notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 23, 20 December 1929, Page 13

notes and Comments

1

SWITCH

MORSE work between aeroplanes and the ground is fast disappearing "in Europe and America, and telephone communication is now gaining tremendously in popularity, Such wonders as telephone communicaton with ships at sea and with aireraft is already au established fact. Only a few days ago engineers of the Bell Laboratories established telephone communication between a plane at Whippany, N.J.. and London. There can be little question that communication by wire will link every nation of the. world before many years have passed, PHROUGH a recent amalgamation ot the largest motor-car and radio manufacturing interests in the United States several makes of American have been designed for radio installation, and thousands of installations. have already been contracted for by automobile dealers in the States, This means that. before long; American motor-cars will be ar: riving in New Zealand with portable receiving’ sets and aerials built into them. There is not the slightest douht that with the excellent broadcast service now supplied by the "YA" stations in this country, there is a decided demand for portable radio sets designed for motor-cars. THE station director of 2YA, Wellington, merits special praise for his enterprise in secuving the presence of the visiting English. cricketers at the 2YA studio on Thursday evening, December 12. Thousands of listeners who are located far away from the cities, and who will have no opportunity of seeing the. Hnglishmen play had, at least, the pleasure of hearing them spenking from 2YA. A _ loudspeaker outside a radio dealer’s shop in Cour: tenay Place, Wellington, drew quite a erowd when the English cricketers were speaking. Some of the speeches were really excellent. The majority of our visitors, however, were microphone shy, and merely called greetings to New Zealand listeners, ON the oceasion of the English cricketers’ yisit to station 2YA, Wellington, they expressed astonishment at the size, furnishings and appointments of the studios, and no doubt these have to be seen to he believed. The main studio is like a small con"cert theatre. The Englishmen listened to several items and watched the méthods adopted at the studios with the greatest interest. They were a happy lot and seemed to enjoy the occasion. immensely. They all signéd their names in the studio visitors’ book, and then proceeded in motorcars up to the transmiting station of 2YA on the heights of Mount Victoria. The various devices employed in transmitting were explained to them, and again they evidenced surprise at the wonderful equipment employed. They were able at the station to obtain an entrancing view of Wellington by night, and the panorama was one, they said, they would never forget. HIS year the Broadcasting Company has again demonstrated their desire to do everything to stimulate the sale of radio sets during the Christmas gifts season, and thus add to the thousands of listener's already in New Zea: land. By putting 2YA on the air from noon each day this. week, excepting Saturdays and Sundays, and till after

New Year, the company is enabling the members of the trade abundant scope for giving demonstrations tv prospective buyers and making this a thorough "Radio Christmas." Radio is a community affair, and the greater the number of listeners the greater the benefit to all associated with it, whether members of the trade or listeners themselves, Holidaymakers, whether "baching," motoring or yachting, will also appreciate the prolonged hours of . broadcasting during the Christmas season. HE other day "Switch" heard a listener, who is also a musical critic and a gramophone devotee, express the opinion that there are quite ‘a few gramophone records landed in New Zealand which have been badly "taken." He said that for some reason or other they had faulty tone and other technical imperfections which were evident when heard direct from a gramophone, He advised careful weeding out of records before they were put on the air, otherwise the station’s transmission would be unfairly blamed. The gentleman referred to is not a man to commit himself to such a statement without being sure of his ground, and his opinion was backed up by others of authority on gramophone reproduction,

ERY few Wellington listeners ex- ; perience any interference from the powerful morse station on Tinakori Hill, overlooking the city, thanks to the excellence of the equipment and control of VLW by the P. and T. Department. In former days when VLW employed the old-fashioned spark transmission, it was a different matter, and no listener for many miles around was immune from the crackling morse which carried messages to ships hundreds, and even thousands of miles away at sea. All is changed now, and only those in the closest proximity to VLW know when it is on the air, In Sydney, on the other hand, there is a veritable demon to listeners in the shape of the nayy morse station on Garden Island,’ in Sydney Harbour. This old-fashion-ed equipment is responsible for most ‘annoying interference with broadcast listening. QN#2 of the most interesting radio amateurs in New Zealand is My, D, Neill Keith, who lectured on the early days of wireless at the recent meeting of the Wellington Radio So-. ciety. Myr. Keith during the war wus attached to the experimental staff of the Home Aviation Defences at Biggin Hill, Kent, England, He related how they were able to maintain a conversation with aeroplanes by radio-

phone at distances up to 50 miles. Mr. Keith related how they were able to save the life of an aviator who lost one of the wheels of his ‘plane when leaving the ground. He was informed by ’phone of the mishap, and he effected a remarkably clever landing without accident. R. KEITH remarked that when the Inchcape Committee at Home set about reducing expenses incurred in conducting the war they decided to re‘trench in radio experimentation work. Mr, Keith was selected to interview committee and endeavour to dissuade them from this course, Owing to the general "hush" policy in the service the committee knew little of the wonderful progress made in radio. He invited the members :of the committee to come and see his colleagues ¢ )mmunicating by telephony with ueroplanes 50 miles away. The committee accepted the invitation, and when they saw a flight of ’planes going through manoeuvres in mid-air at the word of command from the ground they were completely won over, and there was no retrenchment. IN the course of his lecture before the Wellington Radio Society Mr. Keith mentioned that here in New Zea-

land a Mr. G. T. Kemp, electrician in the P. and T. Department had successfully sent signals through the earth between Gisborne and Wairoa (a distance of 74 miles) two or three years before Marconi saw the commercial possibilities of radio communication. On . February 26, 1894, Mr. W. W, Brown, manager of the Hastern Bxtension Cable Co., who was then staying at Cable Bay, Wakapuaka, in the Nelson district, wrote to Mr. Kemp for particulars of his experiments. Mr. Browning stated in his letter to Mr. Kemp that if reports of his experiments were true, his fortune was made. Mr, Browning, however, was shortly afterwards called away to Hngland. SPEAKER at the Wellington Radio Society’s recent meeting gave it as his opinion that none of the electrodynamic speakers on the market could perform as well as his home-built exponential horn loudspeaker, which he operated with a pair of 15/- headphones for the reproducing medium. Another speaker; however, stated that it had been clearly demonstrated by graphs shown by Mr. ©. Liddell at a previouse meeting of the society that the exponential horn, while a distinct advance on the older type of horn, had its limitations, and was considerably inferior to the electro-dynamic or moving coil loudspeaker. The graphs had been recorded by scientific methods and were unassailable, HE young folk haye been delighted with the presence of Santa Claus at 2YA, Wellington,’ during the children sessions. Parents declare that the youngsters simply shriek with laughter at Father Christmas’s humour. "Switch" has been assured that he has been the biggest "hit" of the year among the kiddies. The whole performance was cleverly done, and it indicates that there are some talented entertainers among us who éan rise to the occasion when necessary with new ideas, seen