Round the World on Short Wave

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 17, 8 November 1929, Page 32

Round the World on Short Wave

HIS page is conducted in the interests of shortwave enthusiasts. A weekly log comprising notes of reception and interesting topical events

is contributed

by Mr.

F. W.

Sellens

Northland, Wellington,

. but all

listeners are invited to send in paragraphs of general interest.

Short Wave Facts. D»*. VAN DE POL, who has been ana- — lysing the world-wide reports on_ the of PCJ, has discovered that England, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, France and Germany sreceived weaker signals . than the remoter countries -of Europe. This supports the "skip" distance theory, India, China, and Japan received maximum signals when -the complete track. of Waves was in darkness. In. Australia and New Zealand two daily signal maxima were noticed,. one when the eastern route to. the Antipodes was in darkness and the other when the western track was dark. 'The wavelength used when these ‘ observations were made was 30.2 metres.. "Write Down’ Word Tests. NFORMATION has come to hand regarding the "write down" tests so often heard. . ° _.. The station is under the control of Bell Telephone Laboratories, its call sign being ‘2XG, Deal, New Jersey. Every other Friday they transmit on five different wavelengths-11, 14, 18, 28 and metres, ‘ The tests run from 4.30 p.m., United States Eastern standard time; to 9 p.m. (9:a.m. till 1.30 p.m. the following day, N.Z. mean time). The word tests are ‘made for the purpose of determining the ‘usefulness of the’ circuit. European Short Wave Stations. AM indebted to Mr. R. T. Stanton. (Christchurch) for the following news «which he received from an English "short wave" friend :- — Motala, Sweden, on-99 metres, relays the Stockholm programme. No fixed hours: of operation. Coethen, Germany, , call sign D4AFF on.43.6 metres, operated by State Technical College, Coethen, -Experimental transmissions. Zeesen, GerMany, on 31.88 metres, :jrelays the programme from Konigswusterhausen from 8 _p.m., Greenwich mean time. ’ ‘The last-named station is the German reported in the notes as being heard-near-‘ly every morning. This is confirmed by the programme in "World Radio" : of Konigswusterhausen on Friday, August 80, which reads as follows :-8 p.m. "The "Messiah," oratorio -(Handel), from _ Neuen Welt, Hasenheide, followed’ by News and Transmission of Pictures from Berlin’ (Wizleben)." My log . for Saturday, | August 31 (September 13, "Radio Record") reads, "The German was a real: treat with the ‘Messiah’ relayed from Berlin." . The following particulars of the above station will be of interest. Konigswusterhausen (Zeesen, Germany)-Wave-Jength, 16.85 metres; power, 26 k.w.; eall. "Achtung! Achtung! Hier, Konigswusterhausen." When relaying, "Ferner Uebertragung auf .. ."’*(name ‘of station relayed). Interval signal: Metronome; forty beats in ten seconds,

General Notes. Se W2XAL on 49.9 metres and WS8XAL on 49.5 metres have been heard: recently up till 8.15 p.m. The former station has recently changed its wavelength from 30.91 to 49.9 metres. Radio, Manila, . is now heard regularly on just over 26 metres... Most transmissions commencing at 10 p.m., are an--nounced as "simultaneously from Manila and Kaboo." I am not sure of the lastnamed place, but that is how it sounds. The call of. KZRM or KIXR has not non heard recently-just "Radio, Manila." ., During .thé week-end at Christchurch reception was poor. RA97 on Sunday evening was quite good when a lady was speaking in English, giving items of news from ‘various countries. At, 9.30 p.m. she said, "The time-is 18 o’clock and’ 30 minutes; listen to-morrow at 18 oldloek and 20 minutes." Tuesday, October 29. TATION." W9XF was R8 at 7 p.m., MJ but very gushy. . W6XN was similar to the Chicago station. RA97 at R9 was spoilt by very severe. static. Radio,, Manila, ,opened at 10 p.m. with their original chimes gtd the clock striking 6 p.m, After "Good-evening, everythis‘is- Radio, Manila, broadcasting from "Manila. and Kaboo,"’ a programme by. the National University Band was received at. R9. ’ Wednesday, October 30. N -about. 41.8 metres, possibly DOA, music at R4; 41.2 metres approx. (just a..fraction below -the: above), pequestral items at Rd. Static was very a ‘© TLO, Nairobi, was only just readable, Zeesen relaying Konigswusterhausen. At 15. a.m. some very fine choral music was heard at'-R9, spoilt. by static. Talk was heard at 7. 30 a.m.; followed by an orchestra, R7-8. was weak and gushy. Big Ben at 7 a.m. was heard, but the talk following.was not readable. W9XF at 6.30 p.m. was R8, and, exeept for, slight gushiness, quite good. On about: 32.2 "mettes a voice was heard calling "Hullo, Bridgewater" at R8. The call was not heard; static: spoilt. readability.. They closed about 6.45 p.m. "till ---: G.M.T." On 32.6. metres (about) a lady followed by a man were heard talking in a foreign tongue. Strength was good, at R8. » Just caboye: this wavelength other voices were heard," but were spoilt by a beam station almost on top of them. 2ME and GBX’ were: testing on duplex telephony, using their usual ‘wavelength. I understand they are-not yet ready for tests on 15. and 16 metres. Radio, Manila,.at 8 p.m, was R7 with bad static. They closed after a time to open again at 10 p.m. with their chimes and a relay. from the. Regal Theatre.

