Our Mail Bag

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 17, 6 November 1931, Page 10

Our Mail Bag

Recognised Mr. Coates. WADING your leading article in your issue dated Friday, 23rd inst., I feel compelled as a disinterested listener to state my personal experience. On Tuesday, 12th inst., I visited friends in Invercargill and asked them to tune in to 2YA for the final community sing. Immediately we heard a speech on unemployment. None of the listeners knew who was speaking, but having once heard the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates speak at the C.T. Club, Dunedin, when he was Premier, I recognised his voice, and I can truly say the reception was perfect and every word of the speech was followed with interest. On my return to Dunedin on the Saturday following, I asked my

wife how she enjoyed the community sing at Wellington, and she informed me it was splendid and. she heard

J. G. Coates speaking and the reception was perfect and distinct. I may also state that this experience took place before we knew anything about the dispute raging between "Grid Bias" and the Broadcasting Company. Further confirmation of the quality of 2YA’s transmission can be summed up in the fact that we listen in here oftener to 2YA than to any other station in New Zealand or Australia, and we hope for many years to come to hear the famous G-o-o-d night call._-

J.N.

F.

(Dunedin).

Perfect Reception. RE attack made by "Grid Bias’ on the Broadcasting Company, we would like to state that the reception of the speech under discussion was received perfectly in our district from station 2YA. We like to see fair play. -‘Plate Current" and "Plate Voltage" (Opunake). "Not Quite Himself." E the controversy about Mr. Coates’s speech, I noted the difference in the voice from his other talks over the air, and I came to the conelusion that it was Mr. Ceates himself who did not seem too familiar with his notes, and probably had bis head down when dictating, and was not facing the mike. I use a crystal with a two-valve amplifier, and sometimes | get cut out altogether for a period. I attribute this to an X-ray station on the Hsplanade, otherwise I have never noted any difference only when the mike has

wanted attention.-

Crystal

(Pe-

tone).

"You Are An Optimist." URELY you are an optimist if you expect a person with the mental calibre of "Grid Bias" to accept your challenge! His bias against the Broadcasting Company is so evident that it would be too much to expect him to accept anything so fair as the challenge you have made him. Perhaps. when he gets a radio set which gives. true And not distorted reception it may’ help him to see things frem a different point of view. A set which disturbs: good transmission must he very trying to the nerves, and it is evident that "Grid Bias" is suffering from _ this: trouble. Instead of being distorterd, the address by the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates was one of the best bits of work ever "put over," as it came through with wonderful clarity and absolute: freedom from fading. ‘The claim by. "Grid Bias" (plenty of "bias’’), that 3YA’s transmission was better than 2YA, shows just what bis opinion is’ worth. I hope there is no truth in the’ suggestion that he will get a position on the Radio Board, aS we want men of wide, and not distorted, vision there or the outlook for radio in the future

--~ will be very bad indeed.-

V. G. Bryan

King

(Dunedin).

Easily Recognizable. HAVE read with interest "Grid Bias’s" version of 2YA’s broadcast of the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates’s speech on unemployment on the 13th inst. I tuned into this station from Onehunga, Auckland, at 8 pm, and continued listening to the community singing programme relayed from the Town Hall till about 10.45 p.m., and am pleased to inform you that the station gave no signs of distortion whatever; ia fact, the whole programme, including the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates’s speech, was very clear and plain. I have heard the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates speak personally on several occasions and, knowing his voice when I hear it, can honestly say that on the night in question his voice was quite familiar and true to tone. In fact, Wellington’s broadcast of it was a great success. As for p "Grid Bias," as he terms himself, saying that the broadcast from 2YA was a fiasco for the speech transmission and irritating, all I can. say is that there must be a defect in his set and he better have-it overhauled by a competent radio mechanic. before he again runs into print and complains that the Broadeasting Company’s plant is defective. If 2YA’s programmes are never worse than the one put over the air on the 13th, I do not think we will have anything to grumble about as far as tone and distortion are concerned. In closing, I wish to state that the set used was not one of the latest, and therefore I consider under these conditions and the distance we are away from Wellington the results were all

the more perfect.-

Neutral

(One-

hunga).