Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 19, 22 November 1929, Page 13

Notes and Comments

By

SWITCH

Ose of the out-of-door relays to be . put on the air by the Sydney stations shortly will be the description of the official opening of, the shark-proof fence at Coogee, and a concert on the pier at night. The new American liner Malolo,, which is touring the Pacific with American holiday-makers, will be at Newcastle shortly, and a programme will be broadcast from the vessel when she is there. As the ship is to come to Auckland afterwards, perhaps 1YA, Auckland,, will be able to relay a concert from her. ~ THE poor audibility of the Australian stations has had the effect of making many New Zealand listeners appreciate their own stations. Owners of good sets frequently declare, nowadays, that they are well satisfied with the "YA" programmes, and many of tiem say that they prefer to listen solely to 2YA, Wellington, excepting when there is something extra special from one of the other "YA" stations. "Switch" has noticed that lately, although the trans-Tasman stations have been weak, the "YA" stations have come in with splendid volume, not excepting 4YA, Dunedin. THE daytime reception of 38YA, Christchurch, as heard in Wellington, is exceptionally good, and, of eourse, there is no trace of fading during daylight. During the recent Christchurch racing carnival "Switch" had 8YA continuously, and the volume was more than ‘sufficient to fill the house throughout. The quality of. tone 3YA must be heard in daylight to be appreciated, for there are then no howling valves and atmospheric distortion to near reception. A LOOSD bond in the tram rails in Constable Street, Newtown, is reported to be creating almost continuous interference with. broadcast listening in the surrounding area. The tramrails are connected together with a thick copper wire welded to the rails. Whether through electrolysis or vibration, the fact remains that these bonds become loose sometimes, and then a loud frying noise is heard in receiving sets within a considerable radius. When a tram passes over the loose bond it temporarily tightens it, but frequently the next car loosens it and th noise commences again. .

N his re¢ent lecture before the Wel- ’ lington Radio Society, Mr. C. Lidall stated that it was quite impossible for the common horn-type of loudspeaker to reproduce the lowest bass notes. Sounds were certainly heard which passed for the lower notes, but they were really only harmonics of those notes. Mr. Liddell paid a tribute to the "exponential" type of loudspeaker, which owing to its scientific measurements was able to reproduce the very lowest musical note. The moving coil loudspeaker was also capable of the same performance. am R. F. P. BLACKWOOD, speaking at the recent meeting of the Wellington Radio Society, sounded the . ost hopeful note yet heard by x Swite " with regard to the howling vnlve nuisance. He said that the steady increase in popularity of the a.e. set would in time reduce the howling valve nuisance almost to the vanishing point. It was mainly the homebuilt sets which created this nuisance, and the construction of an a.c. set was practically beyond the capabilities of

the overwhelming majority of listeners. Nevertheless, an a.c. set of the neutrodyne type is capable of a lusty howl unless it is correctly netitralised, but no doubt the traders see to it that they are O.K. before they are installed. [We don’t agree that a.c. sets are more difficult to build than d.c-Tec. Hd.J PHCULIAR peaks in the volume obtained from loudspeakers were shown in graphs prepared by Mr.. ©. Liddell in his lecture before the Wellington Radio Society recently. The popular horn-type loudspeaker was proved to be the worst offender, and even the latest moving-coil loudspeakers were shown to emphasise considerably certain notes in the scale. It was only with ingenious devices for detecting these vagaries that an improvement could be possible.

"THE seasonable change from winter into summer is having a _ pronounced effect on long-distance shortwave reception.. An Australian listener states that among the overseas shortwave stations which are badly affected are W2XAF and 2XAD. He says that at 5 p.m. (7 p.m. N.Z. time) on Sundays, KZRM, 485 metres (620 k.c.) can be picked up in Sydney. An excellent programme is provided by the Bureau of Prisons’ Band, Have any New Zealanders heard this transmission? *

LJSTENERS as a body display much impatience over the peculiarities of reception from various stations. They generally cannot understand that locality has a most important bearing on the quality of reception. "Switch" has received letters from listeners giving entirely opposite reports of the quality of reception of 2YA, Wellington. Some state reception is consistently perfect, while others, in a different locality, complain that the station is frequently distorted. They have the same sort of thing in Australia. A Melbourne listener writes to the Press that 2FO, Sydney, comes in perfectly, and invites all and sundry to come and hear for themselves. Another residing 200 miles west of Brisbane endorses this. «Other reports state 2K'O is badly distorted. WELLINGTON listener has sent in a query as to which Australian stations relayed the running description of the Melbourne Cup. The stations were: 3LO and 3AR, Melbourne; 2¥C, Sydney; 4QG, Brisbane, and 5CL, Adelaide. It was also put "on the air’ by the short-wave stations 8MB, Melbourne, and 2MH, Sydney, and rekyoadcast by TZL, Hobart, and

6WIF, Perth. The Melbourne "Listener In" remarks: , "It is doubtful whether anything so big has ever been attempted inthe way of broadcasting in any part of the world. This is an obvious exaggeration. The arrival of the Graf Zeppelin in America was deseribed throughout the vast network of broadcast stations in the United States, and broadcast also on shortwave to distant parts of the globe. KELBURN correspondent writes: "On Monday and Tuesday evenings of this week, whenever the announcer was speaking or when a recitation was being given, we could detect the sound of music at the same time, although muffled, presumably at a _ distance. We have not heard it before, and it was sufficiently loud to be heard across the room in. which the set is installed. I wondered if it was another station or perhaps music in another room of 2YA studio, as in addition we heard the sound of the

Wellington General Post Office clock chiming on each occasion during the. evenings. mentioned. Could you advise me what can be done to remedy this defect, that is, if there is anything wrong with my set? I think that it must have been something wrong at the studio, but perhaps you will let me know.-The music was coming from-another room in the studio. The management, no doubt, will take steps to prevent this sort of interference recurring.

USTRALIAN listeners are disappointed because the new Australian Broadcasting Co.’s service does not include: broadcasts from other countries. The programmes of the British Broadcasting Corporation, of stations PCJ) and PHI, and of WGY in America, were frequently relayed by 2FC and 2BL, True, the produce was often far from perfect, but it was felt in broadcasting circles that the initial troubles were being overcome and that the time was approaching when the listening public could expect to hear London and other programmes repeated whenever anything special was being put over. One great advantage of these oversea programmes was that they cost nothing. Amalgamated Wireless, it is understood, made no charge for picking up the stations and passing along the oversea programmes to 2FC0. Now this is all cut out. The Commonwealth Postal Department has no facilities for receiving from overseas and apparentiy is unwilling to allow anyone else to o it.