Radio News from all Quarters

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 31, 14 February 1930, Unnumbered Page

Radio News from all Quarters

THE business world is making a good deal of use of the wireless picture Service recently inaugurated across the Atlantic. Two or three incidents have already occurred where forged documents have been detected when the service was used. For example, the Deutsche Bank in Berlin was recently saved £12,000 by being able to discoyer a forgery when a picture of a document was wirelessed across from New work. Q{ERMAN district post offices have ‘. been authorised to install on eight days’ approval wireless receiving sets for traders. The trader must write to the local postmaster informing him of his intention to install a wireless receiving set at a certain address, As soon as the set has been installed the post office must be informed immediately, and within eight days-including the day the work is finished-a further communication must be sent, saying whether the installation is permanent or not. If it is not permanent, the set must be dismantled without any delay. On the other hand, if it is permanent, the post office will then forward a licence to the owner. The licence fee is chargeable from the first day of the month in which the completion takes place. No licence fees are payable for the eight days’ approval period.

HADPHONHS, to enable deaf people to hear the talking pictures, are to be supplied by the Western Hlectric Company in all kinemas in England equipped with their apparatus. Members of the audience who suffer from deafness will be placed in special seats, and ushers will provide each of them with a set. Each set will be clamped into a plug on the back of the seat in front. The plug will be connected with the operating box, and listeners will be able to adjust the volume of the sound for themselves. HE installation of radio sets in motor-cars is now "all the rage" in America, and several automobile manufacturers are already building receivers into their cars. It is interesting to note that legislation has been passed forbidding the use of shortwave receivers for this purpose, This prohibition is intended to prevent any eavesdropping on the frequencies used by the police radio stations when communicating with their wireless vans while the latter are on patrol.

A FRENCH radio amateur has made use of wireless in a very interesting and practical way. His application of radio permits a motor-car driver to open the doors of his garage without leaving his seat. On approaching the garage the driver presses a button on the dashboard; this operates a small radio transmitter, the waves from which operate relays inside. the garage. The doors swing open and the car passes in, This idea is even more ingenious than a Similar American invention, which operates the apparatus inside the garage by means of a line circuit which is completed when the car passes over electrical contacts at the entrance. HE King recently made special preparations to ensure that he wouid hear the broadeast ceremony of the unveiling of a memorial to his mother, Queen Alexandria. The service wag clearly received on the King’s portable five-valve receiver, which was inspected by an expert the night before so that nothing might prevent perfect reception.

to PyIGHtY or ninety miles above the. ground, three great belts of leg. trie current are continually swirlin like tidal floods above the earth, creat-' ing the equivalent of millions of horsepower. This conclusion was announeed recently by Dr. BE. O. Hulbyrt, of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., a laboratory which has been engaged for several yédrs in © studying the electric and magnetie properties of the earth which may affect radio transmission at sea. It wag found that there are two daytime currents, one immediately above the other, one flowing eastward and the other westward. At night another current flows continually eastward. What effects these currents have upon the world at large can only be guessed af present. Experts of the say that they influence radio trans mission at sea, produce variations of magnetic compasses, and alter the world weather. The currents cannot be compared to ordinary wire currerits, but are rather like tremendous tides of electrified air atoms. ‘The electrified atoms of neon gas through which flows the light-producing currents in the glass tubes of modern neon signs afford an analogy. THE B.B.C.’s experimental short- ;" Fd & wave station, GSSW, receives thousands of requests from all over the world for verifications of reception, and a great deal of time and trouble is spent upon research in connection with the details given. In connectiot .with the above, a very humorous letter was recently received by the station from | a correspondent in America. His réquest for verification took the following form:-‘Dear Sir,-Would youw please send me a verification of your station? First, we have a few fellows working with us that have a habit of bragging of how far their radios can reach, and a verification of a direct broadeast from you will surpass any claim they have. If you send one [li never tell under any circumstances af how I received it. I have never hedrd your station, but have tried répeatédly. Hoping you will consider my request, and thanking you in advance, I am, yours truly, ----." FEARING the consequences of the abolition of the speed limit on roads outside towns and cities, police authorities in England are considering the formation of a new national force of motor police with full powers, including that of arrest. One plan, which in all probability will ultimately be adopted, is for the organisation of a force equipped with cars fitteé with wireless. Communicatiqn wil thus be effected with a central organisation in London working in conjunction with Scotland Yard. VERY blind person in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland will have a wireless set if the goal ‘d a committee representing British sotieties working for their welfare is reached. For some time the chief ehgineer of the British Broadeasting Corporation and members of the desigu staff have been co-operating with experts in the blind world in désigning & wireless set for the easy reception by blind people of the forthcoming alternative programmes. The design has now been approved and hundreds of these specidl sets have been ordered =0 that delivery can be made when the alternative programmes from Brook: man’s Park begin in the New Year. ~--