, which is the most popular time for broadcast listening. One of the few short-wave stations available in the evenings is RFM. Khabarovsk, Siberia. An American’ listener states: "I have a verification

Its call letters are RFM and not REN, eard from REM: dated May 26, 1928.. and its wave length 70.metres. The regular ‘transmissions are as follow:Monday, Tuesday,. Thursday, Friday, and. Saturday, 11.00 G.M.T. (Sunday, 09.00 G.M.T.) and Wednesday; silent." In the first case one has to tune in as late as 11 p.m. New Zealand time, excepting on Sundays, when REM ‘commences at 9 p.m. 4 Bee American station 9XF, heard by. several New Zealand listeners, is owned by the Great Lakes Broadcasting Company. ‘The studios are in the Straus Building, 310 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.. The station is located on a 40-acre farm, 22 miles south-west of Chicago. The equipment consists of a 50,000 watt erystal-controlled transmitter, built by the General Electric Company and housed in a two-story brick building. The towers are 300 feet high, and spaced 700 feet apart. This station operates on 288.3 metres, and will replace stations WENR and WBCN, owned by the same company. .

SYA: CHRISTCHURCH, has given pleasure to us Wellingtonians who have been privileged to be able to listen in during the description of one

the Christchurch racing week. . Apart from the prompt details of the racing, the musical items by 3YA were thoroughly attractive. In broad daylight there is no fading of 3YA as heard in Wellington, audibility being absolutely constant. The pleasure derived from listening to these programmes from 3YA, Christchurch, has beeu mentioned to the writer by many listeners, including several ladies.

HE Australian stations have been received very indifferently in Wellington of late, and.on many evenings they have not been worth pursuing until after 11.30 p.m., New Zealand time. We have experienced this trouble during previous years just when summer is arriving. Strange 10 relate, on several evenings when the Australian stations have been particularly weak the Japanese have come in fairly well, particularly so JOHK, on a wavelength just below that of 4QG, Brisbane.

MB. J. H. OWEN (ex-president of the Wellington Radio Society), who is on a visit to England, has forwarded a copy of "Television," the official organ of the Television Society of Great Britain... This magazine is descrbed as "the world’s first television journal." The paper, whch is extensively illustrated, contains many technical articles on television, but it is too apparent that the new science is very much in its .swaddling clothes. So far television has not justified any hope that it will become very popular for several years, Some technicians have gone so. far as to state, that the present systems of television are up against a dead end, and they should be scrapped so that inventors could direct their endeavours along different lines. . ,

B* the way, the many friends of Mr. Owen, ex-president of the Wellington Radio Society, will learn with pleasure that the stork has visited: the Owen temporary ‘domicile, in England. Congratulations have gone forth by the ‘last mail. :

A Wellington radio trader has just landed a consignment of gramophone electric pick-ups, specially . constructed for use ‘in’ all-electric a.c. -sets. The valve plug has five prongs, instead .of the usual four prongs, the a.c. detector valve having five prongs. The line is attracting notice among owners of a.c sets. : AST Thursday evening. on the occasion of the address in the Town Hall, at Wellington, by the Prime Minister, a public address loudspeaker system was used, with loudspeakers: located all round the outside of the hall, so that the crowds who were unable to obtain admission could listen outside in the streets. When the

grand organ was played, the music issuing from the loudspeakers was distinctly audible 200 yards away. Mr. Coates’s words rang clear and loud, also, during his address. ~ AVELLINGTON listeners who oper‘ate short-wave sets, should be: alert for a special broadcast on 31:3 metres, from the whaling steamy, "Nielsen Alonso," shortly, whist down in the Antarctic waters, when Six George Wilkins goes aboard the vessel in the Ross Sea, for. supplies. Sir George will broadcast:a talk upon his experiences. Special plant has’ been placed on board the vessel for this short-wave broadcast. Sir George’s address is to be picked up and rebroadcast by 3L0, Melbourne, TZL, Hobart, and 5CL, Adelaide. _* -s

WELLINGTON listener showed me a bright scheme he had planned to run his. aerial across his street, which is a small "blind" affair on the outskirts of the city. He was keenly disappointed when informed that it is illegal to elevate an aerial across a public street even if it is "blind." It is also illegal to run an aerial over any electric light or power lines. These regulations were very wisely adopted, and are now practically universal. —

WHATEVER may be said against 4YA, Dunedin, the fact remains that this station is regularly heard from scores of loud-speaksrs in Wellington on Wednesday nights when 2YA, Wellington, is silent. The proximity of the wave-lengths of 4YA and 2YA causes the latter to blot out the former when the Wellington station is on the air.

WELLINGTON listener who is "endeavouring to construct his own gy. electro-dynamic loud-speaker, has come under the notice of "Switch." ‘The said listener has planned to build, the speaker throughout even to making the coils for the magnet, not to mention the diaphragm. The writer warns those who,set about with this intention that unless possessed of exceptional skill and instructional details their endeavours will not be successful. The better plan is to purchase the: loudspeaker unit-magnet, coils, diaphragm, ete.-now available in Wellington.

HE approaching Christmas, the season for gifts, will mcan a substantial addition to the number of listeners. The popularity of the humble crystal set; owing to its handiness for the average boy. and its inex pensiveness, will create a wave of interest in the elementary aspects of aerial and earth installations. AsS-many juniors will also be building their own crystal sets during the forthcoming vacations, the Wellington Society could not do better than include a lecturette of about three-quarte + of an hour on "Crystal sets, aerials and earths," at its next general meeting. The writer has in his mind a gentleman who would draw a crowded house if he were advertised as the lecturer.