Radio Round the World

Radio Record, Volume X, Issue 5, 14 August 1936, Page 44

Radio Round the World

I a broadcast appeal for help for people in flood areas, an American announcer said: "Get in your automobile. and drive till you have counted fifty homes. Then imagine, if you can, that in one flood alone one thousand times those many homes have been damaged, if not destroyed. " Over the air, survivors told stories of their rescue ;: radio stars gave, their services and made appeals; nation-wide programmes: were interrupted’to put over news about the floods, and the .broadcasters co-operated with the

army to send radio-equipped planes over flooded parts to get news and to direct rescue work. The radio hero of the hour was the amateur operating WSFRC at Johnstown; the people were all up in the hills watching the floods rising on their homes, the telephone lines were down and there was no communication, but the amateur kept going until about 12.30 a.m., when listeners on the 3908-kilocycle emergency band noticed his signals failing and dropping away, But he got on the air again by daylight, and was still there at 2.30 p.m., when a report spread that the Quenmahoning Dam had given

way, and firemen and policemen forced him away. N experimental amateur in Myslowitz (Poland), recently picked up an 8.0.8. call from the Soviet steamer Lozinski, which had been wrecked on a reef near-the island of Sakhalin. The radio operator had sent out calls for sev-. eral days but had received no reply. Pass-. ing the information over to the post office authorities, the amateur secured help from the Soviet authorities with the result that the crew and passengers were rescued within a few hours.