Radio Review

Evening Star, Issue 19724, 26 November 1927, Page 15

Radio Review

Flashes from Everywhere.

—[By “ HENRY.”]—

ESSENTIAL. QUALITJ KS. In the choosing of :i set I hero arc at least five major features which should bo looked for. Each quality or feature should be present in a fair degree, but should not be over-emphasised if tins leads to the sacrificing of any other quality. The set must he sufficiently sensitive to give satisfactory loud speaker signals from all New Zealand stations as well as the more powerful Australian stations. . . Tuning should be sharp, m order that other New Zealand stations may be received while the local station is on the air. It should be sufficient to cut out anv high-powered station in order to receive other stations of a lesser power. The receiver and loud speaker should give enjoyable and accurate reproduction of music, thus giving the listener i fair illusion of being present at the actual performance. It is desirable, if possible, to have a single tuning device. It is*convenient; and the receiver shall be thoroughly reliable under service conditions, while requiring a minimum of repairs and replacements. ■ Ambiguously, the appearance of the receiver should please the eye of the prospective user. The question is often asked; “How many tubes should the receiver have?” A good answer is: “Enough to meet the five requirements mentioned above.”

Practically all the makers had adopted the centre tapping. In some cases two tappings were made, so that the coil could lie used in the Rcinartz circuit. Undoubtedly the sensation of the exhibition was a new model receiver, which bad some very remarkable points of advantage iind of advanced design. The new feature included a revolutionary invention which will rid the wireless for ever of its greatest bug-’ bear —the accumulator. The new invention—called the “ Eilonator - can be charged at homo in a minute or so by the simple process of dropping in compressed tablets supplied by the makers at Is a charge. One charge lasts about six weeks with average use on a good lend speaker set. “ SPECIAL DESCRIPTION.” The following is a harrowing description by Storeman M'Pants of the wrestling mateh for the championship of China, between Sad Fantail and Yiko Jilokol, and which appeared in (‘ Popular Radio Weekly ’) ; “ Good evening, listeners; —here we aro again. Tho match to-night is between Sad Fautail, champion of Timhuctoo, and Yiko Mokcl, the Sadman of St. Hilda. That noise you hear is the audience getting out their little books. “ i meant to tell you last Saturday night about-—Yike Mokcl is now stepping into the r.ing—remind mo about that other affair after—his dressing gown would give ye . sunstroke—it contains all the colors of the spectrum, the collar is boxpleated, and there’s inverted pleats all over it—it’s gathered in at the -waist with a dog chain. Here, conies his accomplice—l mean, opponent—dressed in a bran bag gathered in at the waist with a bit of string.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC POPULAR. A recently-conducted plebiscite in Christchurch for tho purpose of ascertaining the broadcast items most popular in that city resulted in instrumental music (popular) obtaining first place. The following is tho result of the voting, with tho votes cast for each item: 1. Instrumental music—popular TS,dO7 2. Popular songs ... 77,070 3. Orchestral items—popular ... 76,841 4. Band music 76.134 5. Musical comedy 72,843 6. Old-time songs 72,171 7. Comic songs 71,117 8. Children's items 63,918 9. Public concerts 65.280 10. Recitations ... _ 61,462 11. Gramophone music 60,541 ]2. Vaudeville ••• 59,766 13. Plays and sketches 58,990 14. Chorus singing 57,921 15. Opera ..! 57,622 16. Dance music tw ,061 17. Instrumental music, classical 56,427 18. Football descriptions 54,610 19. Orchestral items—classical... 54,162 20. Topical talks 50,993 21. Ballads 49,974 22. Sacred songs 48,140 23. News 47,791 24. Educational talks 47,695 25. Classical songs 45,502 26. Talks on books 43,903 27. Picture theatre orchestras... 43,337 28. Racing descriptions 42,841 29. Sporting results ... 41,940 30. Sporting talks 31. Boxing, etc., descriptions ... 37,504 32. Organ recitals 36,901 33. Women’s interests 30,709 34. Market reports 26,073 RADIO ANDLI GIiTNIXG. ARRESTERS ESSENTIAL. Two years ago an electrical storm swept over tho city of Cleveland, in America, and at least one radio installation suffered. * A heavy flash of lightning struck tho aerial at the point where it was attached to a chimney, burning tho stranded wire in two and shooting down the lead-iu wire. The flash jumped a three-quarter inch air gap between^ terminals. blow open the receiver cabinet, and damaged tho side of tho A battery. It then apparently went on its way to tho earth, passing along tho ground wire attached to tho set. On the weatherboards and the wallpaper where tho lead-in entered the house large blackened areas showed, but no blaze followed the charge. The strange part about the happening was that the five-tube set was apparently undamaged, but the cabinet in which it was contained was shattered. Tho lid flew off so violently that the loud speaker resting on it was thrown to tho* ground. A number of weaknesses in the line of defence against lightning may bp described. In the first place no lightning arretesr of any kind had been fitted. Secondly, the lightning switch used was a crude affair, made at home form odd parts of electrical apparatus. It did not give sufficient contact to carry heavy currents, and tho air spacing between the terminals was too narrow. A joint in tho lightning ground wire had been so loosely made that it constituted practically an open circuit. The load-in hushing was of circular loam in preference to porcelain or other heat and moisture resisting substance, thus increasing the possibility of (ire following a discharge of lightning. There is no question that many sets in this country are just as poorly protected as the Cleveland one, and the owners do not seem to realise that there is any danger in having tho receivers so badly equipped. Yot the means of safeguarding sets, and maybe home, is simple and inexpensive, A word or two of advice in the ears of valve sot owners: It is absolutely essentia! to have a lightning arrestor of an approved design. A lightning switch of largo dimensions is almost essential. It should be so connected that when thrown to its grounded position it forms a shunt around the arrester. Such a switcli should not he used as a substitute; it is often forgotten, while an arrester is automatic. Should there bo any possibility of tho lead-in coming into contact with any electrical wires, a fuse,' in the lead-in would bo advisable. Tho above facts were not penned to frighten owners of receiving sets, but rather to encourage them to take the necessary steps against such a happening. It is seldom that a set _ is struck by lightning, but precautions are nevertheless essential. OLYMPIA EXHIBITION. This year’s Radio Exhibition at Olympia disclosed may new and simple developments in the wireless world. There were a 'number of sets with one dial and one switch to bring in cither the short or long-wave stations. The use of high frequency came to the fore with tho introduction of the screened valves. A good three-valve set, employing a stage of H.P., detector, and one L.F. will bring in stations from all over Europe; Vernier dials were much in evidence. Great ingenuity was shown in some of the models. One in particular had a reduction of 500 to 1. _ The dial needed very careful watching to discern the movement. Cone speakers were shown by almost every firm. It was possible to purchase one of this type for under £2. Although a number, of the modern sets had enclosed coils, wound in tubular fashion, there was still a steady demand for the usual plug-in inductances.

