OVER THE AERIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 273, 18 November 1938, Page 16

OVER THE AERIAL.

RADIO NOTES. FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By TUNE IN.) Among the stars engaged for next year by the Australian Broadcasting Commission are Lotte Lohmann, soprano, and Artur Sehnabel, pianist. Canada propose* to make things hard for the radio bootlegger. In addition to liability to a fine up to 500 dollars, imprisonment up to a year and confiscation. of the unlicensed receiver are to be embodied in the law. An ingenious method of extending the range of television services has been proposed with a view to avoiding the cost of the complex cable which is necessary for long-distance transmission to a relay transmitter. The connecting link with the relay station is a radio link. The receiver at the relay point is provided with means for avoiding fading effects by changing the wave-length of the transmission. This is effected automatically as soon as there is a difference in 'the receiver signal picked up by two aerials at the receiver point. The tuning of the receiver is automatically changed, and simultaneously the wave-length of the transmitter is correspondingly altered by impulses fed back through a simple telephone line.

! The new transmitter for 2YH, located at Opapa, near Napier, was officially put in "the air" last night by the Hon. F. •Tones. The station's frequency is to be 700 kilocycles and the output .">OOO watts. The plant is similar to that of the Tnvereargill station. The earthing system uso»i nine miles of copper wire, radiating outwards from the transmitter in hundred-yard lengths. The two masts are almost 300 yards high. Air and water system* are employed to cool the .38 valves in the plant, electric hlower<> supplying the draught for air-cooled valves, and a flow of 000 gallons of water per hour passing round the anode ! valves in the final stage. The studio is ' situated in Napier, and the station ma:ia?er is Mr. F. D. Crovvle, formerly second announcer at 3YA.

Blondes are not preferred for television. as their usually even features and colouring do not show to advantage in the "viewer." Brunettes .of decided colouring and with stronz feature* and oval faces televise perfectly, but not until a strange make-up has been applied. The features are liberally plastered with yellow ochre, the eyelids tinted 2 rco » and framed in coal-black eyebrows, '.he lips tinted brown and the nostril* a vivid scarlet. It is amazing that a face so painted should appear perfectly natural in the "televiewer." In addiiion to meeting the above requirements. the British Broadcasting Corporation television announcers arc required to have good diction, a pleasing voice with rich overtones, and fluencv in French and CJerman as well as Knglish. So quickly have the hostesses left the British Broadcasting Corporation for matrimony that the corporation insists in their case that they shall be married before applying for a position.

Fading is a problem to be solved in short wave reception, and. although an efficient automatic volume control will take care of some of the trouble, such feature alone is not a complete solution. The only cure yet developed is what is known as "diversity" receptipn, where two or more receivers, each with its own aerial, are used to receive the fame signal. This method i* succcssful because it has been found that even where two aerials are not widely separated the signal rarely fades on both aerials at the same instant. Diversity reception involves the complete duplica tion, apart from the audio amplifier, of the whole receiving system. and naturally results in an undesirable multiplication of controls. The latter feature appears to have been largely overcome in recent models, which are single control and said to give an almost total reduction of fading, and increase in signal strength and an increase of signal-to-noi*e ratio over any conventional model.

It is not easy to believe the New \ork story that any considerable number of Americans became panicky over Columbia's dramatisation of Wells' 'War of the Worlds,' but it was an American who declared that in the States two are born every minute. Columbia is one of the two important broadcasting organisations and its network has practically natiou-wide coverage. If the incident has not been exaggerated, it may have beneficial effects in causing more super\ision to be exercised over radio presentations. The affair recall* an attempt to dramatise the news that was made by Australian national stations during the Italo-Abyssinian war. During the rather melodramatic reading of war news listeners were treated to groans and screanu, accompanying explosions, [ the idea being to give a realistic depiction of the bombings ami battles in Africa. One or two doses of these I synthetic horrors were sufficient to inspire so many protests that the bright idea was quickly forgotten."—'"Timaru Herald." FROM IYA NEXT WEEK. „„i Puncl ®.s' — 90 a.m., recordings; n.o, relay of service from the Mount Eden Congregational Church; 1.0. dinner music; ~.0 to 4.30, selected recording's, featuring ■t 33° rantastlc dances by TurSa• «!' children s song- service; 7.0, relay or service from the rut Street Methodist Church--8.30, concert programme, reaturing recordWilliam Mengelberg's orchestrakirsten Hagstad. soprano, and Leopold fiodowsky, pianist; 9.5. "Julius Caesar " adaptation or Shakespeare's plav produced and recorded by the National Broadcasting service. "iSfcl' 3 ? p , r " - agricultural talk on « n ?' 1 ■ Montgomery; 8.0. concert programme, featuring recorded serials, Eileen Courtenay, soprano- the studio orchestra; John O'MaTfey. tenor; 10.0 to 11.0, music, mirth and melody. —'""l? P- nl - educational session, rciajed from the Teacher's Training College. Epsom ; 7.30, talk by the gardening concert programme, featuring Alan Williamson, piano accordion- 9 5 talk on "World AJTairs" bv Mr '1 'ir' Munro; 9.20 to it.o, dance music.' " Wednesday—7.3o p.m.. book review- g 0 concert programme, featuring Mvrtle chote' mefczo-soprano; Phyllis Bloy ind EveTvii Prime, two pianos; "Coronets of England —The Life or Mary Queen or Scots"' 10 0 to 11.0. music, mirth and melody. ' Thursday—7.3o p.m., talk in the "Whirligig or Time" series, "The Place or Art in Lire," by Mr. A. B. Thomson--8.0, concert programme, reaturing recorded band music; 10.0 to 11.0, an hour or dance 1 music by the Casa Loma Orchestra, with interludes by Vera Lynn. Friday—7.3o p.m., sports talk by Gordon Hutter; 8.0, concert programme reaturing Dora Judsou. solo pianist- Vincent Aspey, violin: 9.5. talk bv Miss K M. Wright, "in A Chinese Datrv"; 100 to 11.0, music, mirth and melody. Saturday—9.o a.m., relay from the Auckland Town Hall or the first Auckland wool sale: rrom noon, running commentaries" on the Auckland Racing Club s meeting rrom EUerslie racecourse; 8.0. concert programme, featuring a playlet. "This Reception Business": the Euterpe Trio, Haydn Murray, violinist: Les O'Learv, baritone, followed by recordings; 10.10 to 11 15 dsace music. '