A Thoughful Gift

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 15, 24 October 1930, Page 5

A Thoughful Gift

THE. successful efforts of Aunt Hila (editor of the Christchurch "Star’s" children’s page) and the little members of the Circle has resulted in the purchase and installation of a small all-electric radio receiver for the entertainment of the convalescent child patients at the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Burwood. The funds available did not admit of the purchase of other than a small set and, as children in hospital are early abed, there was no need to consider the reception of any other than local broadcasts. For this reason and, in order that the hospital staff should have as little trouble as possible with the care and maintenance of the receiver, it was decided that a little two-valve A.C. set of British make would fill the bill. The receiver is installed in one of the dining-rooms, an indoor antenna zigzagged across the room furnishing the aerial pickup. . The set is "earthed" by battery-clip to the iron firegrate. These makeshift arrangements were necessitated by the impossibility of installing a regular outdoor aerial and earth. However, 2 test made by ‘"Aerial,’? radio editor of the "Star," showed that, despite the distance from 3YA and the deficiencies of the installation, good loudspeaker reception of 3YA’s afternoon session was possible. : The official opening -of the insta!lation took place last week. Well. wrapped up in blankets and reclining on comfortable armchairs, to which they had been carried by the hospital nurses, the "early-to-bed" children of the hospital listened, in company with* a number of other children for whom early retirement was not compulsory, to Aunt Hilda, of the "Star," officially "open" the "Star" Circle’s radio gift to the hospital children. : At 5.45 p.m. Aunt Hilda’s cheerful "Hello, children," was heard from the loudspeaker in the hospital children’s dining-room. Aunt Hilda was speaking from 3YA and, possessing a good’ radio voice, her every word was heard clearly and distinctly. After declaring the set "open," Aunt Hilda delighted her listeners with some up-to-date fairy tales, the moral of one--that it is not’wise for children to meddle with wireless sets-not being lost on her hearers!