Radio Round the World

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

Radio Round the World

‘A LABAMA appears to be leading all other American States in its enthusiasm for radio. A receiver is now justalled in every courthouse in the State, und the authorities are paying one-third of the cost of all receiving sets installed in schools. , # S * "FoMa recording" is the latest fashion among American listener's. One of the leading manufacturers of that country has marketed a radiogramophone set capable of recording the broadcast programmes as they are received. Recordings of home petrformanees may also be taken. * * x A COMPLETE change will shortly take place in the administration of Norwegian broadcasting, the Government having decided to take over all existing broadcasting stations in order to form a State service. The programmes will be supplied under contract by private companies. + * © puw latest story from America concerns a family of woodpeckers who, it is stated, recently succeeded in stopping the transmissions of a Philadelphia broadcasting station for forty-eight hours. This they accom: plished by drilling a hole through a 100ft, cedar wireless mast three feet thick. Eventually the mast collapsed. * * HHATRE and concert halls in Uruguay are now legally compelled to allow the broadcasting of their performances. Apparently theatre managers who refuse permission will be fined 100 pesos (£20) for each offence! The radio administration will be supported by listeners’ license fees, the annual contribution being about £2. Revenue will al$o be drawn from radio import duties. New Zealand listeners havewt much to complain about, after all. * * " "THe second International Radio BExhibition to be held in Rumania took place between September 7 and 28 last. The object of the exhibition was ta stimulate greater interest in radio, to reveal to those interested the possibilities of radio transmitting and opérating, to collect samples of all the new developments in this branch of science, and to offer occasion to foreign radio industries to: show their products to the thousands of people who visited it. Amateur radio is rapidly becoming universally popular in that country, and the recent exhibition must huve been of in-

tense interest to many. Specialists in the various branches lectured regularly and questions were invited. An interesting feature was the collection of radio journals from all quarters of the globe. . Almost every -journal in {he world had sample copies distributed rd _ "om ‘THROUGH an ingenious scheme, all difficulties encountered in the arrangements to broadcast the 1930 American open golf ‘tournament were successfully overcome. The announcer was equipped with a portable transmitting outfit, which weighed about 20 pounds. It consisted of a transmitter, strapped to his back, and a microphone which rested at the proper elevation on his chest. An assistant trundled the batteries over the course in a perambulator! The aerial consisted of a 10-foot bamboo pole wound with heavy wire and fastened .to the transmitter case. The description was picked up and rebroadcast without delay over two huge networks of stations. , * * * . ? STATION CNRH, Nova Scotia, the latest link in the Canadian National Railways’ broadcasting system, recently broadcast its inaugural programme. The studios are located on the seventh floor of the "Nova Scotian," Halifax’s most luxurious hotel, and are the most scientifically designed yet constructed in Canada. The main studio is forty feet long, twentyfive feet wide, and has a seventeenfoot ceiling. Acoustical material covers the walls. . Microphone outlets are also provided in various public rooms throughout the hotel, providing additional broadcast space. BPfficient lighting is accomplished by indirect floodlights reflecting from the ceiling, giving a weird effect and making the casting of shadows impossible. Temperature is kept constant by thermos-tatie-controlled ventilation, thus gdding to the trueness of instrumen, pad voices. _ we m% * RECENT tax imposed on all public loudspeakers in Vienna has placed the Austrian Government in a perplexing position. Until the imposition loudspeakers were everywhere, in the streets, public halls, and cafes-in fact, they were so popular that Vienna was fast earning the name of the "City of Loudspeakers." Hoping to establish a new source of revenue, the Government introduced the tax previously mentioned, to the great joy of professional.’ musicians, but to the intense chagrin bf the general public, besides wireless manufacturers and amateurs. A public protest has now been organised, and the Government are wondering which would be more profitable: to keep the musicians "on the dole" or repeal the tax.