“They’re at it already—the referee lias run for cover. The sight of Mokel was too much for Fautail. Ho threw off his seconds, and, rushing at Yike, slapped him on the wrist—no, I’m wrong, it was the forearm. Here—noyes—they’re getting the referee back into tlie ring with a shotgun. Poor chap, he says lie’s got an urgent appointment with his dentist, but nobody listens. There’s the gong—they’re at it. I Go on, Yike.’ Fautail jumped clean over his opponent’s head, kicking him in the eye as ho went. Mokcl has seized him by tho instep and is swinging him around his head. That is tho seaplane dive—he invented that himself—see page 159 of the little book. He’s going to—no—yes. He’s let go. Fantail’s body described a beautiful arc, and that noise you heard was the thud with which he hit the further end of the building. Mokel is now chasing tho referee round tho ring—he’s got him—no—yes—no, the referee jumped over tho ropes and got away. They are trying to get Mokcl back to his corner with some raw meat. It’s all right; they’ve got the collar on him. “ As I was saying—No, that wasn’t it—Yes, it was. No. What was 1 going to say. Never mind. A ready supply of red hot pokers has been arranged for at tho ringside. In the circumstances the referee thinks ho will continue to umpire the match. There’s the gong. Hey! Hey! Hey! Fantail has kicked Mokcl right out of tho ring. There’s an uproar—Mokcl seems to ho mad about something. Ho climbs into tho ring, hia opponent hei ■- ing hv pulling his hair. They’re at it again. “ Fantail now lias a scissors on Tike's Adam’s Apple—no, it’s not a scissors, it’s a cross between a I’ve got it. Turn to page 192 of the little book. You’ll see tho hold there. And he’s got him! No—yes—he’s got him! FantaTl’s got him! Ho had a wonderful hold—page 781 of the little book. Mokcl’s out of it! They’re wrestling on. How he not out of that hold, I don’t know. What? It was Mokcl applying the hold? Well, it looked to me to the other wav around. “ A fall! A fall! Fantail hit Mokcl oip tho head with a. ring past. The referee has dived for coyer. They’re dragging Mokcl hack to his corner and rubbing him down with a buttered brick. It’s a great match. The audience—both of them—aro on their feet with excitement. Ah! Boracic steps into the ring and challenges both of them. Singly or in' a group. “Except for two black eyes and a thick ear the referee looks none tho worse. The gong! Fantail has a headlock on tho referee—page 725 of tho little hook. There’s a general mix-up —any page of the little hook. Mokcl is trying to ram his foot down Boracic’s throat, while Boracic has a handful of Mr Britches’ pants. No——yes —no —it’s all right, the safety pin held. Mokel has thrown Boracic and the referee out of the ring. The referee is making a beeline for the exit, taking everything in his path. Mokcl has Fautail down with both feet on his head and both hands_ full of Fantail’s ear. Fantail is suffering grief and pain —bis ear has now been stretched a foot. It’s all over. It’s all over. Fantall’s ear gave way and'Mokel fell flat on his back—winded—and Fantail easily pinned him with a simnle combination scissors, arm bar, body press, and head lock—see all the pages of the little book. “Sad Fantail retains tho championship. There was something I was trying to remember. I’ve got it. Noyes—that’s it. _ Airs MTants is at hei mother’s listening in. Will she kindly hurry home at once and turn off the bath? I forgot it when I came away from home. Good-night, listeners, good-night.” LONG-RANGE RECEPTION. An announcement of tho greatest possible interest to long-distance radio enthusiasts is made by tho Marooniphone Company,' Ltd., of London, with the issuing of particulars of a new shielded valve, type S. 625. It is well known that one of the greatest problems in high-frequency amplification is that of overcoming reaction effects due to. capacity between tho grid and tho anode of the valve employed, and a number of neutralised circuits varying in complexity amd effectiveness, have been devised to overcome the difficulty. The S. 625, however, attacks tho very root of the matter by overcoming the interelectrode capacity effect within the valve itself, and thus making neutralisation unnecessary. A fine-mesh grid is interposed between the grid and the anode, a flat circular plat© with dished edges. The grid and filament aro supported by and connected to a cap at ono end of tho class tube, and tho anode and screening grid by a second cap at the opposite extremity, so that the “ live ” are as far apart as possible In us© the valve’ is preferably mounted in a horizontal position, the grid ami the plate circuits being separated by capper screening boxes so arranged that tho partition dividing them is in the plane of tho screening grid, being cut away only just sufficiently to allow the glass bulb to pass through. v Tho partition is earthed, and the screening grid connected to unsuitable point in the b.t. battery, so that a comrtlAiA alti&.tra£tALi£t IS fonUBUs

