Radio Round the World

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

Radio Round the World

Wavelets yy the village of Vaud, in Switzerland, the authoritics have forbidden the use of loudspeakers after 10 p.m., in public places and private homes. The Danish short-wave station of Lyngby re-transmits the programmes of Copenhagen on 31.6 metres after 7 a.m. (N.Z. time). The new Swedish station at Spanga transmits on 135 metres, with a power of 60 kilowatts. A. gramophone record the size of 4 half-crown is being exhibited at Berlin. In Sardinia a station has been constructed to operate on 10 metres. It will keep that island in contact with the mainland. ¥ cd = AN inventor has constructed a clock the regulation of which is con: trolled by a piezo-electric crystal, giying it a precision only attained by the famous timepicces of astronomers. After a trial of several weeks it was one-millionth of a second vut. e z i) YHE Duteh Minister has issued instructions concerning politics in transmissions. The programme must exclude anything that is likely to miiitate against the opinions of listeners, and in particular those of a political eharacter. It authorises news conceruing religious conferences, with the exception of anything calculated to cause strife. Programmes are to be given to suit the general listeners, s bod a Ty Germany a type of rad*» valve in the form of a flat conta.aer, somewhat resembling a tube of tooth paste. is being produced. The grid is not inside the yalve, but is in the form of a metal layer on the outside of the glass. It is made at lower cost than the ordinary valves and operates as cfficienily. * cad * [THIS year’s Radio Show at Olyinpia, England, is being regurded as a Celebration Exhibition to mark the tenth anniversary of the first pregramme broadeust in that country. It was in 1920 that Dame Nellie Melba’s yoice was heard by a small band of listeners who tuned in the Marconi transmitter at Chelumsford. Yhe National Radio Wyxhibition, which was held from September 19 to 27, was the largest and most complete ever beld in the Empire, i us Ld Nov for a moment is it to be believed that the valve has reached the peak of development.. It is revealed that the chief engineer of the De Forest Radio Company has invented a new form in which the grid is caused to rotate by the impact of the electron stream from the filament, something like the Crookes "radiometer," in’ which four. vanes are. notated by, light energy. This new-old

idea appears to present interesting possibilities.and we shall watch elosely for its emergence in the form of a finished instrument. One claim made for the revolving grid device is that it can, be used as a frequency changer. } am * * A (THE provision of wireless on the ‘Thames police-motor-launches is ‘an interesting project now being consider-ed-at Scotland Yard,, The boats:so {itted would. carry out patrol work in ie saine manner as the -wireless-equipped vans of the Flying Squad on land. * e a O go to gaol in absolute ignorance of _ . the wireless art and to emerge a fully fledged "amateur" is now a happy -bossibility in Russia. The Soviet Goyernment has come to the conclusion that ‘the study of radio is one of the best means of improving a prisoner’s morals, It has been found that courses in eleetricity and wireless develop.a new mentality among prison students, many .of whom, it is. declared, have turned over a vew leaf -ou returning to civil life by¢ taking up radio as a profession. % ~ oR * ¢{SOMMENDING ‘Wireless as. offering promising careers for young men, a writer in a technicul college handbook iu Hull, England, remarks: "It is only 35 years since Nenatore Marconi filed his application for the first British wireless patent. On the screen, in the ‘talkies,’ in the work of shipping, in world communication through the great ‘beam’ stations, as, well as in factories and Workshops which produce and sell the miauifold broadcasting and receiving sets, careers have been opened up for thousands of able young men whose talents might otherwise have run to Waste but for this invention." i * x % 7m At the request of the International Broadcasting Union, the British Broadcasting Corporation has recently ° adopted, in common with other bigedeasting orgauisations, -a new ing. The actual power of all B.B.C. statious remains the same as before, though the method of computing the power rating is changed to comply wifb the new international definition. In the past different broadcasting organisatious have used different methods, The new system: of computing the power of a broadcasting station takes aceount of modulation, which the method formerly used in. England-did not. m mn s ' A LONDON motorist has fitted a public address system ou his car to re-3" place the horn. Duriug recent tests he was. able to "direct"? pedestrians -to sufety at a distance of 800 yards. The idea has its disadvantages, for if every car were so fitted, a busy thoroughfare would become a veritable. ‘Tower: of Babel, | an yo)