Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 26, 11 January 1929, Page 3

Radio Round the World

Me. DAVID TENNANT, of the B.B.C., has just inherited from his father, the late Lord Glenconner, Wilsford Manor, Salisbury, together with a large fortune. Mr. Tennant, whose pleasant voice is known to millions of listeners, is an engineer by profession and is one of the announcers of the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is 28 years of age and ied this year Miss Hermione eley, the actress. He is a keen airman and pilots his own machine. RECEIVING sets, one of which was supplied through the generosity of several Aucklanders, are a great poon to the leper colony which inhabits that little Fijian island Mokogai. There the patients have been hearing with splendid clarity the big 50 kilowatt station WLW, operated from Cincinatti. "THE South African Broadcasting Company, which operates a big station at Johannesburg, and seemingly publishes a balance-sheet, reports a loss of £20,000 on its first year’s operation of a monopoly granted to it by the Union Government. Most of this big deficit is attributed by the company to the prevalance of piracy. Ba ~

NGINEERS content that attempts to use a radio tube till it gasps out its fast breath are. just. as ridiculous as using an auto tire until the

J fabric is worn down to such a point that constant repairs and the danger of a blowout at any moment must be expected. ADIO for every hospital patient has been brought a big step nearer by 2 gift of £200 from the trustees of the Hunter Shaw estate. Mr. W. Wallace, chairman of the Auckland Hospital Board, in making the announcement recently, said that at present about 70 beds were equipped. The money will be placed at the disposal of the Women’s Hospital Auxiliary to spend in the direction indicated. 'The sum still to the credit of Mrs. Dreaver’s wireless fund will also be available. HE very latest and -‘most complete apparatus for broadcasting and reception graces the wireless room of the Dana, the Danish scientific vessel now in port in Auckland. Even as she lies at Queen’s Wharf the little vessel is in direct touch with Copenhagen. "PRBOUND the World Rebroadcasts" have been attractions which have aroused much interest in New South Wales during the past few weeks. The effort of submitting a French programme a fortnight ago was most successful. On Wednesday next there will be a relay of PCLL, Holland, and listeners who care to do so will have a chance of brushing up their Dutch. DISCUSSING the advance in musical taste which has been brought about by broadcasting, and the demand for jazz over the air, a southern writer says: "I confess that one of my greatest surprises on a recent visit to America was the preponderance of really good music in the radio programmes. It would appear that the Americans look upon jazz not so much as music, but as a marketable commodity very saleable in various parts of the world, New Zealand, for instance." QUCCESS crowned the first attempt to broadeast in Canada special programmes for members of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, now speeding towards New Zealand, when the ether carried messages of the ss. City of New York, flagship of the fleet, which on Saturday was between the Galapagos Islands and Dunedin. A wireless communication was received from Captain F. C. Melville, commander of the ship, by the Canadian Westinghouse Company, Limited, which is responsible for radio transmission arrangements between this continent and the explorers. The. message expressed appreciation of the programme, and a hope for further transmissions of a like nature. HE Marconi Company, has just received the British Broadcasting Corporation’s order for the supply of two high-power broadcasting transmitters, having an unmodulated aerial energy of 50 k.w. These stations will be erected at Potters Bar, near London, in pursuance of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s scheme for coveting the whole of Great Britain with a smaller number of broadcasting sta-

tions of a higher power than those at present in use. HE important part which broadcasting is now taking in reporting sporting events was exemplified during the first cricket Test match in Brisbane. Cable messages from London state that cricket scores for the first time took precedence over all other items on the programme from the British Broadcasting Corporation’s stations following in order of priority the announcement of the bulletin in regard to the King’s health. A further cablegram stated that His Majesty listened with interest to the ericket scores as they v were broadcast each day. THER instances of the manner in which broadcasting from the cricket ground is being made use of by some of the players is shown in the case of ©. H. Kelleway and Warwick Armstrong, who were both prevented from seeing portions of the Test match through illness. Kelleway was ill with ptomaine poisoning, and Armstrong with an injured foot, and when notified that they must remain in their rooms, their first action was to have wireless sets installed so that they could hear descriptions of the actual play.

ACH afternoon, and at the close of each evening’s programme, pictures are being broadcast by Ravag (Austria) as a feature of the regular transmission. The Fultograph method is being used, and the tests since August 31 have been quite successful. First of all, the time signal is given; next, the receiver is given two minutes to prepare; a warning signal follows (the morse letter "v’ four times repeated), and then comes a pause of ten seconds for final adjustment of pencil and mechanism; then follows a picture which takes about four and a half minutes, and finally the morse "s" to show that the picture is _ finished. After a pause of one minute for changing paper, the warning signal for the next picture is given. ror the second time this year, the question of whether music broadcast through an amplifier to passers-by on the street is an "unnecessary noise," will come up for argument in the Recorder’s Court. The case has been continually postponed since July 18, when the city took action against two firms. In the former instance, a firm was found guilty of having violated a city by-law by creating noise that was not needed for the benefit of the public, and which was contrary to the city law to preserve public peace and good order, and a fine approximating £2 was imposed upon the offenders. Argument was heard from counsel for the defendant as to the true purport of the word "noises" in the by-law, and emphasis was laid upon the fact that when the by-law was adopted in 1870, the broadcasting of music could not have been contemplated. The Magistrate pointed out that the word "noises" in the city by-law meant any unnecessary noise, and that whether in 1870 or at the present time, an unnecessary noise was unnecessary. ;

[tz is interesting, in surveying the radio situation in Canada, to find that the substantial increase in receiving licenses issued in the Dominion in 1927 is attributed to an increased number of wireless sets on Western Canadian farms, where growing prosperity, with a fuller appreciation of the advantages of broadcasting have resulted in steadily widening adoption, of sets until now there are comparatively few farms in Western Canada without radio, and it has played a big part in the radical change in the farm life of the territory which has taken place since the end of the war. By means of wireless the entertainment of distant cities: is brought to the farm family, so that in this connection it ean be considered to lie under small disadvantage by reason of its position. Through wireless the farmer receives grain and live stock prices from town -resulting in a considerable saving of time and money-as well as being kept promptly apprised of world events. Reception conditions on western farms are excellent, in the absence of all forms of interference, and it is to be doubted -if there is a territory where radio is a greater boon or has such a scope of service.