Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 10, 20 September 1929, Page 15

Notes and Comments

By

SWITCH

ELLINGTON listeners. who are troubled by noises picked up from street lamps, loosened by strong winds, should immediately. notify the electricity department of the City Corporation. .. Each. post whieh carries an electric light bears ‘a. letter .and "numbers., "A-note of. these should be taken so that’ the-troublesome light can be located immediately by the man sent to-rectify.the trouble. Listeners should telephone : 41-074 to lodge. complaints in. the day-time. -A postcard addressed to "Complaints," Electricity — Department, Harris. Street, Wellingtou. _ would serve the same’ purpose. WELLINGTON listener anpantat ~ ‘to "Switch". "to step around and heat the noise’ in his set. More or leds. expert listeners. had paid him a visit for the purpose of diagnosing the trouble, and each had.expressed the opinion that the trouble was in the set itself. ©All endeavours to’ locate thesource in the set- had failed... The noise: sounded like.a rough attempt to simulate Morse code, and it was audible on all wavelengths. It was a wild night. when: "Switch" went round to his friend’s domicile, ‘but-.it was worth while, as ‘the writer was able to locate the source of ‘trouble before he examined the set. A street lamp almost infront of his friend’s house was popping in and out through fhe violence. of the gale, When the lamp was fixed t’ noise ceased. "LOW-POWER broadcast station » Which is heard by many North sland listeners is 2ZH, Eketahuna, , -awned and’ operated by Mr, .G, R. 8S, ‘Allen. The wavelength is 248 metres. 2ZH, which is located at the Eketahuna "Express" building, operates on Wednesdays from 5.30 p.m, till 8 p.m.; on Thursdays from 1 p.m, till 2 p.m.; on Sundays from:4,30 p.m. till 6 p.m.’ THE new Australian Broadcasting Company is threatened with unexpected competition by. the J. C. Williamson Co. ‘Ltd., the well-known the_Atrical entertainers. "It is reported that the J..C. Williamson people were closely ‘associated. with 2FC and 2BL, Sydney, and 3LO and ‘3AR,. Melbourne,, until the new Australian Broadcasting Company were given: the contract for the supply of programmes for those stations.’ The J. ©. Williamson: Co. were among. the unsuccessful , tenderers. This company is said to have purchased interests in a Sydney and a Melbourne B -class stations, and will supply the programmes. The power of these sta-tioms-is to be increased, according to report, and the programmes are.to be "a-revelation." The only source of income by ‘these stations: is ‘through. advertising. ME BYRON BROWN, president _ of the Wellington Radio Society, was one of the assistant adjudicators at the late’ Wellington competitions in the eloeufionary. classes. He ‘strongly advoeated that.some of the items should be relayed by 2YA, Wellington, and listeners had the satisfaction of listening to ~Ruuubere 0 from the Town Hall stage. HE experienced from Morse ‘transmission by a warshir at Wellington is agitating those listen rs who’ are located near the water: front. «A listener. with a" portable set and a loop recently took three bearings and found that the loop always pointed to H.M.S. Dunedin. He spent the whole evening in his motor-car ‘carrying out

this investigation. Listeners welcome the announcement by the. Acting-Secre-tary of the G.P.O. that the naval authorities are co-operating with the P. and T. Department in reducing inter ference." (THE annual report of broadcast station 4QG, Brisbane, issued by Mr. J. W. Robinson, director of the Queensland Radio Service, provides interesting reading, as in more than. one respect it has a bearing on broadcasting in New Zealand. While some people have advocated a wider variety of artists in each programme of 2YA, Wellington, Mr. Robinson is a strong advocate for ‘.programmes provided by a few highly trained artists, instead of programmes provided by many badly trained performers." R, ROBINSON, director of 4QG, Brisbane, is a discerning person, and during the past year yielded to the clamour for a greater variety of performers sooner than abide by his own judgment. 4QG was then a Government station, and in some measure politically controlled. Mob control is not in the best interests of art or music. Mr, Robinson remarks in his annual report: "During the year under review 820 different individual artists were employed at 4QG. ... It does not require the exercise of yery- much common sense to realise that there are not 820 first quality artists in Brisbane." It appears then that Mr. Robinson yielded to the most clamorous section, probably in reality a minority of the listeners. Purely a case of obtaining quantity, not quality. "Fewer and better artists" should be the slogan of any up-to-date broadcast service. (THE mediocrity of the performers who broadcast from 4QG, Brisbane, although they numbered 820 during the past year, is reflected in the station’s balance-sheet. This discloses that although the station staff. salaries totalled £5389, the payment to artists (820) amounted to £7344. 4QG is on the air daily (excepting Sunday) from 7.45 a.m. till 8.30 a.m., from 11 a.m. till noon; from 1 p.m. till 2 p.m.; from 38 p.m. till 430 p.m.; from. 6 p.m. fill 6.25 p.m.; from 6.30 p.m. till 7.45 p.m.; from 8 p.m. till 10 p.m. or 10.30 p.m., and sometimes 11 p.m. On Sundays the station broadcasts morning church services, also from 3.15 p.m, till 4.30 p.m., and from 6 p.m. till 9.80 p.m. The income from license fees during. the year was £23,276. The annual profit was £5211. e STATION 4QG, Brisbane, is about to pass from the control of the ‘Queensland Government to the Com-

monwealth, Government. The programmes will, therefore, be handled by the new Australian Broadeasting Company, comprising the Fuller, Albert and Sons, and Union Theatre combination. HE severe gale and’ bitterly cold weather reported from Sydney last week had a considerable effect upon. reception from the Australian stations while it lasted. Static, intense fading. and weak reception prevailed until the disturbance moved away. WHven the Japanese stations did not come through as well as usual, although they improved considerably after 11 p.m.

URING his recent lecture before a general meeting of the Wellington Radio Society, Mr. L. H. Wright made reference to the peculiarity of the neutrodyne circuit. He mentioned that if a neutrodyne were tuned to a longwave station (say, 2FC, Sydney, on 665 kilocycles) it would break into oscillation on. the stations on the shorter wave-lengths, such as 3YA, -Christchurch, on 980 kilocycles, It -.was always best, he said, to neutralise ‘a neutrodyne on the shortest wavelength station: available, although the sensitivity of the set would steadily decrease as the wave-lengths’ increased. This peculiarity is well known to many. but there is a probability that a large number of owners of netitrodynes have not heard of this. ME. L. H. WRIGHT, who is one of the most experienced and well informed radiotricians in Wellington. is a firm believer in the. screen-grid / valve. He insists, however, in its use in-a proper circuit. Too often this "wonder" valve never gets a chance to jltilisé its extraordinary amplifying power in the radio-frequency stage owing to some of the circuits in use not being suitable. For either the normal] broadcast band or short-wave work the sereen-grid valve is a great performer provided it gets fair play.