Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 47, 7 June 1929, Page 26

Notes and Comments

By

SWITCH

[THE Wellington Radio Society was unfortunate in the matter of the weather which prevailed on the evening of the annual meeting. The cold southerly wind no doubt prompted not a few to remain at home near a good fire, listening in, in preference to attending a meeting. Thirty individuals can by no means be regarded as representative of the hundreds of listeners resident in Wellington city and suburbs. S in many other public movements, the masses leave it to the few to do the work, and so it is with the attitude of the general body of listeners in Wellington towards the Radio Society. One listener wrote to the honorary secretary of the Radio Society declining to join that body as he disagreed with the statement of that official that

there is a general feeling of satisfaction in the work of the Broadcasting Company and its programmes. Now, if that gentleman were~ dissatisfied he should join the ‘society, come to the 3 eetings and urge. his case. "THE Wellington Society has undoubtedly done good work, and its constant and successful endeavours to secure the inclusion of a dinner music Session may be cited as not the least of its achievements. The society was active in the effort to persuade the Racing Conference to permit the broadcasting of race meetings, as is the practice in Australia, and when the time is opportune the society will, no doubt, move ‘in the matter again if only for the sake of those unhappy bed-ridden "diggers," and patients in the public hospital. N interesting incident occurred in connection with the annual meeting of the Wellington Radio Society. Mr, J. H. Owen, the ex-president of the society, who had been abroad for a year, and who had proved such an ideal president for years, could not be overlooked when nominations for the position of president for the ensuing year were called for. On the other hand, Mr. Byron Brown, who had held the position during Mr. Owen’s absence, had éndeared himself with all. Mr. Brown protested that he had accepted | office only to "keep the seat warm" during Mr. Owen’s @bsence. At . Mr. Owen’s request Mr. Brown ‘finally agreed to accept nomination, and he was elected unopposed. Mr. Owen was then elected chairman, the post next to president. SPEAKERS at the meeting said it was jarring to the musical sense to hear "2YA, Wellington," called by the announcer during the dinner music: session while the music was on the air. A suggestion was made that it would be preferable that the station call sign be announced immediately be- . fore or after an item, as is the custom in Australia, ‘THE Sunday afternoon sessions of 2YA, Wellington, especially during the cold winter months, when families prefer to remain at home, are all too brief, according to the expressed opinions of a number of those present at the annual meeting of the Wellington Radio Society. Therefore it was decided to request the Broadcasting Co. to extend the Sunday afternoon sessions till 5 p.m. HERE are people who adopt an attitude far too critical towards broad- | cast announcing, and they have writ- | ten to the Press airing their opinions. | Actually one would have to be hypercritical to find serious fault with the | work of the announcer at 2YA, Wellington. His enunciation and method of delivery are better than many — which we hear from Australia. There are, of course, other attributes, but on the whole the Wellington man is well above the average. The Radio Society js to be commended for dis- ]

sociating itself with the adverse Press criticism of the announcer at 2YA., BY thirteen votes to seven (actually twelve votes to eight) the meeting of the Wellington Radio Society expressed a desire that the broadcasting of football matches be reduced to international, intercolonial, interprovincial and finals of club matches, music to be put on the air on Saturday afternoons With the above exceptions. Of a meeting of thirty only twelve voted for the resolution; by inadvertence a vote was cast for the resolution, which was intended to be cast against it. Ten declined to vote at all on the motion. Naturally the resolution is an expression of opinion, but if only twelve people out of thirty vote for it, what weight can it have with the Broadcasting Company? Also, is the opinion of twelve out of hundreds of city listeners to be accepted as representative? A NEW addition to the executive of the Wellington Radio Society is Mr. ‘Tom Donovan, who has been appointed an active vice-president of the society. This carries with it an exofficio place on the committee. Mr. Donovan has been associated for many years with a business catering for public entertainment. He is an enthusiastic broadcast listener. As a man of enterprise and a keen critic of public entertainment he is a desirable acquisition to the executive. , ANOTHER happy appointment was that of Mr. W. M: Dawson (of the Philips Lamps (N.Z.), Co., Ltd.) as technical adviser of the Wellington Radio Society. Mr. Dawson is regarded as being one of New Zealand’s leading radio technicians. He has had an extensive experience in both the transmitting and receiving end, and is well versed in the scientific and theoretical side of radio as well as the practical side. His lectures to the Radio Society are always brimful of instructive information. Not a few Wellington listeners have been picking up the new broadcast station at Wanganui. There is relatively little fading, and the tone is good. Volume is very fair on some evenings, dependent, as to be expected, on atmospheric conditions, 4YA, Dunedin, also comes in with good volume, but on some nights ‘fading is intense. AN amazing insteance of valve longevity is reported by V.G.B.K. _ (Dunedin), who writes: "I have four | American valves which have been in — laily use since June, 1926, and have — run over 3000 hours. Thinking that they might need replacing I had them } tested, and, to my surprise, found that — they were up to the standard. of new — valves. I certainly do not think that che makers owe me anything. I use a six-volt A battery and B eliminator at — 180 volts." Can anyone beat this? (ZOVERNMENT control of broadeasting in Australia, which is to 9e inaugurated shortly does not imress Some folks as being desirable. It i

is interesting to note that the only States in which there has been a decrease in licenses are those in which there is already Government control, viz., Queensland and West Australia. It was thought by many that when the Government took over the services in the western state there would be an immediate improvement, and a corresponding increase in the issue of) Ye censes ; but this has not been the Instead, the quota of licenses per one hundred of population has gradually fallen off until now it is as low as 93, as against 4.69 for the whole Commonwealth, and 8.17 for _Victoria, which latter quota is a world’s record. AN acquaintance who has recently returned from a tour of the United States told "Switch" that the next great accomplishment in radio will be the transmission of moving pictures, of the. kinema type, to the homes of the populace. He said some wonderful work is in progress in Ameriea, perfecting the radio-kinema. People will no longer need to go out of their homes to see and hear the talkies, he said. An expert who was engaged in the development of this scheme in America told him that the radiokinema scheme was a hundred times easier than radiovision proper. A YOUNG Hungarian inventor, Denes V. Mihaly, has already: achieved wonders in the radio transmission of einema pictures. The main difference between actual radio-vision and the radio-cinema, of course, is that while in connection with the former the various parts of the persons radiovised have to be scanned by reflected light, the case in connection with the radiocinema is the samé as with transmission of lantern-slides-viz., that only transmitted light is used. This, of course, entails an enormous simplification of the television transmitter. Another difference is that the cinema film already comprises a decomposition of the original movement into successive stages, each separate picture corresponding to a different stage. In fact, all that is required is to sean the whole length of the film once at a certain minimum rate-.i.e., ten individual images R ) second. What an impetus to radio radio-cinema scheme will give! THOsb few New Zealanders who regret that the Broadcasting Co. of New Zealand has not taken wp radio-vision will be interested in the latest news that Baird, the British’ radio inventor, sceptically declares that radio-vision, though it may be available to the public within a few months aS a zommercially-made job will not come into its own for a number of years. Baird’s invention, it will be remembered, has been greatly boomed at Home. . THE mellow-voiced announcer at 2FC, Sydney, Mr. Cochrane, "The Hello Man" of the children’s sessions, was given a birthday party in Messrs. David Jones’s tea-rooms by five of his ed-time story-hour nieces recently. Mr. Cochrane was also presented with in illuminated address.