Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 15, 23 October 1931, Unnumbered Page

Radio Round the World

[THE German Government is cousiéering the initiation of a daily | "State" broadeasting hour for the purpose of issuing decrees and acquainting listeners with the home and foreign political situation. | @ bod % JRECENTLY an international athletic meeting between Germany and England took place at Cologne. In -ordet to give listeners as efficient a ~yelay as possible, gramophone recordIngs were taken of the miost interesting portions of the contest, and were broadcist in the evening. a % % HERE are now 612 broadcasting stations in the United States-a snbstantial decrease from the: 733 peak point just before the Federal Radio Commission took over control in February, 1927. Though it is following «a general policy of licensing no more new stations) except in the few remote areas not now receiving good radio service, the commission has authorised eleven new stations since the first of this year. On the other hand, twenty stations have gone off the air since last January. Applications for new broadcasting stations are nevertheless still being received at the rate of about one a day. a th be] T has always been one of England’s proudest claims that its broadcastiug service is second to none, and on many occasions unqualified endorse ment of this claim has come from other countries. The latest tribute to Brilt« tish broadcasting comes from France where a well-known periodical organised a referendum to decide which of the better-known European stations had the best programmes. Under the first heading the London National transmitter secured the most votes out of the huge number that were cust. while Stuttgart-Muhlacker was second, und -Radio Paris third. The highest votes for the best programme were acvorided to the London Regional station. followed by Ikadio Paris and Strassburg in that. order. " _ @ * . R J{BENCH listeners are bewailing the 5 fact that their country possesses no palace of radio like England, CGermany, and other Duropean Powers, The authorities are reminded also that a "suitable model for a_ broadcasting house is being sought in Stockholm; that Oslo has a similar project in viéw; that Vienna is negotiating for the fine buildings belonging to a bank trorecently bankrupt, and ‘that Rome is designing a special home of broadeast‘ing. Considering that France has not yet succeeded in establishing a suitable broadcasting organisation, it seems that house-hunting projects are decidedly premature.

PPRANCE’S radio regulations, hitherto so lax that her stations have been causing serious interference with those of other eountries, are being tightened up by the Postmaster-Gene-ril, who ig granting no more licgpses for new stations. An interesting® development in French broadeasting is the fact that British advertising sponsors have been buying time on French stations in order to reach the Mnglish ttudience, * * Pu U.S. Navy Department has receutly purchased for experimental purposes two THoovenaire sound system units for use in aviation communication. In a receut test at the Lakehurst, Nid. airship station, a communication read from the ground into one of the unifs was heard‘and copied aboard they, ditigible Los ‘Augeles while she was at an altitude of about 3000ft. with engines running. In a second test a speech transmitted into one of the units was heard and copied, in the face of a 20knot counter wind, at a distance of cight miles, A second speech was heard and copied at a distance of eighteen miles with a wind of 20 k& ots in the line of transmission, In the Hoovenaire system the aniplifled microphone currents actuate a novel form of valve which admits more or less compressed uir into the throat of the loudspeaker horn. It is claimed that much less eleetrical amplification of the microphone output is required than for any other public address system. , % ® "THE exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall, London, which was held recently in connection with the Faraday centenary celebrations, illustrate he basic principles and the modern ‘hods which have made _ possible #fich things as broadcasting, radio-telephony and television. The exhibits included illustrations of Faraday’s original experiments, relics of scientific discovery and working models. The radio industry itself was represented at the exhibition by a "co-operative" exhibit staged by the Radio Manufacturers’ Association. The main feature of the display was a series of striking statistics illustrating the growth of the radio industry in the last six years. An annual turnover of no more than £4,000,000 in 1924 was shown to have increased t £20,000,000. in. 1980: Similarly listeners’ licenses in 1924, numbering little more than one-and-a-half millions, was shown to have increased nearly threefold by the end of 1930. Other figures testified to the amazing growth of the industry in the country where much of the pioneer work, from the days of Yaraday onwards, was carried out.