Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 35, 15 March 1929, Page 5

Radio Round the World

¥ A PUBLIC wireless telephone service has been opened between Holland and the Dutch East Indies. Calls may be made between The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, to the four leading towns of the East Indies. The fee is £2 10s. per minute, and two days’ notice of the call are required. This is the third long-dis-tance radio-telephone service to be ee in two years. vA STORY from New York says tkat the radio operator of the "New York Times" failed to get through on the ’phone to a friend in a suburb of that city. Knowing that the friend was listening to the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, 10,000 miles distant, he sent a radio to the operator of the Nxpedition, who relayed the message back to New York, and so the friend received it. ACTLESS wireless amateurs are becoming so great a nuisance in Utrecht that a committee of legal experts has proposed a new police regulation, under which "it is forbidden by means of a musical instrument or of an apparatus (receiving set) for making music or the human voice audible, whether in the open air or in an enclosed space, to make a continuous sound which can create serious annoyance in the neighbourhood." "THE absorption of the wave energy by the masts of 2L0, London, was found to be strongly marked cver the denser parts of a town on the shortwaves. A large number of .:erials in tune with the transmitter have a eritical effect on the atteruation of the waves, due to their acting as absorbers of energy. When these aerials oscillate, however, they actually radiate weak waves which combine with the main waves, so that although a town with many aerials takes much power from the waves it is unselfish enough to hand some back for the next town. A FEW weeks ago, Senatore Marconi entertained to dinner forty Marni employees who had served that for 25 years’ or ore. There were the Kite-flyers of Newfoundland (during his early experimental days), including Mr. G, §S. Kemp, still hale, hearty and fluent. There was Dr. J. A. Fleming, who had a great dealt to do with the Poldhu station, and there was Mr. R. D. Bangay, whose book on wireless is well known. Quite an historic gathering ! Little they thought in 1908 that radio was destined to play such a noble part. MESSRS. R. H. BARFIBLD and G. H. Munro, in a paper read before the Wireless Section of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, described their investigation of the effects of buildings, tuned aerials and transmitting aerial masts in robbing the waves emitted by 2L0, London. A complete survey of S.E. England was made with a receiver on a motor-van, and two distinct minima were observed in W.S.W. and E.N.E. directions, due to the "shadows" of the transmitting

SU masts. This clearly shows that the masts of a broadcast station capture some of the energy sent out from the aerial of the station. T is reported from London that there are rumoured improvements in the Baird television system, and it is a fact that a large number of eminent people have been very much impressed with recent demonstrations. Leading M.P.’s, including Mr. Lloyd George, are reported as having witnessed demoustrations, arranged by Lord Angus Kennedy, and Sir Edward Manville. What is all this leading to? (remarks a London exchange). Intelligent deduction is not difficult. There are to be trials from B.B.C. stations, presumably conducted with guarantees of secrecy. These were to take place in February, but a fresh development has taken place. One wonders say about what can only be interpreted as a political move against him personally. Whatever happens, there will be some terrific rows, and a lot of fur flying ! The B.B.C. has, hitherto, declined to touch television. A MALGAMATED Wireless has just completed a radio equipment in Wollongong (N.S.W.), Hospital, where each of the 88 beds has been provided with head ’phones. The receiver is operated off the electric mains. Four speakers have been provided, being placed in the matron’s room, nurses’ quarters, domestic staff dining-room, and isolation block. Owing to some geographical peculiarity the best station received is 2UH, Sydney. The other Syc 2. stations come in well also, except 2FC, which is not received nearly so clearly. It will be interesting to see whether Wollongong Hospital has the same experience as other institutions, where it has been found that radio tends to shorten the average term of a patient’s day. Y arrangement with the British Admiralty the broadcasting of gale warnings in 1929 now takes place at fixed hours, namely, 1 p.m., 4.45 and 6.15 p.m. on week-days, and 3.30 p.m. on Sundays. The object is that mariners shall tune in at chese hours, which it is considered are most convenient for the purpose. The arrangement necessitated an adjustment in the broadcasting of the Greenwich Time Signal, which is now given at 1 p.m., from 5XX (in place of Big Ben at that hour) and a new one at 4.45

CU p.m., which precedes the former 4 p.m. Time Signal. On Sundays the Time Signal is broadcast at 3.80 instead of Big Ben being given as previously at 4 p.m. "THE folk of North Wales have been asking the British Broadcasting Corporation to erect a broadcast station in that area, but this has been refused. In the British allocation of

wavelengths that is the determining factor in the number of stations to be erected in that country; and because of this factor, the B.B.C.’s Regional high-power station scheme has to be modified, for the simple reason that there are fewer wavelengths available now than was anticipated three years ago. LITTLE Gladys Harber, twelve years old, came to read poetry during the lunch-hour session for childi » at 2BL, Sydney. She read the "Village Blacksmith," "Where the Pelican Builds," and "The Last of 1-i: Tribe." She read with long nervous fingers swiftly crossing the page, because Gladys is blind, and her books are Braille. Her reading was much better than that of # normal child of twelve. "I thought it was going to be awful," she said afterwards. "I didn’t think anyone could hear me." Everyone heard her quite plainly. It is rather pathetic to hear a blind child recite, "They Lad told me of pastures wide and green."