Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 15, 25 October 1929, Page 13

Notes and Comments

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SWITCH

— #{X TENSION" (Lower Hutt) wants to know whether there would be any loss in volume if he ran a 50 feet cord to his loudspeaker instead of the present 10 feet cord. He is using a fivevalve set. No appreciable loss of volume. would be noticed. Some suburbanites take their loudspeakers out on their lawns on a Saturday afternoon to listen to the broadeasting while they are pottering about the garden. "QWITCH" tenders his congratulations to the Broadcasting. Company on the excellence gf the transmission of the new 4YA, Dunedin. The volume is considerably greater than the old 4YA, and the modulation and tone are exceptionally good. A peculiarity in favour offfhe new 4YA is that fading is only s@ht, and of brief duration. The fading periods are widely separated, and there is not the usual distortion associated with fading. Wellington listeners are delighted with the new 4YA. ys yarious New Zealand centres listeners are at times subjected to serious interference from electrical leakages which in many cases are preventible. It would appear, however, that there the P. and T. Department has no legal remedy against those responsible for the trouble, though moral persuasion is generally successful in removing the cause of the trouble. The Richmond River Listeners’ League, Lismore, N.S.W., recently sent a protest to the Federal Prime Minister against the preventible interference experienced in the district from electrical leakages, ete. The league also addressed the following question to the Members of Parliament :-(1) Do you consider that the Government officers controlling proadcasting operations should be given the powers necessary in the matter of preventible interference? (2) Will you use your best endeavours to have such action taken in the interests of approximately 1,000,000 listeners throughout the Commonwealth? HH wavelength of the new 4YA, Dunedin, is slightly shorter than that of the old 4YA. A Wellington listener who operates a set- with knifelike selectivity was much perturbed when he failed to tune-in the new 4YA on the occasion of the opening night at that station. A slight movement of his dials, however, had the required effect, and 4YA came in with. splendid volume. ) HEN neutrodynes first came out a ("belief was current that once they were correctly neutralised it was impossible to make them how] and thus oceasion interference with neighbouring listeners. Yet the mere’ changing of a valve was apt to upset the balance of the set and make it a most

persistent howler, Just because a listener operated a neutrodyne set he claimed to be immune ‘from suspicion of creating interference with other listeners, but, not a few were disillusioned when their sets were -checked ‘up by experts. Not improbably many of the howls heard nowadays emanate from badly neutralised sets. 7 N2w Zealand listeners who would like an opportunity for experimenting with radio-vision should cultivate patience as the new development is not ready for general use yet. Recently in Menzies Hotel, Melbourne, Major Macluulich, F.R., Met. Sec., explained and demonstrated the Baird radio-vision (or "television") system before a number of guests. The transmitter was erected on the top floor of the hotel, and the receiver was installed downstairs. Everyone was surprised with the results, but the point of interest, of course, lay in the query as to the possibility of television receivers being used by the average listener. The major frankly admitted that the day: had not yet dawned, but he believed that it was just over the horizon. In the demonstration that he had conducted the ordinary land telephone lines had been used, so that the difficulties that would arise in televising from a broadcasting station were avoided. WHEN Sir Harry Lauder was in New Zealand some months ago, listeners urged that he be induced to broadeast an item or two, but they did not know our Scottish friend. If an American contemporary is reliable, Sir Harry Lauder agreed to break a lifetime rule-and a world’s recordon September 1 when he was to receive 1000 dollars (£200) ‘per minute for singing three songs for the Enna Jet-. tick Boot Company in its. sponsored fifteen minutes. CKY, Winnipeg, was the station, and it was linked up with 46 stations in U.S.A. and three in Can-

ada. As compensation for performing -on-a Sunday, Sir Harry insisted on being allowed to sing (for nothing) his favourite hymn in addition to the three Scottish songs for which he was to receive 3000 dollars (£600) each. ‘This fee is three times as great as that paid to Al. Jolson. "Q"WITOH" has heard of several New Zealand listeners picking up 4 Melbourne station recently, with the call they took to be "8GX." The writer suggests that the station was 3EX, 240 metres, 500 watts, owned and operated by Amalgamated Wireless, Ltd., at the All-Australian Exhibition at Melbourne, This was a temporary broadcast station shown as one of -the working ‘models at the exhibition. The company received reports of reception from several New Zealanders and from ma: ~ parts of Australia. RECENTLY a number of listeners in Australia wrote to the Press denying the statements of other listeners

who complained that reception of 2FC, Sydney, was spoilt by bad modulation. Then Mr. Oswald Anderson, manager of the station, published a statement admitting that complaints had been received regarding the poor modulation of 2F0, Then he added: "It happened that 2FO had blown out a few valves, and the engineers were having trouble at the moment." THE receiving sets in use in the leading 25 countries are computed by the United States Department of Commerce as follows:-United States of America, 9,640,348 sets; Great Britain, 2,511,736; Germany, 2,350,000; France, 1,250,000; Japan, 550,000; Argentina, 530,500; Sweden, 871,000; Austria, 325,000; Australia, 804,000; Brazil, 250,000; Russia, 250,000; Italy, 250,000; Ozecho-Slovakia, 250,000; Canada, 230,000; Denmark, 215,000; Netherlands, 150,000; Union of South Africa, 130,000; Finland, 127,000; Switzerland, 75,000; Norway, 70,000; Belgium, 62,500; New Zealand, 55,000; Mexico, 50,000; Chile, 30,000; and the Irish Free State, 30,000. In New Zealand many listeners have more than one receiving set, and this would account for a greater number of sets than licenses in the Dominion. . AS§ soon as the comments by "Switch" on the crowding of 4QG, Brisbane, on top of JOHK, Japan, appeared in last week’s "Radio Record," the Brispane station’s wave-length was lengthened, and the Japanese station came in with exceptional strength and freedom from any interference. The first item from the Jap. was a characteristically weird, wailing song by 4 Jap. tenor, accompanied by some sort of mandolinelike instrument, which was twanged occasionally while the said tenor was taking his breath. .