RADIO Round the World

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 48, 10 June 1932, Unnumbered Page

RADIO Round the World

OME’S new "radio palace," with its eight ..underground" studios, was opened last April. Like the new B.B.C. brijdings in Portland Place, London, the Italian headquarters of broadcasting incorporates a_ television ‘studio from which. tests are shortly to be mae on a wavelength of SO metres. 2. sd INLAND has grown tired of listening to propaganda -talks in Finnish transmitted by ‘the Leningrad Soviet station. and is now considering the erection of a high-powered broadcasting station with which to drown the signals with a flood of conttadictions in Russian. r * * "BUSINESS Without Ballyhoo" is the slogan adopted for America’s annual radio trade show, Scheduled to be held in Chicago from May 23 to 26. The show is being held earlier than usual to prepare dealers for the ‘anticipated boost in radio sales: resulting from the political broadeasts at election time.

SPECIAL long-wave transmitter is * under erection by the French Navy at Toulon. for communication with submerged submarines. Repeated experiments have shown. that shortwaves refuse to penetrate the ocean depths, and for this reason. the new station will work on wavelengths up to 15,000 metres. . . mR * HOUGH nearly £17,000 been expended by the Canadian National Railways for experiments and expenses in installing a train telephone: service employing "wired wireless," the ‘average monthly revenue from this service "for the twelve months ending April 30 last wiis less than £15. The trajif phone is installed only on the Intérnational Limited running between oronto and Montreal, but calls can be put: through on it for almost any part .0 of the U nited States and Canade. eg : * * ° . ‘AN English contemporary gives the following particulars concerning the projected "radio palace’ at Moscow. The palace will oceupy a large site in the Place Miousky and will contain thirty-six studios, serving thirteen transmitters. Vive specialists have ‘already left Moscow on a world tour to examine the. broadcasting puildings of London, New York, Berlin and other capitals. The Russians have evidently learnt the value of proceeding slowly and profiting by other ‘people’s mistakes. © » * INES amounting to £1933 in addition to costs totalling £240 were obtained during 1981 in 1042 prosecutions against unlicensed wireless listeners in England. In the House of Commons recently, Sir Kingsley Wood, the Postmaster-General, stated that

-Heenses had risen by about 544,000 since September 30 last, and: he considered that the greater part of this inerease might be fairly attributed to the Post Office campaign. . . .* % * ANCHESTER will be the first city in Britain to have its own airport equipped with a radio telegraph and radio telephone station, equipped with direction finding apparatus. A site for the stations has already been chosen at the Manchester Municipal Aerodrome, and constructional work will commence almost immediately. . = = * . ARGENTINE listeners purchase their sets chiefly throngh an electric power company, which sells them on an instalment basis. There are 45 stations in the country, and 20 of these are in Buenos Aires. Latest reports reveal that there are 400,000 radios in the Argentine. No license fee is charged, but sets must he registered. om a a

‘BROADCASTING engineers in Ameica are heaving a sigh of relief over the abolition of the rule requiring a continuous watch for SOS messages from ships at sea. the listening watch on 500 metres. the distress waveJength. was required as an additional safeguard to navigation, each station having an extra receiyar tuned to that wave at all hours. In many cases sfations were required to close down immediafely ‘an SOS call wis heard. Lately such calls have been picked up from far awhy places, to the ‘great inconyeniencé of stations and their audierices. ‘The coasts, it is believed, are now adequately safeguarded without, any watch by. broadeitsters. ms * a LATEST statistics show that on De- ~ cember 31, 1931, there were 548,342 licensed radio sets in Cariatla, which is about tavice-the number recorded in 1929, This works out roughly to one sec for every four homes. As to 1Individual towns; Toronto. heads the list with 75,240, Montreal is second with 68.150, and’ Vancotiver third with QT TA. ; z .* mt ERMANY’S broadcasting budget foy 1982 shows a total of SS.S million marks. Of this huge sum, three millions go to the German Treasury, & further ten millions will be used by the Post Officé to cover (eficits in other departments, in. addition to 10 per cent. deducted for the cost of collection, so that broadcasting will actually absorb 68 million marks.. On the same financial reckoning, British broadcasting absorbed only 24 million marks. in 1930. German broadeasting costs are treble those in Pngland, and thus it can easily be seen why German listeners pay approximately twenty-five shillings for their licenses. The English fee is ten shillings. Perhaps the fact that Ger-

many has ten broadcasting companies and three independent broadéast 'research laboratories, apart from those "of the big firms, explains why Germany can spend only 17 million marks on the actaal programmes. . = PROADCASTING seems to be af greater value to the gramophone ‘companies than was originally though by the German firms which recently "declared war’ on the broadcasting authorities. The war is now at an end, contracts having been ‘signed whereby the broadcasters, while winning permission to use gramophone: ‘records, undertake to restrict: the practice to sixty hours per month.: ‘The gramophone industry will supply the stations with records free of charge, but the agreement decrees that, the broadeasters must pay for postage and packing. *. HE Waldorf-Astoria’ Hotel, New York, has equipped its 2000 rooms with loudspeakers, from which, as desired. the guests may receive six dil-. ferent programmes. These are fed from a central panel connected to a number of receiving instruments and == amplifiers. The hotel is inked ‘up with three city transmitters, to which a relay ean be made of any interesting event and rebroadcast for the benefit of the American Hstening puplic. 2 x * ARISIAN radio enthusiasts have lodged protests in regard to the power of the Hiffel Tower and Radio Paris broadeasts, which prevent in that city reception of foreign transmissions. Some 1500 ° wireless listeners recently petitioned the French Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs with the request that on one week day these stations should remain silent in order to allow owners of modest receiyers to listen to entertainments from abroad. " ‘ Po Fe RTHER development of the Spanish broadcasting system has beén hampered by the lack of funds at the disposal of the programme organisers, Subsidies originally voted by the State fo rthe installation of new stutions have been diverted by the Goyernment: fo "mere trgent purposes, but Spanish. listeners have been . assured that a start will shortly be made on the construction of a 60-kilowatt transmitter in the neighbourhood of Madrid. According to a French contemporary, a rumour is current to the effect that the State may take over all existing stations. ; * ie 2 HE recent award of 50,000 francs by the Paris ‘fribunal of Commerce to a wireless trader: whose set denonstrations were spoiled by a neighbor's luminous sign, and ‘the order to hove the source of the evil removed, have unleashed some ‘angry protests by European newspapers, * "Excelsior," a daily, asks whether ‘the wireless amateurs will obtain the right "to suppress all the ni: ignetos of, the universe." Another daily considers the judgment "odious," and puts forward this argument: "If the plaintiff had been a fish dealer and the defendant a perfumer, could the former have been able to prevent the Jaiter installing fragrant essences and pomades on his frontage, on the ground that the odour of the perfume would have overwhelmed that of the cod and other fish on the neighbours’ stalls?" We suggest a practical test, a