In Phase and Out

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 47, 3 June 1932, Page 4

In Phase and Out

By

Quadrant

IFFLE. Someone said-and published it too-that the Radio Board was not making progress; that they were hamperéd by laissez faire. I suggest he looks up the word, thinks. and then re-writes his par. 2 s TPIS announced. that Mr. Heigh Ho will be leaving us. I take off my hat to one of the best announcers | have heard, and incidentally one of the best radio personalities. & we ¥ [Tt is surprising what ground does to radio waves. I was taking a portable from. Hataitai to town the other day and was listening to 2ZW en route. , Whilst approaching | the Mount Victoria tunnel signals were normal, but as soon as I got inside they disappeared, and could not be coaxed in. Near the other side they came in again, and as soon as the set was clear of the mouth, they’ were as strong as ever. The intervening hill had made practically no difference on the other side. but when under the earth it is another story. & * 2 WHat is this D.X. Club we bear so much about these days? s * ¥ \ FRIEND of mine-an ardent golfer---was with me, watching the Kirk-Windeyer team in action over the week-end. Someone played a splendid shot, and after he had suitably eulogised it, turned to me. "Tell me, couldn't someone follow these fellows round with a microplone and broadcast their shots? lo mean, Jike this: ‘So-and-so has just played a beautiful drive, but the wind is carrying it over to the bun-ker’---then he could follow up with a dissertation *ou the play. Ut could he made very interesting." A short pause. then, "I'd love to be the one who is doing the announcing." "Wouki you. dear," his wife interrupted, "I think your golf vocabulary would broadcast splendidly." But joking aside, it would be a novel broadcast and, given the right man behind. the microphone, it should go over well. What about trying it one of these days, R.B.? * x s ° "MINUTE radio waves to reach Mars." The efforts to transmit signals beyond the earth have failed owing to the IIeaviside layer. A new 42 centimetre beam may do the trick, . however, according to engineers," says an overseas paper, by way of introduction to its front page story. Well, what if it does? Who is to know and what can it do if it: gets there? — ° . 2B SOUTHERN paper, quoting a ~ northern one, suggested that if a certain "unknown writer in the south" wanted to know if "B" stations were necessary, he should come to Auckland,

a wat IN SS . and not ask foolish questions. I think he missed the point of the questiondon’t you? = Ds y peo you know anyone who has not re newed his license? Pass hith he word that the radio inspectors re hunting out unlicensed sets, and he may find it difficult to explain that he has forgotten to renew. If caught he may have to pay the price of two licenses. % & s Way is it that the Sunday night relays of concerts in the cities are so popular. Is it the artists themselves --most of them broadcast ' fairly re-gularly-is it the arrangement of the items, or is it the atmosphere created by the applause and the unexpected encores? I think it is the last-mentioned feature as much as anything. x % % A SPHAKER on Hmpire Day, in proposing the toast of England, commenced :-"Let’s couple the. future’ of Bngland with the past of Wngland." No. Let us forget the past. We have done too much fighting to make memories of the past pleasant. There has not been a generation that has not known war. The old idea of glory built on the battle field gets but little sympathy with the present generation, who see only the reflected horrors of the last great struggle. And for: this reuson songs tha? fend to extol the virtues of one nation to the detriment of another should be suppressed; at the least not broadeast. Fortunately they do not go over very often. s * =" WAS reading recently where the characteristic sounds of the yarious instruments can be made electrically und have actually been brogdeast. When you think about the comy ition of sound and its relation to eleGFficity there does not appear to be anything very wonderful about the performance, but the possibilities make you wonder. Whither is this thing called radio taking us? & 5 = A RADIO writer recently asserted that the radio trade was in a remarkably healthy condition so far as the turnover of new sets is concerned, and that importers were finding it hard to keep abreast of the demand. Maybe. But is there any money in it? If I know anything about the radio trade, they are up against it with prices cut to the bone as they are, and the high import duties and state of exchange to contend with. Certainly they are busy, but if there is one man. who has my sympathy it is the radio trader. His job is not all that it seems. .