Strength was R8-9 at this time. Holland and Java were talking at R7 and R8& respectively. Thursday, October 31. GTATIONS on about 43.5, 41.5 and 35.5 metres were heard with talk about 6 a.m., all being too weak to be readable. , Zeesen Was splendid ‘at RO with a musical programme. I timed them in at 6.15 am, They closed at 6.30 am. TLO was just audible at 6.30 a.m. 5SW, for a change, was quite goad at R8§, but a. morse station almost on top spoilt what would have been excellent reception. WO9XEF at 6.30 p.m. ‘was R7, spoilt by static. 2ME and GBX were both R8-9 with their regular duplex toate , Radio, Manila, from 10 p.m. was Friday, November 1. At 6 a.m. PCJ opened, strength R. 8-9, weakening to R. 3-4 by 7.30 a.m. Talk and music was again just audible at 6 a.m. on 41.5 metres. They had faded out or closed down by 6.30 a.m. Zeesen at R.S was jammed by morse. [7LO was only just audible at 6.30 a.m. 5SW at 7 a.m. had a R6 carrier wave, but speech was much weaker,. fluctuating in volume a lot. W9XI at 6.40 was RT-8. W6XN'was R83 at the same time, and slightly gushy. 2M was calling London at 6.50 p.m, without any reply. Later when GBX came on about 8.15 p.m., Sydney told them about the ninth anniversary of KDKA, and that 2M was going to put on a special programme at 11 GMT on Saturday for the Pittsburg station to rebroadcast. He also mentioned _ that KDKA intended rebroadeasting 5SW, England; DHC, Germany; and PHI, Holland, during their birthday celebraions PCK, with duplex, were R7. RAQ7, at 15 p.m., were good. with orchestral musie at R8. Radio, Manila, at 8.15 p.m. were R6 with gramophone records. ‘From 10 p.m. with their evening programme they were R8. . Saturday, November 2. St4t TION PCJ did not commence till 6.15 a.m., when they were R8-9, with a strong generation hum. Volume went off to R4 by 7.30 am. Musie was just audible on 41.5 metres. Zeesen at 6 a.m. was much weaker than usual. On about 18 metres I hung on to a earrier for some time; at 6:30 a.m. the one word "Achtung" was heard, nothing else being heard. 5SW was. very weak and gushy. . PCJ during the afternoon was very weak. Not audible till 3.30 p.m., when a carrier was picked up, slowly increasing to R4-5 at its maximum. Reception at its best was gushy. 2XAD, also, was very poor. Just audible at 1.30 p.m., and not much better two hours. later. 5ZO provided an excellent programme, received at R7-8. KDKA was tuned in

-ey at 3 p.m.,*when "Old Black Joe" wag, being*sung, and received at RG. Recep tion varied, but on the whole, increased in yolume to R8-9. An announcement was made during the afternoon in reference to their special ninth anniversary transmission, stating they would "be on all to-night, all to-morrow, the next night, and some of the following day"-quite an endurance test. Volume remained good till about 11 p.m., when they went off a little, but returned t R7-8 by 11.45 p.m. Radio, Manila, opened at 10 p.m. with the chimes, and clock striking 6. It was announced that owing to the bad weather the Constabulary Band .was ‘unable to play in the bandstand,, and that instead of the band, recorded items would be broadeast. Reception was excellent at R8. At 11.40 p.m., organ solos were heard from the Union Church. VK2MB opened at 10.55 p.m. for a duplex test with KDKA. Reception was excellent at R9. Sydney put on two. ecords for Pittsburg to tune in prid*\o "shooting the programme" (this was 2ME’s way of putting it).. The special programme commenced at 11.7 p.m. with "Tight Cavalry." After séveral other items a message from Mr. Fisk, managing director of A.W.A., was vead, and later birthday greetings from the announcer of 2ME;. The concluding item was the "Wembley Military ‘Tattoo," finishing at 12.2 am. , ~ KDKA did not commence to rebroadeast. till ‘about 11.40; from which time the music and speech from Australia, via Pittsburg, was well received after travelling about 18,000 miles, The Sydney announcer was 100 per cent, readable through KDKA;; in fact, better than the man in the Pittsburg studio. KDKA at,,the conclusion acknowledged the special broadcast. Something was said about 5SW and transmission to the Byrd Expedition, but readability wént off about this time. . " Bangkok, Siam, was tuned in when the above concluded. They were transmitting their native music at about 29 metres. Reception was R9. ® eameend ----