Round the World on Short Wave

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 7, 30 August 1929, Page 32

Round the World on Short Wave

Short-W ave

. Polish: Stations, [STENERS on the short waves . who may have picked up the Polish programmes in which the ticking of a metronome (abdut 240 strokes to the minute) was heard between items, will be interested to learn that the broadcasts eman-~ ate: from the new Posen transniitter on 80 metres. The power at present-is only 80 watts in the aerial, but this is. shortly to be increased to something much more substantial. The tests are carried out between 11 p.m. and midnight, B.S.T., on Mondays and Tuesdays ‘(9.30 a.m, . till 10.30 am. Tuesdays.and Wednesdays, New Zealand time). Announcements. by both male and female-speakers are made in Polish, German, French and Italian; the. bulk of, the. transmission consists of gramophone records. Solving a Puzzle. fA N Australian short-wave station, in reference to. interference with G5SW, says: "We had the opportunity of solving the puzzle of that peculiar rumble in 5SW which has been apparent for some weeks past, when a cbmmercial station, which, from the call sign, appears to be a French station, was working just below the wavelength of 5SW. It appears that the rumble was possibly the unmodulated carrier of the French station. which has been moved just helow. The. transmission of the French station consisted of the testing signal interspersed with the call: sign. : KZRM Manila, Philippine Islands, has changed its wavelength to about 31.4 metres, exactly where PCJ and W2XAF are.to be found. . This.station has been heard several times on the new wavelength ‘since writing last week’s notes. Strength as a rule is very good, up to full Joudspeaker volume at times. Another station,.a German, has been heard each morning during the past week. -This one has: been reported before, but has not been heard. regularly. The German commences each morning at 6.30 a.m., as a rule with "Achtung," followed by a few more words in the same Janguage, and then orchestral music. One morning a clock was heard to chime and strike"the hour of eight before the familjar "Achtung" was: heard, This interesting stranger works on about $1.5 metres-just a fraction. above PO4J, 2XAF, and KZRM. Volume and moduJation are all .that can be desired: I do not know how late they carry on, but they are always going strong at 8 a.m., when I have to close down. GBX, England, and VK2MH, Sydney, ean: be heard alnfost every morning and evening, carrying out duplex telephony tests. -I often receive the English station better than the Australian during the early morning test.. © REM is not heard so often now, but eomes in at good volume-with plenty of talk, as usual, when on the air.

_ My log for the week shows the following :-~ -. Saturday, August 17. 4 ete -81.5-metre German was heard with some talk just before 6.30 a.m. Some orchestral. music was heard later at R8-9.. There was a slight:ripple, but not enough to spoil reception. No call sign heard. : PCJ. was. R8: from tuning in at. 6.20 a.m. till signing ‘off at about 7.30 a.m. There was-a slight rapid fade, otherwise reception was excellent. 5SW. was-very unsteady. at R8. Not good enough to: listen to. W5XN: The carrier only was audible from this: Californian station at 6.30 a.m. ; POT was R5 at 2.30 p.m., increasing to R9-by 4.30 p.m., remaining at that till 5 p.m., when volume decreased again. The special. New Zealand-Australian programme commenced at 3.45 p.m., and continued till the station closed down at 5.35 p.m. Static.and slight fading were troublesome early, but this cleared up for our special . transmission. _ ; KA was R28 at 1.30. p.m., with rapid fade. The "Slumber Hour," from 2.30 p.m., was better at R8. W2XAD was very good, the last hour being devoted _to dance music from Reilly’s Lake House Hotel. Morse QRM at times necessitates a quick "get-away" from this: station. REM. during the evening was R9, with what appeared to be a debate between a man and woman. Static was very bad. Sunday. August 18. 2XAD and W2XAF transmitted the General Electric programme till 1.30 p.m, Lueky Strike Hour till 2.30 p.m., and from then till 3.30 p.m. dance music was’ heard from the Crystal Room, De Witzler Hotel, Albany, N.Y.,. signing off at 15. seconds past midnight, D.D.S.T. (15 seconds past 3.30 p.m. here). | Reception was good from both 2XAD for the earlier part and 2XAF

