Notes and Comments

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 18, 14 November 1930, Page 11

Notes and Comments

By

SWITCH

" _eneens HE rebroadcast description of the Melbourne Cup was quite creditably performed by station 2YA, Wellington, despite the atmospheric conditions being somewhat unstable. The proof that 2YA did its work well was evidenced by the first-rate description of the race taken down by Mr. Clive Drummond, the announcer, During the news session the account was read out from his notes, which covered the race from start to finish without missing one feature of the running. ? « s "SWITCH" has heard criticism of the procedure adopted by Mr. Hric Welch, who described the running of the Melbourne Cup, in giving a long dissertation of a historical nature on past cup winners when there was s0 much of far more interest spread before him.. A description of the scene Flemington, the thousand and one incidents associated with the few minutes during which the horses are being prepared for the great event, would, according to some critics, have been far more acceptable. LJ * s ‘AN interesting broadcast from Australia will be the production on Thursday, November 20, from station 2BL, Sydney, of the famous play by the CGzecho-Slovakian playwright, Dr. Karel Capek, of "R.U.R." "R.U.R.," though written of course for the stage, is ideal for the microphone. It combines an adventurous plot-a succession of arresting ideas-of a weirdly fjntense atmosphere which from the _ studio is calculated to have tremendous effect on listeners. 2 * cy " U.R." stands for "Rossum’s ; ° Universal Robots." The word "Robot" has passed into the English vocabulary since its invention as "a man so mechanised by routine as to have become almost an automaton." In the play it is the patented trade name of a mechanical workman invented by one Rossum. The original Rossum was a lunatic-a person who tried to _ strive with God jn the manufacture of man. His son, .an engineer and man of business, turned his father’s research into practical account by producing synthetic workmen of a practical design, who were capable of doing more than twice the work of any human being. These factory-produced Robots are men without souls-they have no will power-can neither love nor suffer, After twenty years they wear out and eannot reproduce themselves. Their memories, however, are perfect, and y they are skilled workmen-their only esire in life is work, and continue to ‘ork. The Robot factory is on an Jand in charge of four executives. The manager, who dreams of a world in which man will have everything done for him by Robots; the business manager, who thinks only in terms of huge profit; a physiologist, who has @ scientific interest in the making and improving of these soulless automata; and a chemist, who doubts the wisdom of the invention, "R.U.R." when first presented created a stir throughout Hurope. * * ‘GOOD deal of anxiety among Wellington listeners who operate erystal. sets and the less expensive valve sets is becoming manifest as to the possibility of interference from one of the two stations when the new Wellington "B" class station com-

mences simultaneous transmission with 2YA Wellington. Many owners of sets of the type alluded to will not be able to tune out one station to hear

_the other without also hearing the first. The only solution of the diffieulty is in the use of wave-traps, for which a good demand will be created. ~ * 2 "THOSE listeners who have been in the habit of eavesdropping on the London-Australia public radio-tele-phone service have lately found the conversations unintelligible) A new system has been introduced which mutilates the speech as it leaves the short-wave transmitter, and reassembles at the receiving end, thus ensuring much-desired privacy. * * * TILL further complaints have reached "Switch" with regard to electrical noises in and around the city of Wellington, which are so seriously interfering with broadcast reception of "outside" stations as to prevent the sale of sets. This is a matter which affects the revenue of the P. and T. Department and the Broadcasting Co. The general tendency is to expect the P. and T. Department to clean up the trouble. At the next conference of power boards the matter should be brought forward for consideration of remedial measures, ae x x A WELLINGTON listener who had been using one set of valves for

over 18 months complained to "Switch" that the Australian stations seemed to have "lost their punch" since the mid-winter. He failed to realise that

the normal life of a valve was 1000 hours, and although it would continue to light its efficiency usually dropped considerably. .A new set of valves immediately convinced the said listener that the poorness of reception was due to the use of exhausted valves. = * * HE Sydney "B" station 2UW is arranging to equip an aeroplane to carry out a series of descriptions from the air. Not only will these be given in the afternoons, but a moonlight broadcast from a ’plane hovering over Sydney has been arranged. A description will be given by Mr. Cooper Vines, one of the pilots engaged, who is a wellknown broadcasting artist. * * * O far this spring static has been fairly quiet, but on Tuesday night of last week a veritable tempest raged so that listening to "outside" stations was intolerable. The average beginner is loth to shut down on such a night, but he will save the life of his valves not a little by cutting out longdistance reception when static is severe. 2 * * HE other night there were bad breaks on the land-line connecting 2FC Sydney, and the Ashfield Town Hall, in which Mr. Charles Lawrence was conducting the community singing. For some obscure reason not a little time was lost at 2FC in switching on studio items to fill the gap while the land-line was being rectified. By-the-way, the community singing at the Ashfield Town Hall has reverted to Monday nights, instead of on Thursdays. * 2 A WELLINGTON radio trader informed "Switch" that the latest in de luxe radio sets is a gramophone combination which, besides being a gramophone reproducer, takes a record, on an ordinary blank gramophone dise, of any item received by radio which the listener may desire to record. The operation of recording these items is simplicity itself, and requires only the most elementary instructions.