Of Topical Interest

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 50, 27 June 1930, Page 12

Of Topical Interest

(By

Switch

HE writer read with much-interest Mr, J. M. Bingham’s article on "The Phenomenon of Fading and lis Relation to Distortion,’ published recently in the "Record." Many listeners must have observed how curious is the incidence of fading. On some evenings certain distant stations fade. -badls, while others suffer only slightly... Take 2BL and. 2FO, the. two Sydney stations, as an example. Perhaps 2BL has a severe. attack of fading, while 2FC,,is fairly steady. .On other evenings 1! position is reversed. Then, some : the stations on the shorter wavelengths display the same vagaries, although their cycles. of fading are generally much briefer than, say, 2FC, Sydney. -_) * s LISTENER, whose experience: should haye, guided him better, sagely informed "Switch" recently that 2FC and 2BL employed the same power as 2YA, Wellington. Although those two Sydney stations are rated at 5000 watts, the system of rating’ power 1s different in Australia to that in New Zealand. In Australia and England the power of a station is taken as the amount of energy in the last. ampiifier in the transmitter, while in America, Germany and New Zea*and the amount of actual energy in the aerial is taken as the power of the station, Whiie 2BL and 2FC are rated. as 5000-watt stations, the amount of energy finally sent out from the radiating aerial for reception may not be as much as 1} kilowatts. * % _* ‘THE Japanese station, JOHK, Sandai, was coming in with remarkable volume on a recent evening when "Switch" had as a visitor, Mr. KK, Kubota, the newly-arrived Trude Commissioner for the Imperial . Japanese Government. Mr. Kubota was astonished at hearing the Japanese station so loudly and clearly, and could scarcely believe it was about 5500 miles distant. He listened to the Japanese announcer, and then interpreted his words, which were to the effect that the concert was being given by a class of juveniles from the local primary school. School choruses (Japanese items) were on the air till after mjd- "\ night. ; * * * ‘ R. KUBOTA, the recently arrived Japanese Trade Commissioner, explained to "Switch" that the writer's all-electric (A.C.) receiving set was the first he had seen. In Japan crystal and battery-operated sets were in general use, and owing to the. lowpurchasing power of the masses erystal sets were most extensively used. « m ue ** SWITCH" gathers that not infrequently parents telephone the "YA" stations with requests to repeat the birthday greetings to little "Johnnie" or "Joan," as he or she was late in getting home and did not hear ‘the greetings. This sort of thing is becoming too frequent, at one station in particular, and if these requests were comied with the children’s sessions would be spulll.