Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 23, 19 December 1930, Unnumbered Page

Radio Round the World

TA LONDON amateur recently made radio history by picking up a tele vision transmission from America. He was using a six-yalve shortwave set of his own design, and was not searching for. television transmissions.at the time. However, on. hearing the characteristic television note, he decided to investigate it, and finally could dis--tinguish the head and, shoulders of a man. , The picture was distor ted, but movements could.be' plainly seen.. a me, = FFOURTEEN. American broadcasting stations now use or have been auPhorised to use-the maximum power of

50 kilowatts, and twenty-seven others are applying for the privilege. During the coming three’ months the ‘Wederal Radio’ Commission will have to consider more than 300 applications for changes of station ownership, wayelength and power. It is predicted that most of the applications will be summarily refused, owing, to the tremendous amount of congestion already prevailing. The present basis of private ownership in America, remarks: a contemporary, is probably responsible for the fact that the Federal Radio Commission is a much more harassed body than the Union Internationale de

Radiofusion, although the ‘ater controls all the. broadcasting stations of Hurope! . * a a

JT ‘has been estimated that before next. March there will be over 600,000 receiving sets in use in Canada. The licensed receivers, which experience reveals to be only only about 80 per cent.. of the sets actually in use, are placed at 500,000.. Gradually, however; the delinquents are paying. ~ * x 2 T was reported in the Hnglish Press recently that a scientist had declared that in about a hundred. years’ time it should be possible to pick up wireless programmes now being broadcast. We wonder what will become of the "dissatisfieds" of Mailbag fame. x a * ENATOR MARCONI, in an interview published by an MHnglish newspaper, made the following interesting prophecies concerning television .- "Television is still in the experimental! stage, but in the next decade I think you will find that it will be installed in as many homes -as now have wireless sets. Television and wireless will bring the world to the cottage parlour. Wireless has speeded up life; it will speed it up still more when we are complete masters of the ether. This is not yet the case, but in ten years we shall be approaching complete control." x Ba * ALKIB projectors incorporated in radio-gramophone sets are scheduled for appearance on the American market this winter. Prices, it is stated, will be less than £40 for the complete instruments. The gramophone section will be provided with a switch connecting the amplifying system to the film projector. Under a rental system, records will be available to purchasers, together with synchronised films, which will be similar to the silent variety, being 16 mm. in width and 400ft. in length per reel. Home talkie recorders will also be produced.

s ¥ HH Sultan of Morocco is keenly interested iu radio and spends many hours in his palace at Rabat listening-in. During a recent visit to France he bought a very fine wireless set, but he was unable to take this back with him as the constructor wanted to make some final adjustments to ensure that for such an important client the set was in perfect order, At the conclusion of the tests the set was dispatched to the Sultan by special aeroplane.

[HH difficulties which beset a broadcasting station operating in the tropics are legion. High, tension dry batteries are useless in the humid conditions after a few weeks of life, while transformer coils, chokes and loudspeakers develop faults with annoying frequency. Often the water supply for cooling the transmitting valves }ecomes perilously low; while in extrema cases it is found necessary to dis a tinue’ transmission. ‘In:sotie countrs, for example, Ceylon, the prolific insect life sometimes causes trouble, Flying ‘ants at certain periods of the year invade the station in. myriads, forming a dense cloud around the glowing valves and occasionally causing damage . by short-circuiting the 6000 volt hightension’ supply. . * * A NEW .weather information sérvice in the form of charts which will be sent by radio is shortly to be introduced on trans-Atlantic liners. Such charts will reveal high and low pressure, barometer and readings, ‘direction of winds, fog banks, and other information -valuable in Arrarsements have already been made for two charts to be issued daily from London and New York. The London charts. ‘will be the guidance of vessels: from the United States to:Hurope, and: the New York charts will be transmitted to ships sailing from. Hamburg, Southampton, and Cherbourg. An endeavour is also being made to develop the service so as to permit of the reception in mid-ocean -of replicas of newspaper pages published in London and New York during the voyage. \HE official: in charge of the shortwave commercial services at Rugby, in England, are contemplating a supplementary transmitter for communicatifig. with Japan. These experiments are being made with a view to establishing a public service between the two countries. Arrangements have already been ehtered into between the Japanese Minister and the P. and T. Department.