Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 51, 4 July 1930, Unnumbered Page

Radio Round the World

THA British Postmaster-General has announced that the number of receiving licenses in force on March 31 last was approximately 3,093,000. * * % WILL ROGERS, the famous American comedian, has, it is understood, signed a contract te give fourteen Sunday evening radio talks for a fee of £14,400, This works out at about £7¢ a minute. % ae So radio has entered yet another sphere! During recent motor-eycle combination reliability tests in BHngland 4 number of the side-car passengers carried portable wireless sets for their entertainment during the race. . ws Fe tt A SIGNIFICANT indication of the progress made in the wireless ¢ontrol of aircraft is afforded by the necessity for a new amendment to the Air Navigation Convention, The amendment provides that pilotless aireraft shall not fly over countries other than their own. * "PuE immense popularity of portable receivers in England during their present summer has prompted the postal authorities to appoint inspectors, who tour the countryside on motorcycles and examine listeners’ licenses. This is surely rather a heckling attitude to adopt, and one which is certain to result in much unfavourable comment. ne % * TE total eclipse of the sun on Oc‘tober 22 of this year will afford an opportunity for interesting radio transmission tests in the Pacifie Ocean, The line of totality passes through Suva (Fiji Islands) and Apia (Union Islands), both possessing wireless stations which will be used in the tests. Listeners will be interested -to know that the observations are to be carried out by the Astronomical Society of New Zealand. bo bd tk A PUBLIC radiotelephone service has been opened between France and Suigon (Cochin China), the fee being iupproximately £4/10/- for three minutes’ conversation. Short-wave listeners may be interested te learn that the Freneh trausmitier and xeceiver are situated at Sainte Assise and Villecresnes respecti¥ely. Da a * A MOVING-COIL loud-speaker is to be installed in the church tower of 4 small village in Cornwall, England. The ¢hurch bells have not rung for thirty years, the cost of re-hanging haying proved prohibitive, but the diffi- « culty is new to be overcome by repre.

ducing church ell gramophone recore 3 ; by means of a pickup, The parishio: 1 /: ers certainly appear to be progressive, : forthe church already possesses a. 2 sn dio-gramophone for reproducing music and special relayed sermoy, {; ‘ we fl EPS Ee * Ea * aD STRANGH STORY, revealing mrch 4 ingenuity on the part of the plot--ters, is reported from the village of °. Hobelschwert, Silesia. Certain pupils |; ; in a secondary school there, being de- ° sirous to overhear the delibérations ; their teachers concerning impending: examinations, installed a microphone |’ in the teachers’ common room and led: Wires down. a chimney to an amplifier. | By an unfortunate coincidence the-cens-) tral heating system failed at the crit- > } ical moment, and the stove was brought | into commission, with disastrous re- ii sults, The microphone was discovered * and the students were expelled. * % ‘ok % is CORPORATED in one of the latusi (j_ blocks of fats to be built in London ~’ is a master radio receiver. This. is : intended to serve 200 flats, ranging in rent from £225 to £1000 a year. The | main receiver consists of four valyes " in the master set itself, but there are ; 4G extra valves used for amplification purposes, Every drawing-room and kitchen is fitted with points, so tha¢ } loudspeakers or headphones can be plugged in. * BS . * AN} unusually large percentage of oviside broadcasts figure in the Gex-' man programmes, This ig possible be-, cause the German postal authorities | have designed a short-wave trausmit-, ting and receiving installation which \ is fitted up in a motor-car, The equip- © ment ¢ame in very useful recently dur : ing an international long-distance cycle race. The car followed the entrants, and the commentator was able me broadcast an eye-witness account of \ the race. From the short-wave set messages are picked up at a maz broadcasting station, and relayed to i listeners. % * ® [t is reported from Philadelphia that @ research engineer in the General Hlectric Company’s laboratories has succeeded in generating an ultra-short radio wave which may be developed | into what is popularly known as the "death ray." In fact, it is stated thay the new transmitter could broadcast. such short waye-lengihs that people in the vicinity would have their bloo® * temperatures raised, Jt is even pose sible to induee such a high fever ix} the human body that death resulis\ Tlowever, it is thought that these nev! waves, if used with caution, will hare | a marked curative effect on ¢er tain. | diseases. = ’ ia} to