Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 9, 12 September 1930, Unnumbered Page

Radio Round the World

HE studio at 3L0, Melbourne, was ° once famous as being the only one | in the world at which the public were | admitted as an audience during the © .factual broadeast transmissions. This plan has now been adopted by stations | in many countries, and is a marked success. , e . ~ Pad ; Y way. of an experiment, a Berlin business man recently put through a call by trans-Atlantic radio telephone to Los Angeles, where his voice was re- ; layed to a passenger in an aeroplane flying over the city. "I am speaking to you from Berlin," he commencaii. "Can you hear me?" And the listeier in the plane replied: "Your voice is perfect, but too loud. Don’t shout!" * bs oa A SHORT time ago the |,roadeasting station at Prague, Czecho-Slovakia, broadcast a radio play entitled, "Fire at the Opera" (writes «an English contemporary). A nurver of listeners who switched on without having read the announcement of the programme were under the impression that a fire had broken out at the Prague Opera House, and not a few of them made inquiries over the telephone or ran to the opera to find out the truth. e a = TPELEVISION has taken another step in its development with the production of a two-way land-line system which can supplement the usual twoway telephone, permitting the parties to a conversation to see as well as to hear each other. An experimental service between two remote points has just been demonstrated successfully in America. . = g s [ has often been prophesied that by the aid of radio facsimile transmission, newspapers will be pubiished in various parts of the world simultaneously, and this is nearer realisation than many people are aware. Recently the whole of the front page of a Californian newspaper was transmitted from Oakland to New York, 2500 miles, where it was automatically reprinted and read on that side of America in less than three hours after its leaving the printing press in San Francisco. * * & ‘AN English radio amateur is reported to have been convicted at St. Louis, U.S.,A., of operating an un_licensed radio transmitter. He was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and paroled for deportation, to England as an undesirable alien. Assuming the report to be correct, the sentence appears to be drastic and the deportation unnecessary and insulting. No indicatioh is given, however, of the use he

was making of the transmitter. If he was working with ."bootleggers" or other criminals the matter assumes a very different complexion. . ue ae 4 Rom Victori: has come the ery taht radio bis .dcasting has upset**he seasons, anil that it is responsible for serious droughts in several localities. The Commonweaith Meteorologist, however, promptly dismissed the charge and ceclined to fall’ in with the suge:'s.icn that the wireless stations should le closed down for a month so that au test could be carried out. So broadcasting and droughts seem likely to continue so far as Australia is concerned. g + Ld A580 International Broadcasting Union held its annual assembly recently, and over twenty Enropean nations took part in the discussions. The President revealed that the union represents 830 transmitting . stations serving 223 million households, or a total of about 90 million people. In. addition to its ‘usual work of improv- F ing reception conditions the Union is | to make a special point of endeavour- * ing to assist in the development of ra-dio-dramatie technique, bd m * (CONSIDERABLE interest is being manifest in Hngland in the possibilities of reproducing sound films with tHe aid of radio. A suggested scheme is to supply films for use on the type of projector now becoming quite popular for home use, and to run them in conjunction with plays broadcast in the usual way. The receiver would be operated in the conventional manner, and at the beginning of the broadcast the projector would be started, the result being a home version of the talkies. Due precautions would have to be taken, however, to ensure synchronisation between the actors before the microphone and the listener controlling his. home projector. Ps .® = " A SMALL receiving set has been ‘installed in each of the 1000 cells of the Joliet Prison, Chicago, and conviets are now permitted to listen-in for two hours each day. VjZ'th the first broadcast announcement of sports returns, many convicts wagered their tobaeco rations for weeks ahead, some of them mortgaging a year’s allowance on the results of a baseball game. The installation has already served as a useful medium of contact between the governor and the convicts. When revolt was smouldering over the sudden stoppage of the tobacco ration, the governor spoke to the men in their._ cells on the loudspeaker and pointed out that a consignment of mouldy tobacco was being replaced by a fresh one. Discontent at once died down.