Topical Notes

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 44, 16 May 1930, Unnumbered Page

Topical Notes

HE London-Sydney radio telephone service recently inaugurated with due ceremony, is conducted through 2ME, Sydney and the high-power shortwave station at Rugby. An Australian radio writer says:-‘During the earlier tests the writer wondered what provision would be made to ensure getting the correct subscriber. At a distance of about 14,000 miles, when an exchange of telephone call-books will take about three months, it would not be very difficult to call an English number from a local telephone and find that the subscriber had been changed. The solution appeared remarkably simply after hearing:-some of the ‘test’? calls put through. For instance, the Sydney operator calls London, gives the number and exchange and name of the subscriber wanted, the name of the caller and the time the call is to take place, in G.M.T. first of all, followed by the same time in G.S.T. (a.m. or p.m.), and the local Sydney time as a triple check so that very little is left to chance. Each call is prefixed with a serial number and is confirmed as soon as the subscriber has been located in England." * % "THE London-Sydney shortwave public telephone service is being conducted so as to provide a maximum number of hours of communication at a period which will coincide with daylight at both ends. ‘Thus the service will work for about three hours in the early morning and three hours in the late afternoon in Australia and England.

Mtcs# credit is due to the author of the amusing verses on radio at a farm, taken from "The Exporter," read out from 2YA, Wellington, on a recent evening. The rural versifier displayed undoubted talent which he should continue to employ. a Bd * HE Melbourne "Listener In" publishes the following useful hint :- "In short wave receivers, a.c. hum may often be troublesome, even though the set be battery operated. Wherever a.c. carrying leads are installed near a receiver, be sure that they are twisted together. Failure to do this will result in very bad a.c. interference. A faulty earth connection may result in bad a.c. interference. Interference of this kind will prevent the satisfactory reception of weak short wave phone transmissions.’’

HORTWAVE enthusiasts may be interested ,in the following hint published in an Australian radio jour-nal:-‘*An experiment worth trying while listening to an overseas ‘phone station is the earthing of the opposite end of the receiving aerial. In many instances this has been found to improve reception considerably." This is a yather unconventional plan, but semeone may like to try it.