Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 34, 8 March 1929, Page 5

Radio Round the World

Aa N alliance between a University and » broadcasting headquarters is a notable step. The announcement that 7ZL and the University of Tasmania are to join forces in a scheme of broadcast talks is of the greatest importance. Professors Brigden and Hytten are the prime movers on a committee which, in co-operation with 7ZL Hobart, is organising a series of talks. The British Columbia Telephone Co, is planning to use radio for long-dis-tance telephone service to isolated distpicts. Under its charter the company has no power to go into the radio telephone business, but as this appears to be the only practical method of giving service to many isolated points, it is proposed to form a new company. ORDINARILY a radio announcer is selected for his voice, his musical ability, and his familiarity with the art of programme arrangement. A member of the announcing staff ut the Newark, N.J., U.S.A., station, WOR, however, has developed an act that never fails to bring guffaws and other forms of explosive laughter. "He is Swanee Taylor, and, according to an American correspondent, his specialty is sneezing and snoring. He specialises in ten brands of the former and sixteen of the latter. | [TN the search for some distinguishing note by means of which listeners can identify the transunissious, the proprietors of the Lubliana, Jugo Slavia, broadcasting station have installed apparatus which sends out the call of the cuckoo. The calls ure transmitted at the start and end of each broadcasting session, and at the intervals between each number. Material for this station was supplied by the German Telefunken Co., being paid for by the

German Government under the head of reparations. The transmitter is operated by two priests. FROM observations on static and fading couducted recently in Melbourne the results of which have now been published in bouklet form by 3L0, Melbourne, it was noticed that the duration period of a particular fade was not the same in two cases. This was probably due to the fact that observing stations were mosly a good distance apart. The uew test has beeu decided on with the object of discovering. if possible, the uveruge duration und the extent of the area covered by single ‘‘fades" and the observers will be located fairly close to one another so that local conditions will be the same at each station. AN Auckland wireless enthusiast in search of something far afield linked up on Sunday evening with a special concert arranged by a Pittsburg (United States) company for the benefit of members of the Byrd Expedition in the Antarctic. Songs and bagpipe selections-the beautiful music of which was heard very clearly-were included, and :. feature wus the reading of letters from relatives in America to members of the expedition. While the concert was on a code reply came from the Byrd expedition saying that and the items had been clearly heard, aud the concert was much appreciated. HE most famous patent litigation in the history of wireless telegraphy and telephony-which has lasted eleven years, and probably cost the litigants more than £200,000-has been terminated by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision establishes that Dr. Lee De Forest, and not Major Edwin H. Armstrong, was the original inventor of the regenerative or feed-back circuit, which makes the audion of three-elec-trode valves-the original invention of Lee De Forest-a generator of alternating currents of both high and low frequency. It ! estimated that at least one-half of the radio sets now in use in the world embody the "regenerative" or "feed-back" circuit which makes the three-electrode valve an oscillator or transmitter. R. FRED AARONS, who for some time past has been giving tenminute talks from 2FC, Sydney, soundly condemns the ignorance of some of the Australian announcers as follows: "Probably in no other walk of life could so many people, so unfitted for the positions they occupy, be tolerated as there are in the profession of broadcasting. While our schools and colleges are turning out hundreds of well-educated young men and women seeking scope for their accomplishments, some broadcasting stations insist upon leaving the announcing and prélection in the hands of men who are not only ‘devoid of a knowledge of common English usage, who mispronounce the commonest words with all the elan of a pundit, but who are, worse still, selolists-danger-ous know-alls, know-nothings.’

NOME idea of the excellent way in which the British broadcasting service caters for its supporters, over two and a half million subscribers, is gathered from the following: There are 22 stations and relay stations in operation, all completely connected by’ land lines. The power of the stations ranges from 80 kilowatts down to 200 watts, ind the longest distance separating any two stations is 480 miles, less than that between IYA and 3YA. The greatest distance a listener can be from uny station is roughly 100 miles. One house in every three throughout Britain has a receiving set. Victoria, by the way. claims the same proportion. ANDITS held up the truck carrying the sets from the factory to the town shop, says an American magazine, and sent the driver away in a taxi, driving the truck in another direction. No one was able to find out who the robbers were. Not long afterwards 2 man drove up to the radio shop in a motor and placed a set down on the floor. asking the shopman to repair it. Upon the shopman looking at the num-

ber of the set, he found it was one of those stolen. He approached the man who brought the set to the shop, but the latter quicked jumped into his car and drove off, and has has not been seen since. NHERE is not much general enthusiasm yet for picture broadcasting in Austria, and many letters of complaint have been sent to Ravag against pictures being broadcast at all after the close of the general evening programme, because listeners with threevalve sets want to try then for foreign transmissions, and often do not care much about receiving pictures. There is a steady demand for picture receivers, and many amateurs are making their own receivers, with nvrec less suecess. The Vienna picture transmissions will continue for ue present. An interesting film showing "A Day in Ravag" was ‘recently exhibited in Vienna. It has just been completed, and is similar to a German film, called "Tyrji-Ergon," which is, however, a "speaking film," illustrating German broadcasting. — --- --=-