News from Here and There

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 45, 23 May 1930, Unnumbered Page

News from Here and There

ACCORDING to Dr. Stetson, of the Ohio Wesleyan University, 1930 should be a good year for the radio lover, because. better reception is probable with the decreasing number of spots on the sun. As the year waxes, -the number: of spots is expected to wane, resulting in a corresponding inerease in radio-signal strength in the broadcast zone. Reception last year followed the fifteenth month cycle observed in the sunspot numbers with a marked depreciation during the autumn maximum, when, under normal conditions, radio reception should have been improving with the decreasing hours of sunshine. With the development of radio scientists have been af‘forded a valuable aid. with which to study solar radiation and other phenomena. Apparatus has been devise: for the automatic registering of radiosignal strength at all times of the year, so that the connection between the clarity and strength of the signals and the condition of the sun, can be more accurately determined. * * & QIXTY-BIGHT THOUSAND extra licenses were taken out in Ingland during January, and the B.B.C. attributes this chiefly to the efforts to attract new listeners during Radio Week. Altogether there are 3.017,023 licenses in force in Great Britain. x * * REDICTIONS, similar to weather , forecasts, which would acquaint listeners of coming static and of the type of reception to expect within a certain period are about to be included as a regular feature of American broad‘east programmes. A proposal that reports of daily magnetic disturbances be transmitted on short waves along with the weather forecast and seismic activities is to be made at a Stockholm meeting of'a section of the International Geodetic and Geophysical Society. These magnetic storms rage as fiercely as windstorms, but do not make their presence known physically. Research workers have decided that fairly accurate forecasts can be made of such storms, accompanied by predictions of the kind of radio reception to be expected. ae * XK A WIRELBESS flying squad policing the whole of England is likely to become a reality in the near future. Conferences on the subject have been ‘held between the Home Office and Scotland Yard, and have been attended by chief constables from various parts of the country. The scheme is understood to be a reply to the growing activities of car bandits. * * bd "THE Anglo-Japanese beam wireless link is now completed by the opening of the Japanese Wireless Telegraphy Company’s station at Yokkaichi, permitting messages to be sent from Japan to HPngland. The service in the reverse direction was opened last year by Imperial and International Communications Ltd. The transmitting and receiving stations in Hngland are at Dorchester and Somerton ‘respectively.

O test the amount of absorption of electromagnetic waves in the earth’s upper atmosphere, Dr. Hoyt Taylor, president of the American Institute of Radio Engineers, proposes to transmit short-wave signals to the moon. His intention is to measure the strength of the "echo," judging that this. should be heard 2.8sec. after transmission, as the waves, travelling at 186,000 miles per sec., must cover 500,000 miles. * a bd HOTO-ELECTRIC cells, or "electric eyes," which have been adapted to perform many and varied duties in the manufacturing world, have now been set to work as official welcomers, and may also be used as watchmen or policemen. Visitors to the Museum of Peaceful Arts in New York are greeted by the words, "Will you please register?’ as they step from the elevator. although no one is in sight. The words come out from a loudspeaker and are contained on a record which starts when anyone passes through a beam ot light watched by the eye. At night the record may be changed to a warning to "Throw up your hands," or some. other threat to prowlers. The apparatus consists of a photo-electric cell, a light source directed on it and the speaker. When the light to the cell is interrupted by a person. passing through it, the cell starts a motor which in | turn operates the record. Bs % ue Morn than 100 years before’ the Christian era a form of talking pictures with motion originated in China and has continued popular to the present day. This is the shadow play which gives the illusion of moving pictures, while the talkie effect is supplied by persons who read the parts of the drama. % ™ * HE application of ultra-short radio waves for purposes of communication has been accomplished successfully by a German scientist. These wavelengths, perceptible only by their production of heat, extend in length from a few decimeters down to onethousandth of a millimeter, reaching thus into the sphere of invisible light rays. A detector sufficiently sensitive to react to such rays was found in a selenium cell with an alloy of tallium sulphide, A transmitting tube of only 100 watts was used for telephone and radio messages. s s ¥ YLECTRIC power companies in the United States are contemplating a standardised 60-cycle A.C. supply, the increase in mains-operated wireless sets having drawn attention to the subject. One of the first of the companies to consider this change, which now furnishes power in northern New York State, is understood not only to contemplate the generation of sixty-cycle current to replace the twenty-five-cycle, current now used, but also the sharing with its customers of the expense of converting their equipment where necessary. It is estimated that at present only 10 per cent. of American homes wired for electricity have mains ‘adio sets.

Birds roosting on the antenna of é radio station WII, Philadelphia, have caused trouble to the control operators. A few birds perched on the wires cause an appreciable change in frequency, and a flock means serious trouble. To keep the birds away, the operators lighted upon the plan of discharging blank cartridges,-and during the sending of evening programmes it often is necessary to station a man on the roof to discharge a gun at regujar intervals to force the birds to vacate. * 7 *- To insure perfect tonal volume in proadeasting, American station: are now installing in their studios instruments known as _ galvanometer electrical sound indicators to’ warn ar--tists against "blasting" into the microphone. The sound volume galvanometer has always been a part of standard equipment of a speech input panel, to guide the operator in regulating sound volume. By placing these indicators near the microphone, it is thought that artists while broadcasting could co-operate with the.control operator in maintaining the proper sound. level.