“ Henry " will ba pleased to answer any questions through this column relating to tho fascinating hobby. Each correspondent must sign bi* name and address (not necessarily for publication). Newsy items will bo welcome .

By these means any interaction between grid and anode circuits is prevented, and an amplification of 30-50 per stage is obtainable with absolute stability over a very wide range ot wave lengths, so that _it will be possible to construct receivers surpassing in sensivity anything hitherto designed. This is certainly a development which may have considerable influence on the future of Empire broadcasting. A BIG LITTLE PARADOX. [By Whiskkh, from 3LO.] Big things are big, great things are groat, And fatter things are fatter, And so we’re apt to underrate The little things that matter. The acorn grows into a tree, Tho kitten to a cat, And once a lion was set free (Sec iEsop) by a rat. The smallest chains, with many a fold, May sometimes bind tho strongest. Tho sea will surge, so we arc told, With shortest surges longest. Nor water waves alono behave With .short, but long insistence. Tho shortest length of wireless wave Attains the longest distance. So 3LO was qnick_ to see, While aerials might bo tallest; ’Twould ho a greater thing to he Tho greatest with tho smallest. With little waves they cross tho son, Reaching the Roman state (While great with greater things they be), To bo with little great. CORRESPONDENCE. “ D.X.” (Dunedin) writes; “On Thursday night (November 17), about 10.30, while listening to Brisbane, 1 tuned in another station’s carrier, and heard a man very clearly talking hi broken English. I could not catch tho name of tho station, but the wave length was tho same as that of Brisbane. Could it by any chance he station JOBK, Japan? I should bo glad if any of your readers who have heard tho station could tell me the name of it ” _ _ In all probability it was the. Norwegian whaling vessel, C. A. Larsen, signalling to her chasers. HERE AND THERE. The new announcer at 4YA has a good, radio voice, and he can bo heard easily and clearly. Canadian set owners were recently the victims of a larceny, when three men, representing themselves as officers of the radio service, seized sots from Toronto householders and made off with them. According to a Christchurch writer tho Dunedin station has been well received up north lately, lie reports little fading, good volume, and good modulation. On tho short-wave of 54 metres tho 3 kw. station POY, at Koningswusterbausen, Germany, has been working successfully with Japan. A radio map receiver of tho Jenkins type has been installed on tho dirigible Los Angelos. Tho map should bo sufficient to give ample warning of tho approach of a storm such as camo upon her ill-fated sister, the Shenaudoan. At tho Radio World’s Fair in New York many marvels of science are to bo displayed. Tho smallest voice in tho world—that of tho atom —will bo magnified 2U,UUU,UO(J times, so that the human car may hear it. By means of this new device tho language of flowers, the voices of hitherto silent insects can be clearly heard. The machine is so sensitive that tho growing of a rose sounds like thunder. Methods of measuring accurately lengths of one tenmillionth part of an inch will be shown and described. Furnaces will be shown using high-frequency currents wliich will melt metals, at tho same time feeling quite cool when tho baud is placed inside. On the other hand, this same energy-will bo used to produce extreme cold, causing mercury to become as hard as iron and flowers as brittle as glass. An American writer says that broadcasting in that country is to-day in a high state of efficiency. The standard of programmes was never better. Thanks to tho splendid efforts of tho Federal Radio Commission, a great improvement is already noticeable in every district where considerable congestion of wave-lengths was incurred a few months ago. Recently an old-time night was broadcast, from 3AR, Melbourne, while four days later 3LO put on a programme of items of many years ago. Both broadcasts must have been of special interest to the older listeners.

