The Shortwave Bands

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 229, 24 June 1936, Page 13

The Shortwave Bands

- (By

Etheb.) ■

Have You Heard?

There are two American stations that are not quite powerful enough to warrant inclusion in the daily programmes, yet listeners may care to tune to. Station WBXAL working on 49 metres may be heard on many nights between 11 and 12 o’clock. It is often received at a strength suitable for entertainment. Listeners who tuno to this station may care to write and say whether they think reception warrants inclusion in the daily programme. In the same way station WBXK may often be heqrd at fair strength working on 15.91 metres between 10.30 p.m. and midnight. Some of the shortwave stations already included in the daily list have a habit of changing their schedule at the last moment. The Paris station is particularly blameworthy in this respect. In fact, this station so rarely adheres to schedule that it is hardly worth while publishing its programme at the moment. It is hoped shortly to give further details about the German schedules, as there are several German programmes heard in New Zealand at good strength. Regular programmes are also transmitted from 2RO, Rome, and if anything the schedule is adhered to better than is the case for Paris. Readers perhaps would care to express their opinions as to what programmes they would like in addition to those that appear already.

When to Listen. The shortwave stations are not as other stations. Prescribed programmes tell us when to listen to New Zealand broadcasting; on the short waves, however, one listens to the world and for that reason has to listen when the world transmits. The programmes of many of the better-known world shortwave stations are published daily. ■ At the moment, however, the French and German stations are not easy to piek up. Nevertheless the afternoons are a good time to listen for many world stations on about 30 metres. • If one wants to listen-in on the lower short waves, say, below 20 metres, it is little good doing so until midnight. The early morning is usually a good time for shortwave work. In that period it is sometimes possible to hear Daventry working to other parts of the British Empire. Perhaps the best time

of all to listen is on a Saturday between 5 and (> p.m. There is usually a lot to be heard at that time from all over the world on the short waves. N.Z. Shortwave Station.

Readers who have heard rumours that New Zealand may have a shortwave broadcasting station of her own must not imagine that it would contribute any useful matter for local consumption. Usually shortwave stations are not heard locally. The waves skip the local area, except, of course, in the neighbourhood of the aerial, and they come down to earth thousands of miles away. As a publicity station for the marvels of New Zealand the idea is, however, a good one. It may possibly put New Zealand on the map as have the stations in Australia that are so well received over here. Two of these stations, VK2ME and VK3ME, are reliable standbys in New Zealand. They are not commercial stations, and the programme comprises the best recorded works interspersed with talks on Australia, such as farming, tourist resorts and the like. These two stations may be heard almost all over the world, including many parts of the Americas, as well as in England, and serve to bring home to the world that there is a place called Australia.,

T.T. Technique. Those who listened to the running commentary ou the Tourist Trophy race from the Empire station may be interested to know that in order to maintain a continuous description of the races, four commentators were in action at different parts of tlie course. The two most strategic points are at Creg-na-Baa, which is notorious for bad smashes and therefore a favourite place with spectators, and at the Ramsay hairpin bend. “Hairpin” gives a very good indication of the course, which presents every conceivable problem to the racing motorcyclist and includes a precipitous descent from the top of Snaefell (the highest point in the island) at a roof-like gradient averaging one in ten. And this twisting, circuitous course, with its angles and curves and arcbed bridges, has to be negotiated not one but seven times, so listeners heard an exciting broadcast, complete with the roar of engines and the splutter •of exhausts.