Wellington Radio Society

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 23, 20 December 1929, Page 12

Wellington Radio Society

Monthly Meeting -- HE Amateur Radio Society of Wel‘lington held their monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, December 10, | in the Cambridge Terrace Congregational Church schoolroom. Mr. By- | ron Brown, president, who has recently returned from a visit te Sydney, occupied the chair. It was decided to notify the district radio inspectur that severe interference with broadcast listening in the vicinity of Daniell Street still persisted. The interference was apparently due to an electrical leakage. A member voiced the opinion that the "howling valve" nuisance was not due mainly to home-constructed sets, as had been stated at a previous meeting, He thought that syme of the sets built by the local "trade" were serious offenders. He urged that too much publicity had been given to longdistance reception, thus encouraging owners of inferior sets to cause their valves to oscillate in an endeavour to pick up distant stations, . He preferred the exponential type of loudspeaker to the electro-dynamic. It was pointed out, however, that large numbers of novices had augmented the ranks of listeners, and they went in for small sets which they constructed themselves. This class of listener was a cause of a considerable amount of interference by trying to get greater distance than was:to be expected with a small set, The judgment ‘of tone of loudspeakers could not always be relied upon, and the fact remained that scientific instruments had proved the supremacy of the elec-tro-dynamic over other types of loudspeakers. Mr. D. Neill Keith, A,M.I.E., gave an interesting and instructive lecture on the early days of wireless, Mr. Keith was attached to the wireless staff of the Home Defences during the war, and was engaged in much experimental work at Biggin Hill, Kent, He traced the history of wireless development from the days when Clark Maxwell, in 1865, propounded the theory that if electrie waves could be propelled through the air they would move at the same velocity as light, All the various stages of the progress of radio growth were detailed by Mr. Keith, He gave interesting accounts of experimentation in WBngland with radiophone between Defence aeroplanes and

the ground during the dark days of the . war when German aeroplanes raided | : England. At the conclusion of the lecture, Mr. Keith displayed a rare collection of obsolete and present-day valves and radio components. He was accorded an enthusiastic vote of thanks . and appreciation.