DRAWBACKS OF WIRELESS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3137, 2 October 1922, Page 7

DRAWBACKS OF WIRELESS.

It has become apparent that the wireless telephone is still in its infancy, and that a considerable advance in invention must be achieved before it becomes really satisfactory as a means of broadcasting or for other purposes.

This is the conclusion reached by the Radio Research Board sub-committee, whose report has been issued. It is also the opinion formed in America, where thorough tests have extended over a long period. One of the foremost experts in the United States declares that the broadcasting of news "will not be a, practical process unless some fundamental improvements are made which are not now in sight." "I have," he states, "had the best stenographers I could find attempt again and again to take a report of the spoken word from the radio, and never yet have found one who does not break and quit in the very first sentences. It seems to be inevitable that every speaker fails here and there to enunciate a word clearly, and when that happens there is no way to halt him and ask him to repeat that sentence.

"More deadly than anything else is the indifference of the average person to anything like broadcasting news. We tried that by having a report of what seemed to be interesting sent out at a stated hour every afternoon, and on that I. watched my own family and had others to do the same in their own homes. For a day or two the report attracted attention because of its novelty, but very soon that wore off, and the moment the news bulletin began to run the people turned away, refusing even to try to follow what was offered.

"You can hold your audiences a little better with such a thing as baseball, but even there tho success is not what one would call glittering. If a little static electricity chances to jar the apparatus as a. figure is spoken, that score is lost. The sender does not know it, and goes along with his report. "My observation is that the average person wants his news, his market, his sports, in his newspaper, where he can go back and read it a second time if he wants to, and where he can be sure he gets tho meaning. His habit is to have a newspaper delivered at a certain time, to have and to hold, as long as he likes and when he likes."

The report of tho sub-committee of the Radio Research Board—consisting of Admiral of the Fleet. Sir H. B. Jackson, Professor C. L. Fortescue. Professor G. W. O. Howe.'and Major A. G. Lee—states: —

"Wo consider that the development of radio-telephony for long ranges is in an extremely elementary stage, and we see no line of development which M-ould bo likely to lead to its establishment on a commercial basis within a measurable period. "For ranges of the order of 1000 miles," they say, "we consider that in certain remote localities where the interference from atmospherics and other radio communications is not excessive, it would be possible to establish nonsecret radio-telephonic services, using waves of the length usually employed by medium-power radio-telegraph stations communicating over the samerange. The power necessary for radiotelephony .however, would be much greater than that required for satisfactory communication by radio-tele-graphy over the same distance. "For ranges of the order of 200 miles we consider the position more hopeful, and it seems that the lines of experiments which are being followed will lead to the development in a ""reasonable time of a system of radiotelephony which will approach, approximately at any rate, to the requirements of a commercial system. We cannot, however, recommend tho use of radio-telephony as a substitute for any other means of telegraphic: communication, except in those cases where the special requirements can he met in no other economic way. "No means at present are known." they add, "by which any appreciable secrecy can be obtained for a conversation taking place at certain ranges."