Short-wave News

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 20, 27 November 1931, Page 31

Short-wave News

Johannesburg Short-waver. THE néw short-wave station in Johannésburg, South Africa, trarismits on a wavelength of 49.4 metres. ‘They are on the air between 5 a.m. and 8.30 a.m. every day, and from midnight most days. (N.Z, Summertime.) _ VK2ME, New Schedule. VV K2ME, Sydney, commencing on Sunday, November 29, will transmit their international week-end programmes at the following-N.Z. Summertime: 6 pm, to 8 p.m., 10 p.m. to 2 am., and 2.30 a.m. to 4.30 am. This schedule will operate till further notice, Revised Schedules-W2XAD and ... W2XAF, rae General Electric Company, In., { Schenectady, New York, report the following revised schedules for their short-wave stations :- W2XAF, 31.48 metres-Daily between 10 a.m. and 4:p.m. W2XAD, 19.56 metres-Daily between 7 am. and 10 am. (both N.Z. Summertime). Both stations go on the air at other times for special transmissions. VQi7LO, Nairobi. East African Broadcast Co., Nairobi, Kenya Colony, British Hast Africa, advise that VQ7LO broadcasts on a wavelength of 49.5 metres, with a power of 2} k.w., as follows :-Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 3.30 a.m. to 7 a.m.; Wednesday and Friday, 4 a.m. to 7 a.m.; Tuesdays, 7.80 am. to 830 a.m., and Fridays, 12.30: a.m. to 1.30 a.m. B.B.C. Receivers. AN article’ of general interest. to all radio listeners appeared in a recent issue of "Popular Wireless" (England), describing the receiving apparatus used by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The following is an extract, relating to their short-wave work :- "The engineers make their own apparatus for outside broadcasts, There are some special occasions, such as the Boat Race, when it is quite impossible to use a land line link between the outside broadcast microphone and the control room, Then the radio link is brought into use, and the B.B.C. uses short-wave receivers to pick up the transmissions, which are afterward-passed on by normal land-line to the control room. "At one: time if. was usual to have short-wave super-sets. for this radio link work; but now they have been discarded in.favour of Reinartz sets. The specification will interest. shoriwave enthusiasts. An L.8.5.B. valve is ed, a8 the detector with anode-bend The tuning condenser is of \0002 capacity and by means of an an iron-cored. choke, a .56 mfd. coupling condenser and an ordinary L.F. transformer, the detector is coupled to the following low-frequency stages. With a receiver of this kind the B.B.C. "A" amplifier, a four-valver having resistancecoupled stages and embodying a tone control, is used. The output of this is more than sufficient for the Jand-lines through to the control room and this gives a latitude should it be necessary to shift the tone to suit the characteristics of the

line. Wor instance, if any particular line does not transmit bass well, the tone ‘s shifted in just the same way that a tone control is varied in a radio-gramophone, and the tone is shifted up at one end of the line and down at the other. In this way low-note distortion is prevented. Power for the amplifiers and the detector stage is provided by means of a bank of accumulators. The B.B.C. still relies on large-capacity accumulators for high tension, low tension, and grid bias, and although these are rather cumbersome, provision is made in the O.B. van (outside broadcast) for’ accumulator-fed supplies for each circuit," VK6AG, Perth. NE of the "Night Owls" heard VK6AG one morning during the past week on about 41.5 metres, between 3 a.m. and 3.80 a.m., at good volume. Mr. W. EH. Coxon, the operator of this station, is the engineer in charge of the "A" class broadcast station at Perth, and fills in his spare time at his own station. The writer used to hear him often about four years ago on 82.9 metres, when records were often heard, before midnight, at good strength.