Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 30, 8 February 1929, Page 5

Radio Round the World

ROADCASTING licenses issued by the Department of Marine and Fisheries in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1928, numbered 268,055, as compared with 215,650 in the previous year, an increase of nearly 25 per cent. The number of licenses issued is usually accepted as representing about one-half of the total wireless sets in use, which would indicate that about 635,000 sets were in operation in the Dominion, or about one for every 18 } ‘persons. About 30 per cent. of the \Ticenses issued were in Western Canada. In this regard Ontario led with a total of 125,012, followed by Quebev with 51,847, these two provinces accounting for about 65 per cent. of the total. ‘ HE Reichs-Rundfunk Gesellschaft has concluded grrangements with five insurance companies whereby free insurance against liability for accidents caused by wireless apparatus and aerials will be included, as from midday on January 1, 1929, in the ordinary listening licenses granted in Ger-

many and the Free State of Danzig. The insurance will cover liability of third persons and their property. to the amount of £5000 and £1250 respectively. The liability of tenants to landlords is included. A TRIAL of broade sting reception on a train running between Budapest and Vienna was carried out by the Hungarian State Railway recently. The experiment was successful, and it is ppnow \proposed to institute a regular " broadcasting service on all railway lines throughout Hungary. Earphones are hung over every seat in the carriages, and can be used by passengers on payment of 25-30 pf. (about 3d.-3id.) FrRoM 12 (midnight) (Greenwich mean time) onwards on the night of the American elections, the National Broadcasting Company of America, by arrangement, brosicast from all American stations the results of the Presidential election as the returns from the various States were recejved. Among the stations specially well re , eeived in Europe and broadcasting on . this occasion are the short waye sta ‘tions of Pittsburgh (8XK) on the two wavelengths of 27 metres and 63 metrés; Schenectady (2XAD_ and 2XAF) on the two wavelength respec tively of 21.96 metres and 31.4 metres; and station 8XAL at Cincinatti on 50

metres. The French station of "Le Vetit Parisien" also broadcast a special concert arranged by the "Chicago Tribune," in the course of which news received by cablegram and through the medium of the American short wave broadcasting stations referred to above were given of the prvugress of the election. This special broadcast concert began at 11 p.m., but was preceded by the usual "Petit Parisien" transmission beginning at 8.45 p.m. The concert continued throughout the night, and only closed with the announcement of the final election. The news was given both in English and in French. REECH is turning its attention se.riously to the question of broadcasting. Applications for the concession of » twenty-five years’ monopoly in broadcasting have been invited by the Greek Government, who will provide, free of charge, the necessary land for the erection of a high-power station. In return .the Government reserves the

right to use one hour's programme time .daily, and also to take over the technical plant at the expiration of the license. Only applications made by Greek companies or companies having three-fifths of their capital held by Greek nationals will be entertained. NE family in every three in the United States is the possessor of a wireless receiver, according to the "Christian Science Munitor," and the majority of sets have from five to six valves. To arrive at these statistics, an inquiry was p. secuted under the direction of Dr. Daniel Starch, on behalf of the National Broadcasting Company. In all 17,099 families-in cities spread over 68 counties-were questioned, and of these 5608 owned receivers. Of the total number of families, only 3 per cent. still have crystal sets, while 80 per cent. use. their receiyers in summer time. THE hundredth anniversary of the first stage production of Goethe’s "Faust" and the two-hundiedth anniversary of the birth of Lessing will be commemorated in 1929 by a GoetheLessing Year, arranged wmnder_ the direction of the Goethe Society of Weimar. The commemorative eeremonies will take place at Brunswick in the Ducal Theatre of. which the

first production of "Faust" took place on January 19, 1829; and at Wolfenbuttel, the town in the State of Brunswick where Lessing (who was born on January 22, 1729) was employed as a librarian. Exhibitions entitled "Faust on the Stage" and "Lessing and His Time" will be held at the historic castle of Dankwarderode in the town of Brunswick and at Wolfenbuttel. The inaugural ceremonies in the two towns from January 19 to 22 are to be followed by a Faust Theatre Week in Brunswick and a Lessing ‘Theatre Week in Wolfenbuttel. HE Copenhagen police have recently achieved some good results with picture-transmission between the headquarters in Copenhagen and _ policestations on the outskirts of the town. Both photographs and finger-prints of criminals were transmitted through a general telephony cable for the purpose of examining the usefulness of the system to the service. The apparatus necessary for the tests was lent by the short-wave station TRI. A police

official in Copenhagen said, in an interview, that he was very pleased with the resuits and that the system would in the future become a necessary adjunct to the development of the police system, Wuauat are termed "mechanical cops"’-really new "monitoring" devices-will be installed shortly in yarious parts of the United States by the Rudio Division of the Department of Commerce, to check the frequency measurements of broadcasting stations. It should thus be possible for the Radio Division to issue charts similar to those prepared by the Brussels Laboratory of the Union Internationale de Radiophonie, which are familiar to our readers. RECENT 2BL programme was picked up in Shanghai (China) by the owner of a 8-valve set. He describes in detail the items as received hy him on earphones, but is hopeful of getting Australian stations on loud speaker strength before long.

MMU UML UU UMUC LULU UL eee eee UL scheme is being worked out between the New South Wales Broadcasting Company, Australia, and the National Broadcasting Company of America, for an interchange of programmes on a basis new in the history of radio. The idea is for each station to broadcast items alternately, cach taking the other’s items, and rebroadcasting them in between. Thus station 2FC, Sydney, might start by broadcasting "T'he Last Rose of Summer." This would be picked up in New York, and rebroadcast as part of the National Company’s programme. As soon as the ttem was over the American station would radiate an item-say, Kathleen Mavoureen"-and this would be picked up by the Sydney station and re-broadcast. So the programme of the two stations would run on for an hour or so, listeners in each country hearing their own and the overseas items alternately. Each station irould transmit on two wavelengths; the ordinary wave used for local broadcasting, and a special short wave for long-distance work.