Radio News of the World

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 49, 20 June 1930, Unnumbered Page

Radio News of the World

T is surprising to learn that fewer ‘ than 50 per cent. of the SOS messages sent out by the British broadcasting stations are successful. During 1929 the number transmitted was 881, of which 867 reached their objective. The fruitless calls numbered 475, while the results of 39 were unknown. * od bs RGUING for "the human rather than the mechanistic medium," the American Federation of Musicians is trying to persuade the Federal Radio Commission to restrict the periods during which broadcasting stations may transmit gramophone music in place of "living orchestras." % ET % HD: Indian Government formally took over the broadcasting service recently, paying £22,500 for the assets of the now non-existent Indian Broadcasting Company. The Government is adopting strict methods for dealing with the "pirate" nuisance, which has hitherto been regarded as the main cause of the failure of Indian broadcasting. . *% % * 4 ceo recent epidemic of wireless set thefts in England has given rise to a theory at Scotland Yard that a central organisation exists for the disposal of stolen apparatus. It is believed that component parts are extracted for incorporation in sets of other makes. ‘These "mongrel’’ receivers are then sold in market places. ba * %

O minimise the amount of "radio piracy,’ the Indian Radio Corporation of Calcutta, is offering twenty crystal sets of its own manufacture each month to listeners who give information leading to the detection of unlicensed sets. The champion sleuth for the month will receive a special prize of a three-valve set, complete with loudspeaker. ae Bd * OAL mining to music is the prospect suggested by interesting tests carried out recently in Somerset, England. The receiver picked up the local on full volume while on the surface, — but ceased to function immediately it began to descend. At the bottom of the shaft, however, at a depth of one thousand feet, the transmission was again picked up at full strength. * * % . HB libraries .in Sheffield, Bngland, are settting an example to the country by allowing the public free facilities for listening to broadcast talks. Sets have been installed in the various branches, and visitors are invited to join the discussion groups which have been formed in connection with the B.B.C.’s adult education campaign., % a + ISTENERS who are troubled with intereference from electrical apparatus will be interested in the following, At a recent meeting of an Austrian society for healing by natural science methods, a wayve-filter for the prevention of radio interference was exhibited by two Vienna physicists. When a diathermic apparatus was placed before a loudspeaker, reception. was obliterated, but when the filter was introduced the interference was completely eliminated.

HE Paris fire brigade is now equipped with a wireless transmitter at headquarters, receivers being installed at local depots. * * PRISON conditions in the United States seem rather lax. Occasionally one hears realistic descriptions of the royal time enjoyed by American convicts. Nevertheless, the PCJ (Holland) station director was agreeably surprised to receive a recent report from the Missouri State Penitentiary! One of the prisoners, who gave ‘his identity as No. 82400, stated that he regularly listened to PCJ with a fourvalve set, which he had designed, and built himself which "engaged on State business." s * RaAvrI0 stations in Canada are regularly used’ by the Construction Department of the Canadian National: Railways to broadcast messages to their engineers in. the field, and it'is quite a common occurrence for Canadian listeners to hear such messages going out. The survey parties carry small receiving sets with which to tune-in for instructions at certain hours every week. Atmospheric conditions are said to be ideal for broadcast reception in the northern latitudes.

THE sudden popularity of all-elece trie receivers in Germany is reported to have produced a slump in battery sets, prices of which have been reduced by. 30 per, cent. A SPROLAL fentare of interest at the recent Radio Exhibition held at Havre, France, was the Wireless and Gramophone Museum. . Many of the sets dated back to 1912, while one erystal set was larger than many modern super-heterodynes. Many. were sets used during the war. One of these consisted of a erystal set in a stylographic pen to which earphones could be @ttached, and which was used for list ing to German wireless ‘communicg\ tions. Other exhibits included a -18: amplifier, a Tesla coil, an electrolytic detector, and a Marconi magnetic detector. The loudspeakers exhibited with these sets were equally old-fash-ioned, being of the "sugarloaf’’ type. O14 egramophones and phonogtaphs," dating as far back as 1879, were also included in this museum, some of them possessing motors which were worked by hand!