AN IDEAL GIFT.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20731, 16 December 1932, Page 27

AN IDEAL GIFT.

The Modern Radio Receiver. INEXPENSIVE ENTERTAINMENT FOR ALL. The evolution of radio broadcasting has been brought about in the short space of fourteen or fifteen years. For a great part of that time its pleasures were beyond the reach of any but the very well off or those gifted with the technical ability to construct the apparatus cheaply in their own homes. To-day the story is a very different one. The radio receiver is one of the most perfectly developed musical instruments and one of the cheapest, and as the season of gifts and cheeriness approaches many thousands more will join the ranks of the "listeners-in."

No more suitable gift could be conceived than the modern radio set. For the expenditure of from £lO to £SO, or for a few shillings a week, the buyer of a radio ensures for himself or his friends amusement, education, constant information on questions of the times, throughout every day of the year. The maintenance costs of a radio set are infinitcstimal; tlio electric current consumed will add but a few pence a month to the household expenses, while tho annual license fee of 30s works out at less than a penny a day. The actual installation of the set is no more difficult a task than the plugging-in of an electric heater. Simplicity of operation is one of the most pronounced features of the modern radio receiver. Tho twist of a tuning -knob —as easy for the child as for the adult—will bring from tho ether programmes from stations in various countries of the world. It is the priceless boon of good music that is the greatest benefit the radio brings to the homo. Eadio programmes, catering as they do for all classes of the community, are very diverse, but the discriminating set-owner can secure at all times of the day entertainment of a very good standard indeed. Empire Broadcasts. Apart from the regular programmes broadcast from tho New Zealand stations thero are any amount of special attractions in tho form of sporting broadcasts, rebroadcasts of concerts and great events from all over the world, and many other-special features arranged from time to time. The radio stations have for some time now been providing a very complete service of sports broadcasts, but it seems that in tho near futuro an even more popular foature will periodical broadcasts and rebroadcasts of special programmes throughout the Empire. Listeners in New Zealand have a'ready realised something of the possibilities of this new excursion into tho realms of

broadcasting service, for tho broadcast of the Armistice Day service at the London Cenotaph, tho unveiling of tho Ansae Memorial at Port Said, and other similar ovents in the past year proved completely successful. Their success made tho long-hoped-for linking up of the Empire by wireless an accomplished fact. The opening of the new British Empire station at Daventry. -will be a further and very important step forward in the scheme. One of the first important Empire broadcasts to be carried out from tho station will be the King's Christmas speech. So that all the countries of the Empire will be able to hear his Majesty's speech at a time when most listeners are likely to be using their sets, the original speech will be recorded on the Blattnerphone recording apparatus and reproduced four or five times. A Kenned Musical Instrument. Radio of to-day does not consist of an awe-inspiring collection of coils, tubes, wires, and "gadgets," such as littered the home of tho enthusiast only a few years ago. To-day the wireless set is a refined musical instrument, generally a handsome piece of furniture, and requires no technical knowledge on the part of its operator. It is as complete and as self-contained as the electric heater or the electric iron that is plugged into the electric supply S3'stem for everyday household uses, and gives as littlo trouble. There aro thoso who regret tho passing of tho old "experimental" set, which the dabbler in radio loved to pull to pieces for tho pleasure of rebuilding, incorporating such new circuits, ideas, and improvements as his imagination and his pocket permitted. Eadio in thoso days required a room to itself in any house blessed—or cursed—by its prosence; generally it was very literally a radio "den."

