Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 11, 26 September 1930, Page 9

Notes and Comments

By

SWITCH

HE amazing strides in the popularity of broadeast listening in New Zealand since the inauguration of the service provided by the "YA" stations can be realised best by those who were listeners six or seven years ago. To own a wireless set in those days was generally regarded as a highly scientific departure, and the operation of a set was considered as quite an expert achievement. "Switch" recalls the fact, too, that in those days tuning a set did call for not a little tuition and practice. Radio salesmen had to rx] Ne

devote a good deal of time in instruciing purchasers in the art of tuning. How fortunate now are both the salesman and the purchaser in having the modern A.C. set with its simple singledial control at their disposal. And yet only recently the writer met a beginner who had genuinely held alocuf from radio as he understood that expert knowledge was necessary to operate a set. ° * 2 NLY recently a gentleman approached "Switch" for information as to what. he believed to be the difficulty in installing an A.C. set. He had visions of a multiplicity of meters, switches, chokes, variable condensers, ete., but it transpired that he had been reading a radio technical paper as ai introduction to his embarkation on the sea of radio. He resided out of town, and seldom came into the: city. A visit to various radio shops, at thé suggestion of the writer, proved a revelation.

N announcement has been made ¢3 the effect that in December the Melbourne yacht Oimara will engage in a challenge race across the Tasman with a New Zealand yacht. The Oimara won the yacht race across Bass Strait (between Victoria and Tasmania) last season. Her skipper, Mr. F. J. Bennell, recently spoke from 8LO, Melbourne, of the difficulties which attend the running of a yacht in such a race. The proposed race across the Tasman Sea would prove an incomparably more difficult problem both for the yachtsmen and the yacht, and would establish a‘ world’s — record race for that type of yacht. me = we REG. HAWTHORNHE, the vaudevilie performer, who is reported to have made his initial broadcast appearance at 4YA, Dunedin, about the time of that station’s inception, was heard from 2FC, Sydney, on a recent Saturday night. He will be remembered as a regular performer on the New Zealand vaudeville circuit’ in assoCciation with that popular comedian, Jim Gerald. : % % Bd HE Western Australian A class station, 6WF, Perth, has been steadily increasing in volume lately. On almost any evening 6WIF can be received with sufficient loudspeaker strength to afford entertainment from 11.30 p.m. onward. The distance that separates Perth fron Wellington will be better appreciated . when it is realised that Perth is 33 hours behind Wellington. Therefore at 11.80 p.m., N.Z. time, 6WF, Perth, is just commencing its 8 o’clock evening session. The actual straight-line distance between Perth and Wellington is 8300 miles, approximately. a x aa WELLINGTON listener, who has several years’ radio experience, expressed the opinion to "Switch" recently that the extraneous electrical. noises which infest the air in and around the city of Wellington are frequently due to cheap household electric lighting switches. He stated that he has inspected some of these switches in domestic use, and has found that when not turned on properly they emit electrical interference with broadcast listening. The switches are just making sufficient contact to light the electric bulb in the rooms, but when examined earefully there is found to be a minute sizzling which can be heard on a radio set a fair distance away.