The Radio Listener

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 301, 16 September 1936, Page 13

The Radio Listener

(By

Ether

Good Progress at Titahi Bay. Good progress is being made with the erection of the new 60-kilowatt station at Titahi Bay. It is expected that the technical-apparatus will be shipped from Sydney at the end of this week, and, barring accidents, it is hoped to have the station operating before the end of the year. Unique Experience. To hear a message sent twice across the Atlantic by shortwave and then received with sufficient loudspeaker strength to be enjoyed was the unique experience of G. W. Swann, Parkfield, England, in listening to Jesse Owens, American Olympic star, speaking from the stadium in Berlin. Owens’s voice, brought to America by shortwave, was again relayed by General Electric’s station W2XAD, and it was to this station that Mr. Swann tuned his set, according to a letter received by the General Electric Company. “Listening to Owens after he had won the 100 metre race was just like being in the stadium with him,” Mr. Swann declared in hig letter. Station Names Confusion, i A great deal of confusion often arises concerning the identity of a broadcasting station owing to the habit of giving it various names indicating the situation of the transmitter as well as the studio. Often the transmitter is many miles from the studio, and although people in England may realise that Brookmans Park and London are merely two names for the same station, outsiders may easily be confused. Similarly English listeners may be confused by the same sort of thing occurring in the case of outside stations. Realising this state of affairs, the German authorities have now made it a definte rule to name a station after the place where its studio is situated. Thus, Heilsberg is now called Konigsberg I, while Muhlacker is called Stuttgart, and so on. The World's Largest Studio. What is said to be the world's largest broadcastings studio was opened at the Great Lakes Exhibition in Cleveland, Ohio. This “studio” is fitted with one hundred microphones and will hold an audience of 13,000 people. It will remain in use until October, when the exhibition closes.

Special Sets for Tropics. Complaints have been made from time to time that wireless apparatus designed for use in Europe will not stand up for long periods to the climatic conditions to be found in the various tropical and subtropical countries. One of the greatest markets for radio sets is in India, where conditions are very bad from the climatic point of view. A distinguished Dutch engineer is in India for the purpose, it is said, of studying these conditions on behalf of a Dutch firm. Special rooms are said to have been established in which a tropical climate is produced artificially, and sets are tested in them over long periods. Indian Air Radio Progress. The use of wireless at Indian aerodromes is to be greatly extended. AU main aerodromes in India are at present supplied with medium-wave transmitters, the wavelength being in the neighbourhood of 900 metres. These are used for communicating with aircraft and with other aerodromes. Owing to the increase of air traffic, considerable wireless congestion has arisen, and shortwave transQiitters are, therefore, to be established at certain selected aerodromes. Medium waves will still be used for communicating with aircraft, the short waves being employed for working between the more distant aerodromes. The staff is to. be -increased to enable a continuous night watch to be kept at all stations from Karachi to Calcutta. Bath Chair Radio. Radio on motor-driven invalid chairs is apparently the latest idea in America. One enterprising dealer thas fitted a radio receiver on an invalid chair of the hand-driven type belonging to “a crippled newspaper seller. . As a result of the publicity gained in this way he has been inundated with orders not only for invalid chair sets but also for car sets. In any case, car radio is a good seller in the U.S.A. Coming Features. On relay from the Wellington Town Hall to-morrow night there will be broadcast a programme by the Wellington Male Voice Choir, under the conductorship of Mr. Frank J. Oakes. On Friday night 2YA will broadcast a military band proI gramme.