Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 52, 11 July 1930, Page 13

Notes and Comments

By

SWITCH

~_----- — RRAvi0 is now regarded as indispensable for aviation in countries where air-services are regularly established. It would appear necessary for a trans-Tasman air-service to have a radio beacon at each end. In the United States airmen fly along a well-indicated beam of radio unerringly through rain. mist and fog, by night or day. In the case of one beam system, a small receiving set in the aeroplane immediately indicates whether the plane is off its course, and whether it is too far to the right or to the left of the radio beam. A 500-watt short-wave transmitter is employed at each beam station. * * * INE of the latest radio patent devices is a tiny unit with long, insulated eords to the aerial and earth connections of the set, and by turning the knob on the unit a variable resistance is operated which increases or de: ereases the volume as desired. This is a handy device which could be placed on one’s arm-chair by the fireside to control the volume of the set when conversation renders it desirable. /_ * * ' 8 NOTHER intriguing invention brought out recently in America is a clock which will not only switch on a radio set at any desired hour of the day or night, but will also tune a set at any desired time to any particular station on one of twelve wave: lengths. The idea came to the inventor one night when he forgot to tune in a certain station broadcasting a _ programme he particularly desired to hear. ‘= yy =

R. BE. H. SCOTT, formerly of — Dunedin, who, when’ he paid a visit | to New Zealand about five years ago. — established several long-distance recep- — tion records in the Nelson district, is — still looming large in the radio "trade" in Chicago. His latest product is a re mote control unit which tunes a set to any one of eight stations merely by pressing a button. The unit may, for instance, be placed by the bedside and. by means of cords connected to the set, may be tuned as desired, The condensers in the set do not- move, the tuning equipment being inside the remote contro] unit. This latter feature is a distinct departure from the systein of other control units. Po % ne [YVENTORS have still ample scope for their ingenuity when applied to radio, and no doubt many new gadgets will appear before this year expires. The receiving sets themselves are not likely to undergo any radical changes for some few years, but among accessories there are certain to be new developments. For example, fluctua. tions in line voltage is sometimes pro nounced in certain areas in every coun try, and overloading of A.C. valves shortens their lives. The first line voltage regulators imported to New Zealand were unsatisfactory, but lately a vast improvement in these devices has been accomplished, and should now find a sale in the Dominion. . * * HB motor-car industry in the United States has now come to regard a radio receiving set as a desirable aceessory to a motor-car, and the latest development in this direction is a specially devised receiving set for permanent installation in automobiles, The set is completely cased in a metal hox, which is attached to the dashboard of the motor-car. The tuning dial is in a "remote control" unit placed also on

the dashboard near to the driver, and is connected to the set with a shielded cable. The set has three stages of radio frequency amplification, and power detection is employed, embodied in a ease only 18 inches in length, 6 inches in height, and 4 inches in depth. The aerial is usually placed on the inside of the ear. * + *« BATTERY operation for broadcast receiving sets installed in trains and motor buses are now being replaced by A.C. sets in Canada and the United States. The power for the A.C. sets is stepped up from, the illumination plant, and the results are described as completely satisfactory.

POWERFUL broadcasting stations of the "super" type are being erected from time to time in Kurope. The latest super-power station is at Oslo, which has an aerial power of 60.000 watts. This giant can be heard loudly througbout and beyond Burope. * 4 * LONG-DISTANCE reception has lately assumed normal winter efficiency, and the Australian and Japanese. stations are coming in excellently. On some evenings static has livened up somewhat, but on the whole conditions have been good. ‘The other evening, station JOHK, Sendai, Japan, put on a Western musical programme, comprising orchestra! and pianoforte items. This station is easily leudest of the Japanese stations heard by "Switch." At times it rivals 4QG, Brisbane, the

wavelength of which is in proximity to that of the Jap. * * ok [ATELY the writer has been endeavouring to listen to 2HD, Newcastle, New South Wales. This station may be classed as "sick," for all that one can hear from it is a gurgling hum. In justice to the Australian stations, it may be safely stated that the transmitter at Newcastle is the only one which has been incoherent for a long while. This is in contrast to the conditions which obtained a few years ago, when even some of the Australian "A" stations sounded very "sick" as

ieee heard in New’ Zealand. However, the Newcastle station is being replaced shortly. , ‘ : * * x GIVING English-Australian cricket Test match scores (picked up by wireless) to the New Zealand Press, sometimes reacts inconveniently en the obliging listener, A Wellington listener who sat up till after midnight .to pick wp the cricket scores, and whose services were acknowledged by the Press, was awakened by early-morning telephone calls from places as far as Hketahuna for information regarding the cricket. Test later than that published. To obtain this news, the listener’ would have had to sit up till 5 o’clock in the morning, besides picking up the progress reports all night. Enthusiasm. has its limitations, * * * "QWITCH" wishes all success to the Rey. Mr. BH. McLevie, of Masterton, who is organising a fund to equip the Masterton Hospital with a broadcast receiving installation to serve each patient’s bed. If the good people of the Wairarapa could only see the pleasure broadcast listening gives the patients in the Wellington Hospital, and hear the medical superintendent’s unstinted praise of its beneficial effects on the patients, the money for the Wairarapa Hospital installation would be raised with little delay. .