Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 39, 11 April 1930, Unnumbered Page

Radio Round the World

aN FEW years ago wireless in Afghanistan ‘became -extremely popular, there being no charge made for the use of wireless by Afghan subjects, Headphones of Russian or German make found a ready sale, but loudspeakers were not in general favour, as-the Afghans thought they sounded like gramophones, ‘The wireless station at Kabul suffered the faie of all other Western improvements during the recent revolution, but the new monarch, King Nadir Shah, has ordered the reconstruction of the radio service, and it is hoped that improvements will enable the Afghan station to receive programmes both from India . and Russia.: When broadcasting began i Afghanistan (relates "Popular WireIgss") the ubiquitous Greek trader arrived there with a cargo of headphones, which he sold to the gentle faithful ‘at £4 apiece.. The one good point about these ’phones was their silence. The faithful tried to’sell them back, but, as was mentioned previously, the vendor was a Greek pedlar. In consequence, while the latter was racing back to Russia one dark night some hasty listener "switched him off." SERIES of remarkable experiments in long-distance transmission of speech, and television has been in progress during the past few weeks between short-wave stations 2MB, Sydney, and 2XAF, New York. At one stage of the experiments the Ameriean engineers, working from Schenectady, New York, placed a diagram before a..televisor at the. transmitting station. This was "televised," and the output from the televisor fed into the short-wave transmitter at 2XAF., The resultant signals. were picked up by 2ME. Sydney, and rebroadcast. The New York station was on the watch, and, after. picking the signals up once more, passed them through the television receiver. Thus -the diagram that was televised was reflected. on a screen a fraction of a second after the initial signals. had left 2XAF to he picked up by Sydney. 'T!HE need has long been felt-in England for a technica] radio training college -in which students would pe able to acquire a thorough . and specialised knowledge of modern practice in the -radio-manufacturing industry. quite distinct, of course, from a wireless school for commercial radio operators. .Such a college, it will be appreciated, would be of no sill use to the manufacturer, who wouid thus have available a permanent source from which he could. obtain young but fully qualified radio engineers. The majority of radio manufacturing concerns have declared themselves in favour of .the proposition, and one firm has even donated £100 ‘to help in putting the scheme on a sound footing. "TAPAN’S broadcasting system, which was inaugurated in 1926, has considerably developed during the past three years. "To-day it is run by four separate organisations, which together eontrol over ten transmitters. The yrincipal stations are installed at Hiroschima, Osaka, Sapporo, Sendai and Tokio, with relays at Daiyen, Seoul (in Korea.), Nagoya, and on the Island

of Formosa. Of these,-six are transmitters capable of developing an energy of over .ten kilowatts. All studios except one are interconnected by pupinised cable with the capital and main transmitter, the exception being. that of Hokkaido, .which takes: its programme by wireless link. The system is now providing a regular service to nearly 700,000 listeners, and the license tax Yee has recently been reduced to 1 yen monthly. , "POPULAR WIRELESS" has un-_ earthed the following piece of unconscious humour froma well-knowi English daily :-‘‘Recent ‘experiments with anti-motor-boating devices suggest that a 4 m.p.h. condenser is greatly preferable to the 2 m.f:d. usually employed. This is simply ‘speeding.’ Probably the next thing will be the suggestion that high-speed motor-boat condensers ought to be fitted with a vacuum brake to each microfarad, and even: then should not be used on the broadcasting band. It is, however, better to stick to a safe 2 mfd. per hour. and to use an’ outboard engine." ; ELITARY instruction is now being broadeast by radio on the Continent. All-electrie radio receivers which are tuned to a. central station, have been installed at several barracks. A high military ,authority lectures before the microphone, and his. remarks are simultaneously heard by thousands of young recruits. Ixamples and illvstrations of tactics are also seen over the ether, and at the conclusion of the lecture mass drill is carried out at hundreds of barracks. Orders are sharply given oyer the microphone, and in obeyance troops march, turn, halt, and perform other evolutions on paradegrounds sometimes hundreds of miles away. REQUESTS were recently broadcast from a Chicago station for listeners to indicate whether they. select programmes by referring to. the newspapers or whether they merely "dial around’ until they find something of interest, Compilation of the replies resulted in the following statistics :-75 per cent..of the listening. audience refer to programmes printed ‘in newspapers, 20 per cent. use lists made up by themselves or from sources other than newspapers, 4 per -cent. merely "turn the dials,’ and 1 per cent. listen regularly each week to programmes or stations that are their favourites and do not attempt to find either new stations or new programmes. HE resourcefulness of the amateur radio transmitter is proverbial. Mr. "Geoff" Shrimpton (2XA), who acts as announcer at the Wellington motor-cycle speedway on Saturday evenings, used to find it a difficult problem to get the thousands of spectators to cease their chatter when he was about to issue an announcement.through the dozen loudspeakers operated by an electric public address system. He hag got over the difficulty by inserting a morse key in circuit: with the -loudspeakers, and by depressing the key a loud raucous note’-is emitted which warns the crowd that-he is. about to speak. ‘The effect is magical, for the babel immediately ceases’. when the note is heard.