Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 39, 10 April 1931, Page 8

Radio Round the World

relieve the slump in the wine industry, the Italian broadcasting uthorities are granting free advertising periods in the programmes to wine merchants. 2 & * ; HE Austrian postal authorities an- . nounce that wireless listeners who fail to take out or renew licenses are liable to a fine of £14 or one month’s imprisonment, e & bd (GREAT BRITAIN was’ Germany’s best "wireless" customer during 1930, taking radio, telegraphic, and telephonic equipment to the value of nearly £570,000. Ld * * QWING to the prevalence of alleged anti-Soviet wireless transmissions the Russian Government has issued orders prohibiting the use of receiving sets within eighty miles of the Soviet frontier unless a special permit is obained,

R.. LEE DE FOREST recently received congratulations on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his inyention of the three-electrode, valve. The first valve containing a grid, or third electrode, saw the light of day early in 1906. * * * "[HH North Monaghan (Ontario) Council has decided that the possession of a wireless set will debar a ‘resident of that municipality from particpating in the unemployment relie? scheme. A rather novel test of solvency. : : "MINE St. Louis police department re-. .~™ cently changed its broadcasting apparatus because officials suspected that ambulance-chasing lawyers were listen-ing-in and beating the radio patrol cars to accidents," states the "California Broadcaster."

OUDSPEAKERS for traffie control purposes are now carried on the police patrol cars in use at Perth, The wireless system includes a. two-kilo-watt transmitter at headquarters, capable of communicating with any radio car in the police zone. ad * 2 BARTHELEMY, a French television experimenter, claims -to have perfected a system of colour television which excels anything achieved in other countries. Not only can facial features be reproduced distinctly, but entire scenes can be transmitted and received by radio. : | ; TALY is to provide American listeners with a weekly musical programme, according to an arrangement entered into by the American National Broadcasting Company and the Italian broadcasting organisation. The concerts will be transmitted every Sunday evening from the Rome station, now operating on 25.4 metres. ‘ s * " MAYORS, school teachers, and parish priests are. among the enthusiasts in France who are petitioning for the ‘establishment of a body to be called "The Pioneers of Radio." Its function would be to supply each village community with an experienced representative capable of doctoring wireless gets and giving much-needed advice. e a s DUCATIONISTS, financiers, statesmen, churchmen, and women’s leaders have stepped forward spon-

taneously to form the Canadian Radio League, which has been created with the object of urging the nationalisation of broadcasting in Canada at the earliest possible date. The proposed scheme would be financed by an increase in the existing license fee of one dollar per annum and by. Provincial and Federal grants, * * x HE police of Colorado (U.S.) and surrounding States have enlisted the services of radio station KOA, most powerful broadcasting medium in

the inter-mountain region, in their fight against crime.-In daily broadcasts direct from Denver police headquarters, sheriffs and police in all parts of the region are given last-min-ute information on important crimes, * * * ADAME LERICHH, a resident of Douai, France, was recently fined £4 and costs for using an electricallyoperated gramophone which interfered with the radio reception of her neighbour, She contested the judgment before the local Appeal Court, but lost her appeal, and was accorded eight days in which to render. her gramophone "electrically silent." French listeners greeted this judgment as a final ruling on the subject of electrical interference. * * * "THERE are a mere 24,000,000 broadcast receivers in use in the world, according to Mr, Lawrence D, Batson, of the electrical equipment division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, who has just prepared a remarkable survey of the world’s radio markets. One of Mr. Batson’s, calculations is that it would reauire 380 million sets to equip all the homes in the world that are within constant listening range of

broadcasting. stations, a statement. which should encourage the radio trade, * LJ * R. BAIRD, the inventor of the Baird system of television, in a recent interview prophesied that in 1931 improved, cheaper, and portable televisor sets will ‘be produced, movying pictures of speakers and actors will be transmitted, and stage plays may be televised complete, * * & "THOUSANDS of American amateurs acted as observers for the U:S. Army Signal Corps recently when an Army Fokker’ plane equipped with a special short-wave transmitter carried * out. a round trip by way of Nashville and Louisville to Montgomery, Alabama. Throughout the flight t i mission from the plane was maintained on a wavelength of 85.7 metres, and it was the duty of amateurs appointed by the American Radio Relay League to compile a log. of all messages received en route, with particulars of signal strength and fading. x & * HE U.S. Department of "Commerce issues some remarkable figures showing the debt of the metal market to'radio, In the States more than three million sets are made annually, for which steel, the metal most. widely used, is. consumed to the extent of 110,000 tons; ‘more than 1600 tons of this is in the form ‘of nuts, screws and washers, the rest in bar and strip, Copper is taken to.the amount off 12,000 tons; aluminium, 4000 tons; tin; 1800 tons; nickel, 1500 tons; and zine, 1200 tons. * = s HE American Association of Scientists at one of their recent meetings was informed by a speaker that the planets Mereury and Venus are sometimes responsible for poor reception. It was maintained that at certain periods of the year these planets affect the sun electrically, producing sunspots. These in turn cause elec- — trical storms on ‘the’ earth, thus inter--fering with radio reception. | According to the speaker, the moon also has an unfavourable effect on reception. conditions, more especially when ‘it is overhead. * * A. RESOLUTION in favour of #ye compulsory «"‘corking" of all wiirejess aerials to protect pigeons was passed unanimously at a meeting of the General Council of the National Union of Short-distance, Flyers, held in Manchester early this year. The resolution ran: "That the union reiterate its demand for it to be made compulsory for all wireless aerials to be corked, as the mortality of sporting pigeons is heayily increasing owing to the large number of aerials that have been erected and are likely to be erected on account of the opening of the regional stations, which would bring back into favour the crystal receiver."

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