Radio News of World

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 32, 21 February 1930, Unnumbered Page

Radio News of World

A NETWORK of fifty-one police wireless stations distributed throughout France is provided for in the Budget of the Ministry of the Interior for 19380. The central transmitter will be the Hitfel Tower, says "The Daily Telegraph," and the calls will be made at an hour’s interval during a certain part of the day. Photographs and finger-prints will be included in the transmissions. The receiving stations will ‘be specially equipped for short-wave reception, and their duties will include watching foreign transmissions and searching for illicit stations, FA CCORDING to the B.B.C. at least 3,000 schools up and down the country are known to be taking one or more of the broadcast courses. Little information is forthcoming regarding the type of quality of the sets employed, though the B.B.C. engineers undertake to inspect sets and give adVice when requested to do so. As an indication of the importance the London County Council attaches to broadcast lessons it is significant that steps are to be taken to ensure that only the best and latest design of receivers are to be used for the work, with power supply from the electric mains.

[Hat broadcasting for love is a thankless task is the discovery of the Radio Club of Burnia, which has received numerous complaints from Rangoon that its programmes do not come up to the expected standard. More in sorrow than in anger, the president of the club is asking the Goyernment to erect a powerful station which can be heard all over the province. The Radio Club’s transmitter has a power of only 750 watts, and funds are scarce owing to tke fuet that the club, unlike the broadeusting companies, draws no revenue from the wireless import duties. WHILE Britain continues to dally with the project for an Empire broadcasting service, the United States has secured « new mouthpiece for national and commercial prop:iganda in Canada by the inelusion cf station CKGW, Toronto, in the National Broadcasting Company’s network. CKGW broadcast its first N.B.C. programme on the American Tranksgiving Day (Noyember 28), and will in future reliy to

Canadian listeners regular programmes from New York, Washington, and other cities of the United States. "(HE research ship Discovery IT, which has left London on a three years’ voyage of scientitic exploration in the Anturctic will keep in direct communication with Britain througliout the voyage by short and long wave transmitting and receiving equipment. A direction-finder and a quenched spark emergency transmitter has also been fitted. The short-wave transmitter is capible tinder fuvourable conditions, of world-wide communication ; and to keep in touch with ships and shore statiotis over distances of 1,00U miles on wavelengths of 600-800 metres, iu medium-wave transmitter of 14 kiloWatts power will be used. The receiving appiratus will enable the explorers tid hear all the principal long und shart wave stations of the world. while for purposes of navigation the directivn-finder will be of particular value, cspecially in Polar regions where the ordinary magnetic compass is subject to considerable errors. "TRANSMISSION tests with waves of three metres are referred to in the German amateur periodical, "CQ," Which states that success on these high frequencies has been attained by Dr. Karl Store by means of a special arrangement of super-regeneration cir- cuits. Transmitters «and receivers functioning very efficiently on "the 3-5.f0-metre waveband" are reported to be constructed with ordinary commercial appiratus, while a 2-metre wave is suid to be attidinable with the use of special valves. (CEBTAIN Freuch amateurs who are distracted by oscillators and other "anarchists of the ether" are considering the initiation of a campaign similar to that of the Dutch Radio Union. The sufferers in Holland are preparing for a systematised "day and night struggle" with all forms of radio disturbance, personal and otherwise. A permanent office has been established Where complaints will be received and action taken under legal advice. UTOPIAN dream hus been realised by the U.S. Bureau of Standards in the acquisition of Pleasant Valley, Fairfax, Vancouver. «as ab open-iiir radio laboratory. The _ site, covering 100 acres of abandoned pas-

ture land, is Hat and velatively fred from trees, and is believed to be almost idéal for its purpose, riz... he study of fading. Ordinary overhead! aerials are to be dispensed with, the inténna system being limited to a vertical red about 55 feet high and a number of direction-finding loops. To obviate "man-made-static." the power line for repletiishing batteries from the mains cin bé disconnected. THE new Belgian Wiréless Bill has passed successfully through the Chamber of Representatives. and is now awaiting the approval of the Sénate. The Bill gives the postal administration complete control of broadcasting, which will be directed by a National Wireless Institute, operating two high-power stations broadca¥ in French and Flemish respectivelr. The council of control will include a number of independent personages, including four technical authorities, ard will be presided over by the Belgian Postmaster-General. HE number of wiréless licences in England is growing at a more rapid rate than ever. Up to the end of November it had reached 2.914,521, an increase of 47,000 compured with October. The B.B.C. estimate that at the end of May this year otte house in every three in the British Isles contained wireless receiving sappuratus. The corresponding ratio in the United States of America is one in five. T has recently been decided to erect in Moscow a Broadcasting House. which it is intended will contuin nod less than twenty-seven studios. Acous! tic control of each studio will be effected by means of movable wall and ceiling draperies. A laboratory for radio acoustics, electro-acoustics, and an experimental studio for phonofilms. television, etc. will also be housed under the same roof. There Will also be a radio museum, an experimenter’s exhibition, a library for books and music, a library for plivunofilms and phonograms, a reading reference library, and the archives of broadeasting. On the engineering side there will be a large power-house, complete with several groups of machinery, including bulancing systems, generators, rectiflers, and amplifying upparatus together with a large accumulator installation and control switch-board, Construction is expected to begin shortly, and completion of the building is anticipated within two years. . 7 Ps 4 enh oad