Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 13, 11 October 1929, Page 13

Notes and Comments

B

SWITCH

THE owner of an A.C,-set complained ak to the writer the other day that "heater" type detector valves were butning out after a few weeks’ lifé, This, it was explained, was due to too much voltage reaching the heating element, The trouble may be due to the voltage of the electric mains being too high, or to internal breakdown of the insulation in the transformer in the set, "Switch" advised his friend ‘to engage an experienced radiotrician to test the voltage appliéd to the detector valve. [fF A.C. detector valves burn out too ‘soon through too high a voltage in the electric mains, it is imperative that a. specially wound resistance be inserted between the set and the hot-point. The resistance necessary should be gau -by. testing the voltage in the val¥@ sockets with a thoroughly reliable A.C. voltmeter. However, it is most desirable to ascertain the voltage of the mains*before attributing the trouble to that source. The transformers in some A.C. sets have proved faulty, and the proper thing to do in that case is to have them re-wound or substituted by new ones. SOME areas of Wellington appear to be deaf to American stations. no matter how excellent the set used. Two local listenerg with similar sets of the same make were exchanging experiences recently. One reported reception of three United States stations fairly frequently while his friend admitted his inability to pick up any of them. The latter’s set was taken in his motorcar to his friend’s house about a mile away, and he bagged two of the Americats without difficulty. His own aerial and earth system was incomparably superior to his friend’s. Locality is a big factor in obtaining long-distance reception. : ‘ *«"T'YRO" (Kelburn) has written to "Switch" asking whether his a.e. set should bring in the distant stations with a slight whistle until he tunes into the dead centre of the wave. This is clearly an instance in which interference with other listeners is being: caused through lack of knowledge. The radio-frequency stages of the set are slightly out of balance, and .a technician’s services should be secured "to readjust the set. The set has, no doubt, the usual gadgets for balancing the high-frequency stages. STATION 8LO, Melhourne, broadeasted a novel "stunt" one night. last week, when for the first time in this quarter of the globe a microphone was placed on a railway locomotive anda description of the intricate processes of preparing the big engine for action was relayed. The locomotive was one of the latest giants of the railroad, and its noise as it was warming up at the North Melbourne locomotive depot served as a realistic background to the _ talk. N last week’s "Radio Record": an inquiry was made by "Amateur" (Southland) as to the identity of a station calling 3GX, Melbourne. The call is that of a Melbourne amateur. . Some of the Australian amateurs obduin permission to operate on the lower wave-lengths of the normal broadcast wave-band. "Switch" concurs with the opinion of "Nidray" (Bay of Islands), expressed in last week’s "Radio Record," that the Japanese station on a wave-length a

little shorter than that of 4QG, Brisbane, is JOHK. The Jap. announcer says "HA" like "gy-chee," but-:on occasions "Switch" has heard the call JOAK distinctly from that station. On tuning down to JOAK on a wave length slightly shorter than that of 2BL, Sydney, "Switch" has heard the same items which were audible from JOHK, This would make it appear that JOHK was rebroadeasting JOAK at that time. WELLINGTON listeners are " surpris ed at the frequent reports from up-country and coastal, places of daylight reception of 2FC and 2BL, Sydney. Sometimes in the Wellington suburbs this feat is accomplished, but very seldom in the city proper.

‘HD power of the American stations | is frequently increasing, and one is inclined to believe that reception of . some of these stations claimed by New — Zealand listeners who mention their low power is erroneous in the latter respect. ‘Take last week’s "Radio Reeord" correspondence as an example. Mr. F. G. MacSherry (Auckland) mentions receiving KGER, Long Beach, California, which he says employs 100 watts power. True, the latest list mentions that power, but is it not possible that it has been increased lately? A recent, increase of power is that of WLW, Ohio, which is listed as 25,000 watts, but, according to Mr. MacSherry, ‘now employs 50,000 watts. "LASTENER" (Petone) in last week’s "Radio Record,’ set a very hard task when he asked which Australian station was broadcasting political speeches from some large hall between 10.80 and 11 p.m. on Thursday, September 19. Political speeches have been broadeast in abundance from the Australian stations for several weeks past. "Switch" would suggest that-seekers of information such as that required by "Listener" should endeay‘our to give the approximate wavelength of the station heard. (TALKING about lights which are to be installed on all the broadcasting and radio masts of the Radio Corporation of America as a warning to aviators, one can visualise the necessity of similar lights at the tops of the 2YA, Wellington, masts, when nightflying becomes popular in this country. Aviators making for, or leaving the Lyall Bay aerodrome may at times pass over Mount: Victoria, and if they hit one of the 2YA masts something unpleasant would be inevitable.

WITCH" congratulates:the Broadcasting Company on having obtained the services of Mr. Johannes Andersen for his lecturette on . "Maori Music." The writer has always regretted the threatened extinction 6f the real old music of the Maoris. What a wonderful field of investigation is available through native music and its comparison with the music of kindred races, The tuneful music with Maori words which passes for Maori music is no more real native music than the ukulele ditties (written by American composers) are examples of the native Hawaiian music,

A MEMBER of the Wellington Radio Society lately conversed with "Switch" on the subject of a proposal he had in mind, viz. of urging that the members be supplied with buttonhole badges of the society. The subject was brought up at a meeting of the society a few years ago, and met with overwhelming opposition. Members said that button-hole badges were a cheap American craze, and should be discouraged in this country. Others stated that the wearing of button-hole badges was undignified, and they would decline to be publicly labelled like a dog with a registered collar. The proposal was then promptly dropped. ANY of the imported A.C. sets have the kilocycles marked out on the tuning dials, but as the wave-lengths of the Australian and Japanese stations are listed in "metres" owners of these sets are experiencing difficulty in finding some of these distant stations. To convert metres into kilocycles, divide the metres into 300,000, and the number of kilocycles are shown. Supposing, for simplicity, a station is listed with a wave-length of 300 metres, divide 300 into 300,000, which will yield 1000. Therefore, 300 metres is 1000 kilocycles. This formula should be cut out and kept in a handy place by ac. set ‘owners. .- .