POPULAR INTEREST IN SHORT-WAVE RECEPTION.

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 34, 6 March 1931, Page 4

POPULAR INTEREST IN SHORT-WAVE RECEPTION.

E interest in the short-wave side of radio is steadily expanding, and at the present time there aré literally hundreds of enthusiasts in this field throughout the Dominion who habitually. search the ether for direct contact with the short-wave broadcasting: stations in the United States, the Continent of Europe and Britain. At the moment the best reception is naturally recorded from the United States, with PCJ (of Holland) a good second. In the summer months the present British station is not heard with sufficient clarity and volume to make’ reception attractive, but improvement is always effected in the winter months. The growing interest in this field indicates that a very hearty welcome will be accorded the big British short-wave broadcasting station that is contemplated, when it does come on the air. Plans are in prospect for this station to be made of outstanding character and quality. It will be quite in accordance with British tradition to be perhaps a little late in entering the field, but listeners can be assured that when the station does appear it will take first rank for service in the fields of power, quality and nature of transmission. [T is pleasing to see this growing interest in overseas reception. This is the one field in which radio can render a most distinct service. Tnternal broadcasts of a musical and entertaining character are, of -rourse, highly valuable, and popular. At the same time New Zealand, hecause of its very isolation, feels the need of contact with overseas countries, and the lure of direct contact by radio is very real. The enthusiasts now in the field derive a very great deal of enjoyment, entertainment and culture from.their pursuit of short-wave radio veception. Time undoubtedly carries in its bosom the certainty of steady improvement in the services to be made available, and in accordance with our close family contact with Great Britain the joy derivable from short-wave reception will be intensified when the British broadcasting station comes into: being. Under present conditions the benefit is individual rather than collective, but as the power put into overseas stations increases and the quality of reception improves, it may. be taken for certain that an increasing number of broadcasts of important occasions will be picked up by the main YA

stations and rebroadcast for the general body of listeners’ in the Dominion. At the last Imperial Conference, plans were discussed for the proposed big station in Britain. It was candidly stated, of course, that prosecution of those plans was dependent upon the economic position, That is understandable, but with the’ lightening of the genéral depression, progress in this field will be rapid. Miisiiiinisininnenniiniiem iene enimiilsnmiminsn illnesses nn