RADIO NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 125, 20 February 1935, Page 6

RADIO NOTES

Success of the New * IYA NEW PROGRAMMES Forthcoming Events (By Etheb.) •Station IYA is now operating on full power, and judging by the reports this station is doing all and more than was expected of it. For some little time the station had been operating on half and three-quarter power. The full 10 Kilowatts has now been turned into, the aerial. Results in New Zealand are good, but reports have come to hand from Fiji that the new IYA is their best station in the Pacific. The station has also been well received in many far-off parts, including Rarotonga, many areas in Australia, and the western seaboard of America. This station, it is perhaps as welt to point out, is more powerful than 2YA, and represents New Zealand’s big noise in the .ether. The New Schedule. It will be interesting to see how listeners react to the new programme schedule that comes into operation at the beginning of next month. Programme organisers are up against the vital fact that you cannot please-all of the listeners all of the time. The new schedule is, however, a determined bid to please as many listeners air of the time as it is possible to do. Those who are pleased no doubt will withhold criticism, but those who are not pleased will write to the newspapers to complain. In this manner one obtains an unbalanced opinion. Indeed, if one were to go by letters to the editor in the various newspapers -of the world, listeners in every country must be on the verge of rebellion. Yet broadcasting has continued to flourish, to expand, and what is a greater test still, to sell radio sets. If that be the case there cannot be so much wrong with the thing as one is led to imagine. Meanwhile the highbrows and the lowbrows must content themselves after February with the fact that the time devoted to their respective joys is evenly balanced. Every effort has been made in the new deal to give listeners an opportunity to take what type of programme they like best by making the different stations transmit different types of programmes at similar times. In this the new deal is but amplifying the methods of the past with, it is hoped, suitable improvements in the light of experience. Coming Events. Station 3YA has arranged to broadcast the civic .farewell that is to be given to their Excellencies, Lord Bledisloe, Governor-General of New Zealand, and Lady Bledisloe. The transmission will be relayed from the. Christchurch City Council chambers at midday on Thursday, February' 28. Listeners who have not yet heard that curious play, “Flags on the Matterhorn,” might well tune in to IYA at 8 p.m. on Monday, February 25. The play is a recorded 8.8. C. item, and it is well -worth hearing, if only for the novel method of presentation. Enthusiasts from Scotland no doubt will make a note of a talk to be given by Mr. David McLaren from 2YA at 8.40 p.m. on the same day. The talk is entitled “A Wee Bit of Scots.” and there is every reason to suspect that the subject has something to do with Scotland. In contrast to this, 2YA will be broadcasting “a wee bit of music” at 8.25 p.m. the next day, Tuesday, February 26. Grieg’s “Concerto for Pianoforte and Orchestra” in A Minor, Op. 16, will be presented by Paul Vinogradoff and the 2YA orchestra. The latter will be conducted by Mr. Leon de Mauny. Shortly afterward Lionelle Cecil, the well known operatic tenor, will be heard in his premier New Zealand recital. Listeners will also have an opportunity to hear Lionelle Cecil from.,2YA at 8.21 p.m. on Thursday, February 28. Radio Ghost.

“Have yov. heard the wireless ‘ghost train’?” asks the ‘‘lrish News,” of Belfast. It seems that many radio enthusiasts -in Northern Ireland have been troubled by a peculiar clanking sound which refuses to be tuned out, aud.is heard on all wavelengths. The sound “is peculiarly like a train panting up a gradient with a heavy load.” Our contemporary states that’ thousands of theories have been put forward to explain it, manjj. of them fantastic, but none of them satisfactory. Shortwave Tests.

The 8.8. C. has recently announced the commencement of some important tests which should result in improved reception of the Empire station in Australia, New Zealand, and India. For some weeks past, changes in the aerial system used by GSD and GSB .have been made every 15 minutes, and five aerials are now undergoing comparative tests. Listeners in South Africa have already noticed an improvement in . reception, thanks largely to the new aerials that have been provided for transmission IV. These comparative tests present the most extraordinary difficulties, for, as is well known, propagation conditions on short waves are capable-of undergoing a complete change in a few minutes. Reports indicating a change in signalstrength, therefore, cannot be assumed to have any particular bearing on a change in the aerial system, unless the. two aerials under comparison are used alternately over quite a long period. Amateur transmitters are well acquainted with the false results that a sudden change in conditions can produce, and although the variations undergone by a. high-powered broadcast transmission are 'not nearly so serious they are quite considerable.