RADIO DISPLAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 257, 30 October 1929, Page 16

RADIO DISPLAY.

A COMPREHENSIVE SHOW

BROADCASTING FROM STAGE.

WORLD-WIDE RADIO IN

OPERATION.

OFFICIAL OPENING TO-NIGHT

All was bustle, yet orderly bustle, at the Town Hall throughout last night, with gangs of workmen and exhibitors erecting and arranging the stalls and fittings for to-night's official opening of the Auckland Radio Exhibition. By land-line from Wellington- this evening, the Postmaster-General will declare the big show open, and then for an evening's interest and entertainment there will be ample to fascinate all who have even the slightest interest in broadcasting. Last night the stage of the Town Hall was being converted into a replica of the studio at IYA. Artistic drapings were hung to deaden the echo, just as they are hung in the broadcasting concert chamber, and this morning were added the carpets and furnishings that give radio performers the required drawing room "atmosphere." Nightly, on the stage, will be presented portions of the broadcast programmes sent out from IYA, and visitors, between doing the rounds- of the exhibits, will be able to occupy seats in the galleries, enjoy the items presented and see just how they are put on the air, announcements and all. At fixed times there will be direct transmissions from IYA, and these will givo the demonstrators their opportunity. Baby aerials have been strung on several of the stalls, but the modern set is so sensitive that for local reception an aerial is not a necessity.

Of the latest in radio receivers there are to* be displayed numerous make:; and types, and while, these will attract those who are fascinated by broadcasting, there are provided other exhibits of widest general interest.' Among these is an experimental televisor, the apparatus which some day will bring both the voice and the moving picture into any home. With it will be,, shown that wizard, the photo-electric cell, the scientific discovery that has made television experimentally possible. Free Radio Messages. Working enthusiastically, but quite unobtrusively throughout the Dominion, is a body called the New Zealand Amateur Radio Transmitters. They are the enthusiastic devotees of the Morse code —with them a hobby, and an asset which will stand both their country and themselves in good stead in time of emergency. The amateur transmitters, with characteristic keenness, have set themselves out to provide the chief attraction of the exhibition and their display is certain to be crowded. To demonstrate the working of a shortwave Morse on low power, they have fitted up a small transmitting and receiving plant, and from this they undertake to send out, gratis, a message of greeting from any visitor to the show to any friend wheresoever he may be in New Zealand.

As a transmitter sufficiently powerful to cover the Dominion might cause interference with the concert programmes presented, a very small set will handle the hundreds of messages that will be passed in, and will Morse them to four different transmitting stations in the city and suburbs. From one of these stations a message will be sent to the amateur station nearest the addressee, and the enthusiast there rtceiving will forward the greetings per postcard. Neither the sender nor the recipient will be put to any expense, the whole cost being borne by the young transmitters, to whom such work is a labour of love. It is unfortunate that permission cannot be obtained to send messages of greeting to any part of the world, for the N.Z.A.R.T.A. would be quite keen to undertake such work and would guarantee that any message offered would reach any British or foreign country. However, the Post and Telegraph Department's regulations bar such a procedure, though it is understood that these regulations were waived for the amateurs at the recent Dunedin Radio Exhibition. Amateur Displays. The amateurs are also making a brave showing of "home construction." They have on exhibit a large number of transmitters and receivers built by members of their own fraternity, and operated by their owners to bring them in touch with other radio folk in all quarters of the globe. What they have done should be an eye-opener to many a parent, and an impetus to thousands of our youth. Lighting and decorative details have

received their full share of attention, so that the big show is in every way attractive and well worth a visit, if only as a demonstration of Auckland enterprise. Similar exhibitions in Wellington and Dunedin proved phenomenally successful, and those responsible for the Auckland display are out to beat the Southern records in attendance and interest. During the afternoons special lectures and demonstrations for the senior pupils of schools will be given, the children having received invitations to attend as guests of the exhibition executive. A Voice From Wellington. The official opening will be performed at 7.30 this evening by the Hon. J. B. Donald, and though that gentleman will be sitting in his Departmental office over 400 miles away, his voice will be, audible all over the hall, all over the province and thousands of miles away to Australia and the South Sea Islands. Other speakers will be the Mayor of Auckland, the chairman of the Auckland Power Board, and Mr. Warwick Smeeton, president of the exhibition committee. The concert programme will commence at 8 p.m. each evening, and during other days of this week the children's sessions and other interesting portions of a broadcast service will be given from the temporary studio on the stage. So thorough have been all the preparations and so comprehensive is the display, that the promoters feel confident of excellent patronage between this evening and next Saturday, when tho exhibition closes.