3LO, Melbourne, has concluded its mouth organ competition. In announcing the .wards the judge expressed surprise at the general excellence of the playing right through. By arrangement with the Stadium proprietors, 2BL, Sydney, is regularly broadcasting boxing and wrestling matches. Station 3UZ, Melbourne's second B class, broadcasts on Thursday and Sunday evenings. It is said that ere long King wdl be able to address Ids 450 million subjects throughout the world by word of mouth, assisted, of course, by radio. An interviewer in Australia recently said that 8,000 sets for receiving purposes were made by one American firm every live seconds. At that rate the grand total of sets turned out a week would reach 230,400,000. The sentence should have read that about 8,000 sets were made a day. A broadcasting station at Berlin is now sending out a university course of general interest. In the interior of a wireless transmitting station during the process of broadcasting there is no pulsating machinery, nothing suggestive of the millions of beats per second, or of tho surging of musical sounds —only a faint hum caused by tho instruments transforming the ordinary current into the special variety required for broadcasting purposes. . . _ One of the big hotels in Berlin is fitting out all its rooms, to tho number of some hundreds, with wireless receiving sets. Fading from Christchurch was very noticeable on Wednesday night, but the programme from 3YA was cpiite up tq, standard. 4ZB, Dunedin, seems to have sunk back into its groove, 'tho two special concerts recently having been too much for those iu charge. Pull yourself together, 4ZB, and give us something better than Wednesday’s transmission.

Good volume came through from IYA, Auckland, on Wednesday night, with good modulation and little lading. A good programme, tool Our own station, 4YA, has been giving us some fine programmes of late, and Dunedin listeners have had little ground for complaint. It is now possible to purchase Bri-tish-made. loud speakers at a price which is almost as low as a fair of eood head-nhoncs.

GERMAN RADIO EXHIBITION. A German radio exhibition was held recently, but owing to many _ reasons the number of firms exhibiting was much reduced. There was no sensational novelty featured at the show, as was the case last year when the Loewe multi-valve apparatus was exhibited lor the first time. , . The number of exhibitors was -bl, and the exhibition was particularly interesting by reason of the high quality and variety of the exhibits. Among the items entered may be mentioned a number of cheap-typo sets for local reception, and complete three-yalvo receivers for loud speaker reception, costing about 40 marks, including valves. For long distance reception three and four-valve receivers were offered at about 60 marks. Neutrodyne receivers were shown by 10 firms, and superheterodyne sets by 10. A new line exhibited was a portal).o three-valve receiver, with .self-contained aerial and collapsible loud speaker, all contained in a cabinet. There was also on view a six-valvo receiver, which takes its l.t. and h.t. supply from the mains. No fewer than 82 manufacturers were showing various forms of loud speakers. Most of the valve_ makers showed valves suitable for lighting from a.c., while current reducers, with automatic regulation, were also featured in addition to resistances and high capacity condensers for connecting to public distribution systems. Much attention was attracted by the displays of the ArbeitCr-Radioclub, which has over 200 local sections in Germany, and the Funkentechnische Vereia, which has 600 local sections; the latter showed a single-valve short-wave receiver.