The development of radio has been amazing in its rapidity, and the suroness with which the great engineers and scientists have from year to year advanced the apparatus from its orighialjcrude form to a level almost of perfection has been ono of tho marvels of tho modern age. It was in 1901 that Guglielmo Marconi, the father of wireloss, flew a kite over Glace Bay and brought down from the heavens a different kind of lightning. In the decade that followed a long list of workers continued tho enthusiasm engendered by Marconi's achievement in harnessing the etheric waves, and gradually the crude mechanics of reception were rofined and now elements added which displaced tho old. J. J. Fleming's invention of tho vacuum tube was followed by tho addition to it of a further element by de Forest, and in one stride broadcasting wa3 drawn within the bounds of practicability. Then came the Great War, and radio took its placo alongside tho other engines of offence and defence. At tho conclusion of hostilities it was the more fully realised that radio had great possibilities as a supplement to other great communication systems. Tho Birth of Broadcasting. It was'at this point that, radio broadcasting of entertainment, information, and education had its birth. The broadcasting of the result of the Harding — Cox Presidential election in America—not to millions' as to-day, but by two young men working a crude transmitter for the edification of a score of friends who had been provided with special receivers—was followed by an unparalleled manifestation of interest jh tho new science, and an instant demnnd for the expansion and refinement of tho system. Tho astonishing fact that a family could sit in comfort in its home, there to be supplied with >he happenings of the day, musical selections, and even the addresses of notable men whose messages wero sought aft3r, captured the imagination of the world. The demand for receivers increased incredibly, and in the space of a year a new industry was established. Manufacturing concerns commenced the production of receiving sets almost coincident with the establishment of the earliest broadcasting stations, but to a very largo cxt:mt the development of the receiver was in the hands of the home experimenter and scientist. Tin early instruments .turned out by manufacturing firms were plain, boxlike affairs, with, first, three tubes, then four, and finally five, at which stage it was thought that the limit of power and rang© of reception had been reached. The tubes were fed from storage batteries, as the battery eliminator was then in so crude a state that it was impracticable for wireless reception, although its development was being pursued by radio engineers who fully realised its importance in the scheme of radio progress. Sensitivity was dependent almost entirely on the luck of tho set-owner in getting good vacuum tubes; selectivity was \merely incidental. Such handicaps acted only as a spur to tho ingenuity of the inventor and experimenter,, and it was a matter only of a few years before tho industry passed its childhood stage. Improvement in Quality. The next phase of tho development of radio was one of invention. A constant stream of improvements came, not from tho research laboratories of tho great # manufacturing' firms, but from the kitchens, cellars, and workshops "f the small dealer and the individual and

private owner and experimenter. Transformers -were improved bo that the voices of speakers no longer sounded alike, loudspeakers graduated from a. combination of the telephone ear-pior.e and horn into a matched assembly of magnetic unit and air column. Refinements in accessories ensured that the receiver could bo depended upon to function day after day and week after week. The radio receiver was no longer an interesting toy, but an instrument that, crude as it was, satisfied the public—all, that is, except tho electrician. Tt was in 1924 that the first tentative efforts at the adaptation of mainn electric supply to the operation of radio receivers were embarked upon. Tho ponderous storage battery had dono its work, and dono it well, but with the useful little dry cells, it was now obsolete. At this time, too, thore camo developments in receiver circuits that removed the limitation on the number of tubes that could bo used. Greater selectivity was thus achieved, and at a timo when the increase in tbc number of broadcasting stations had threatened to curtail the usefulness ct' the radio receiver owing to interference. Broadcasting at its Zenith. Tho magnetic speaker was soon replaced by tho dynamic cono type of reproducer, the oarly types of tubes wero succeeded by types that gave greater volume, truer reproduction, and less hum and other extraneous noisy. The specialisation of the radio tube for its particular duties in tho set was one of the greatest advances. What of the future of the M-ieneo that has mado such incredible advances in tho space of fourteen or fifteen years? No one can tell at the present time the form radio, broadcasting will take in the years ahead. Certain advances have been made in the development of television, but although some American firms aro making provision for television screens, etc., on their sets, it is certainly not yet a commercial proposition. Broadcasting technique has reached probably its zenith, reproduction is as perfect as tho ear can detect, and it is unlikely that any further development will bo of a nature that will materially increase the pleasure tho average set-owner gains from his receiver to-day.