World Radio News

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 33, 24 February 1933, Unnumbered Page

World Radio News

H® Lisbon Municipal :Council has passed a resolution to the effect that electric signs within the city area will be licensed only if provided with suitable filters to prevent interference with radio reception. The Portuguese Radio Club is endeavouring to have the order extended to cover all forms of man-made static, = a bad FISTIMATES show that throughout 1981 there were in use between thirty-three and . thirty-four million radio receivers. Nearly seventeen million were in North America, one million in South America, seventeen millions in Europe, one million in Asia, half a million in Oceania, and fewer than one hundred thousand in Africa. e Bere ON : "HE little country of.Denmark has 475,000 licensed listeners. Nearly one-half of these possess crystal sets. % S g RADIO-TOULOUSE, in search of new surprise features for its programmes, recently asked for suggestions. One listener immediately wrote _ suggesting that it would be a surprise ~ if the station transmitted a programme "totally different from that announc-°-3 "t rr er nr RECENTLY an engineer working on a 2 kilowatt seven-metre television transmitter on the top of the Empire State building in New York, felt his finger becoming hot. Investigation showed that his ring was picking up enough energy to generate eddy currents, ! 2 bd a. (QUITE recently currents generated by the thermionic valve, having a frequency of over ten million. cycles 2 second, have been used in the treatment of certain forms of disease. The "cure’ consists of an exposure sufficient to raise the temperature to 104 degrees or even 105 degrees, producing beneficial results without causing any harmful symptoms. R 2 Fa) [NX order to symbolise the industrial characteristics of the "Plan," the All-Russia Soviet Government has deereed that every broadcasting station in the country shall use the same opening and interval signal, namely, the sound of a hammer striking an anvil. Some of the stations were endeavouring to use the ether for purely cultural purposes, but the Soviet stepped in and demanded the continued _ reminder of manual foil. bd NEW "miracle valve," designed to eliminate atmospherics, was (emonstrated zecently by the superinten(dent of the radio research station, Mr. I. Watson Watt, at the Imperial Institute. The valve will also register storms and lightning flashes within a radius of 8000 miles. thus permitting accurate weather forecasting and safer Jong-distance flying. as well as recording a speed of 100,000,000 miles per hour and 25,000,000 oscillations per second, * % * T is claimed that the largest twelve- " word telegram ever sent by the sritish Post Office read: "Administrator General's counter-revolutionary intercommunications uncircumstantiated. Quartermaster General’s disproportionableness characteristically con(Continued in col, 4.)

tradistinguished unconstitutionalists incomprehensibilities.," This was sent in a contest for the longest wire that could be sent for sixpence-the address excluded. Hams should try it out! + a = A NUMBER of Hungarian opera singers recently went on strike, refusing to take part in performances which were to be broadcast, The reason given was their salaries had been reduced to meet economic conditions and no extra payment was made when the microphone was installed in the theatre. ae Fs EA] IX Morse transmissions the number of letters comprised in the call are a sure indication of the class of station operating. Three-letter call signs are allotted to fixed or land stations, four letters to ships, five letters to aireraft services, and combination of a one; letter or two-letter nationality prefi followed by a numeral, and up to thy letters, are used by amateur or experimental transmitters. = ms = K PKA, the pioneer broadcasting station of the United States, put over 23,000 programmes in 1931, the studio officials during the period receiving 435,000 letters. To operate this sttion for the twelve months, half a million dollars were expended, of which one-fifth was paid as fees to artists. Opened on November 2, 1920, the stition has not missed a single day of broadcasting. a % % N Britain plays are censored by the Lord Chamberlain, films by the Board of Film Censors (which includes in ‘its annual lists of censorable subjects "bleeding from the mouth" and "clergymen in. equivocal situations"). The B.B.C. is its own censor. ‘The Postmaster-General, however, has the power to-request the B.B.C. to refrain from hroadcasting any material of which he does not approve. This is seldom exercised, however, for the B.B.C, is a strict censor of its own programmes. Blue pencils flicker over talks, manuscripts, plays, and comedians’ patter. Chief subjects of censorship include advertisement of proprietary articles, explanatory use of the name of the Creator, propaganda for private interests, and opinions ranging from the gratuitously offensive to ihe definitely libellous. ™ » = N Belgium, where a listening tax is now strictly enforced, the police are taking drastic steps for the discovery and punishment of radio jury ates. It is estimated that in alone there are more than 8000 persof possessing sets without official permits. A house to house search in Liege wis conducted recently, and resulted in a _ large number of receivers being confiscated. Dealers are concerned with "the measure the authorities propose in disposing of the big stock aequired hy confiscation. * a mw ROM time to time Leningrad and Moscow carry out a relay of foreign broadeasts, but if during such a tour through the ether the engineers come across a2 dance music transmission, they are compelled by the Soviet authorities to switch on to some other programme. Waltzes, polkas and kindred steps are tolerated to a small degree, but such post-war dances as fox-trots, rumba and black-bottoms are drastically vetoed. In the opinion of: the Bolshevik, they constitute a symbol of the decadencé of the moneyed classes,