later. ‘The former station was much: the clearest, as it always is. . KDKA was good volume, but rough. This harshness was not so noticeable later on when the Byrd Expedition programme and méssages were being transmitted. After the special programme for Little America a test was carried out on 25.4 metres (KDKA’S shortwave) with WFA, a shortwave station at Little America. This consisted of a long series of dots on a 1000-cycle note. The radio expert of WHA has an instrument to measure the intensity of signals received, also the echo received back from the "Heaviside Layer." — _A message from WFA was re-broad-east by KDKA at 5 p.m. ros Before signing off at. 5.10 p.m., it was announced that the next special Byrd programme would be on Saturday, August 31. (Sunday, September 1 here). | _ A peculiar effect--was noticed concerning the. above transmission. What at first‘-appeared to be.another station on about 31.5 metres, proved to be KDKA which was working on 25.4 metres. This I took to be a harmonic of another transmitter of KDKA on a higher wavelength -about 62 metres. Later, when the special test with WIA, consisting of the series of dots, was being carried out, there were also heard on this wave-length-about 31.5 metres. It was distinctly. stated that the test was on 25.4 metres. Can anybody solve this? The only explanation I.can think of is, that the 62-metre station was going, and it was a harmonic that was heard of this. On about 17 metres at 7.45 p.m., what sounded like a description of a fight in a foreign language "was heard at about nee Cheers could be heard during the t ° . . Monday, August 19. \ 31.5 metre German commences at 6.30 a.m. with "Achtung," and the word "orchestra" several times. Orchestral items at RS were received with excellent modulation. The "Toreador" song from "Carmen" at 7.30 a.m. was well received. All the records were high-class music. On. about 22,5 metres at 10 pm. a very excited foreigner was talking with a crowd: yelling in the background. This was received. at R8: The talk may have been Japanese; it sounded like this. 20.5 metres about at 11 p.m., duplex telephony was heard. . 5SW at‘11 p.m. was just audible. ZLZH and ZL2ZAW were both R9 at 10.20 p.m. . . . Tuesday, August 20. At 6.20 a.m. 5SW was quite good, with " am organ recital received at R8-9, quality was not so good later. The German (31.5) commenced at 6.30 ‘a.m. with "Achtung," etc, This was followed by "We begin our concert--" (name of item not caught) in- very good English. This is the only DWnglish announcement’ I have heard from this station, "The Volga Boatman" -was the first item. ‘Volume R&S, modulation perect. GBX and 2ME were testing on duplex telephony, both _R8-9, and 100 per cent. readable... Wednesday, August 21, rTAlk- in. progréss from 5SW. at 6.10 ™ -a.m,.in reference to farming in-Aus--

tralia for English boys. The speaker was speaking from personal | experience of coneons in Queensland. Strength R7, about . & per cent, readable. "The Blue Danwas the first musical item to follow the‘above talk. (H.and GBX were only R6 this morning, not so good as. usual. 6 N was just audible. 31.5 German with an orchestral programme was perfect at R8-9, from 6,22 a.m., when first "Achtung" was heard. W6XN. (KGO) -was -tuned in just in time to hear the . coneluding remarks about music from a radio, exhibition eae had just been relayed. From 6.30 7.80 p.m., the "Musical Musketeers" with dance music. Before closing’ they gave the latest news of the Graf Zeppelin touring the world. Re- ° ception was quite ‘good at R8. 2MH, R8, 100 per cent. readable, and GBX, R5, very poor, were testing duplex, on’ ‘about 81.4 metres were picked up at. 10.35 p.m. at R7 Stack and market reports were being geag: Static was very bad. Thursday, August 22. SW at 6.20 am. a play was being broadcast, 50 per cent. veadable at R7. Whistling solos with piano aecompaniment were quite good just after 6.80 am. Strength improved later to R&, GBX and 2ME were again testing duplex; both R7, static spoiling reception, These stations during the early evening were: GBX, R5; and 2MH, R9. 31.5 metre German was again excellent. at R8, with orchestral selections. KZRM was tuned in at 9.30 p.m, when.a programme of gramophone records was broadcast,. the. names being given both before and after the items. KZRM, Radio, Manila, was.the call given, "A. talk. in foreign language was given. at 10,20 p.m. " Later, news items and programme announcements were given. ad * Volume R8-9; ‘excellent reception except for static, which was bad. ¥riday, August. 23. IG BEN from 5SW was weak. Talk was not readable. Reception at 6.30 was much better at R7, but became unsteady again later. GBX at R5 was 100. per cent. readable, while 2MH could not be heard. Records from the Bnglish station just before 8 a.m. were much better than musie from 5SW.at the same time. The German, as usual, was very good at R8. A woman and man were heard at 7 a.m. for a time, The "Blue Danube" played on a piano at 7.50 a.m. was, received splendidly. (Concluded on page (81)

eet (Continued from page 32.) POJ commenced at 5.84 a.m. with a band item, Volume was R8-9 all through. GBX and 2MB were R8 and R§& respectively, both 100 per cent, readable. KZRM. on 31.4 metres were R9, with gramophone tecords, from about'9.80 p.m. Musie was heard on about 23.3 metres at R.3.-F. W. Sellens (Westland). KZRM, Manila. AFTER having. missed KZRM, Manila, _ Philippines, for about. a week, I again’ picked him up to-night at 8.30 pm. ‘This time he was transmitting on 31 metres, Previous to this have heard him on 24.5 and 49 metres. — On Sunday, August 18, I heard TLO, Nairobi, Kenya, at 7 a.m. He was not ¥§ yood as when I heard him a week be-e-A. R. Cranston (Auckland),