Auckland Notes

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 48, 14 June 1929, Page 25

Auckland Notes

(By

Listener

[HE Auckland University Literary Society lent a hand with the programme at 1YA on Wednesday night, and produced a couple of very acceptable plays. The second one, "The Grand Cham’s Diamond," was much‘ the better effort, the dialect being effectively rendered. The first was somewhat marred by want of clearness in enunciation. At the Leys Institute, Ponsonby, there. meets weekly a most enthusiastic little coterie of junior radio constructors and students. The boys, under an efficient and earnest instructor, are assembling , their’ own transmitter, which they hope shortly to have in regular operation. Several are making such progress with Morse that they will sit for certificates. Others are engaged upon building sets for their homes. A visit to this wireless room on any Wednesday evening is well worth while.

ON Monday last the writer happened along a residential street close to the heart of Auckland. His ear caught Mr. Culford Bell’s voice, and an intimation that the station was crossing over to give Hllerslie results. Then the source of the announcements came into view. On the veranda of one house, temporarily placed upon a chair, was a loudspeaker, and quite an effective instrument, for both volume and_ clarity. On adjacent verandas, and in front of houses on the other side of the street several people were seated, all intent upon hearing the last winner. It was good and decidedly cheap entertainment for quite 2 little community, but it is doubtful if the owner of the set, in his consideration for his neighbours, realised that his procedure was to some extent hampering the progress of broadeasting. There are always numbers who are willing to take all that they can get for nothing. Had they not been able to listen to the service rendered by a neighbour’s set, they might themselves have been expending a thirty shillings that would help. the march of broadcasting in the Domin. ion.

AUCKLANDERS naturally feel satisfied that their postal district claims over a third of the registered number of set-owners in the Dominion. For the beginning of the new year our figures are only slightly lower than they were on March 81, and judging by the optimistic tone one finds in all radio circles, it will not be long ere the figures for March are exceeded. The cult of listening has got beyond the "craze" stage here: the radio’ business has passed from the boom period to one of steady advancement, with the marketing of more reliable sets at prices that are within the reach of all. Most of the junk that prejudiced reception a few seasons ago has now been consigned to the scrap-heap, and everything indicates more general satisfaction both at the transmitting and the

receiving ends. Auckland certainly can boast of a very energetic body of amateur transmitters, 127 in number, according to latest figures. The Amateur Transmitters’ Association in this city holds its annual reunion to-night, and the energetic secretary is confident of an enthusiastic gathering. R. LHN. BARNES, our station director, misses no. chance of securing fresh talent and navelties for 1YA programmes. Our list of new performers swells weekly. Next week the "Radio Scamps," who made a most successful debut last month, are due with a real novelty programme, presented in the style which has made more than one of Mr. Barnes’s special evenings so fresh and unusual.