ON ALL WAVELENGTHS

Evening Star, Issue 22328, 2 May 1936, Page 4

ON ALL WAVELENGTHS

FROM 4YA HEX! WEEK SPECIAL TALK OH FRIDAY From 8 till 8.30 ou Monday evening there will be a relay of the Dunedin Choral Society’s Madrigal Club s concert, which is to be given in the Concert Chamber. When the station returns to the studio Mr J. T. Paul will continue his talks 'on 1 World Affairs, while after 9 o’clock there will be presented a three-act conmdy, ‘ Ebenezer Runs Amok.’ . Special recorded music will be played ia the first half of Tuesday’s concert session, and the band programme following will be provided by the 8.8. C. combination. . Recorded features will be continued on Wednesday, and at 8.40 Pani Te Tan will talk on ‘ The Story of Titirau s Pet Whale.’ After the weather report a theme programme dealing with policemen will be presented in songs and stories.

During the concert programme on Thursday Mr James Hossack will continue his series of talks on ‘ Here and There in Scotland,’ and will this time deal with the Highlands. A special talk is to be given m the 2YA studio on Friday at 8.40, and this will be relayed to the local station. The speaker will be Dr H. Duncan Hall, of Geneva, who will speak on ‘ The League of Nations.’ The early portion of the programme will consist of a variety concert, and following the talk, chamber music will be played. Saturday night’s vocalists will be Mr Leslie Dunbar (baritone) and Miss Ruby Price (mezzo-soprano), while the Concert Orchestra will again be conducted by Mr Gil Dech. 2YB’S NEW SCHEDULE REPORT FMM AMERICA RECEIVED The Broadcasting Board has granted station 2YB, New Plymouth, a permanent increase in broadcasting time. This extra time, which amounts to two hours a week, will permit of the continuation of the Friday night session, despite the resumption of the children’s hour. The Friday night broadcast was inaugurated during the summer,. when the children’s hour was not being held. So popular did t become that its retention' was dc: i ed. _ ' 2YB is now on the air 16 hours a week—Sunday, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Monday, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Wednesday, 6.30 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 6.30 p.m. to 10 p.m. No broadcasts are given on Tuesday or Thursday The report of the station being heard at Saskatoon, 8,000 miles away, is important, as this is a record distance reception of the station. About four years ago 2YB was distinctly heard at Los Angeles, and verification given. Reports of reception have also been received from New York and Chicago, but owing to the vagueness of the details of the programmes sent in on those occasions, verifications could not be issued. The record is all the more remarkable when it is realised that the output of 2YB is only 100 watts. ENGLISH CONDUCTOR ORCHESTRAL AND CHORAL CONCERTS Dr Malcolm Sargent, the famous English conductor, is to come to Australia next September to conduct orchestral and choral concerts for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. He was originally to have arrived in 1934, but a serious illness prevented his visit, and Sir Hamilton Harty came instead. It is reported that the New Zealand Broadcasting Hoard is negotiating to have Dr Sargent visit New Zealand prior to his arrival in Australia, and if an arrangement is made it. is probable that three public concerts will be given in Wellington under the conductorship of Dr Sargent—one by the Wellington Symphony Orchestra, one by the Royal Wellington Choral Union, and a combined orchestral-choral concert by these organisations. The fee asked by Dr Sargent for conducting three concerts in_ Wellington is a large one, but it is felt by those concerned that the opportunity should not-be lost of bringing this o-reat conductor to the Dominion, as his visit will undoubtedly give a big stimulus to music generally in the capital city. VK2DL PHOTOGRAPHS

A correspondent. “ ZDI9, ; ’ writes to say that VK2DL, Canterbury, NewSouth Wales, has advised him that listeners asking for the station photograph should send 4d in Australian stamps (3d for the photograph and Id for postage). The Dunedin “ gang ” of SDL listeners would like to hear from other 2DL listeners in Dunedin holding verification cards from that station. They are asked to write to “ ZL419,” (>7 Fox street, Dunedin, S.l. RECENT RECEPTION. Receiving conditions on the 20 metre hand at the week end were fairly good, the best calls on “ fone ” coming from W6ITH, W6LLQ. W6KSO, W6CLS, W6DTE, and WSBEE. Of the VKs, 2BN, 2NY, 2AP, 2BQ, 2DL 5 and 2NJ were the best. On Sunday night power interference was extremely annoying. WSBEE was heard mentioning the many reports he received from New Zealand, DX clubs, etc., and stating that these had been a big help to him. The operator also mentioned that he verifies reports of his “ fone ” transmissions.

Cards arc to band from WCITH, W.SATF, WfiCT’G. VPdPZ. K6FJF. VK4UL, VK4ES, VK2I-IP. and CXIBG.

Mr .1. Callander (ZL4BT), who Is at present in Australia, was heard speaki’"£ from a VK on 20 metres last Sunday,

NEWS and COMMENTS

by “HENRY”

THE 8.8. C. CHARTER

EXPIRES AT END OF YEAR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE At the end of 1936 the Royal Charter of the British Broadcasting Corporation will expire. It was granted for a period of 10 years in 1926, on the recommendation of a parliamentary committee, and as an experiment in the method of controlling a service in the public interest by a chartered monopoly. In general, the present constitution of tho 8.8. C. represents the new type of organisation of a public utility service. It has certain special features of its own appropriate to the unique service with which it is charged, .but the governing feature is that the State, having established unified control in the public interest, transferred responsibility for the exercise of that control to a public corporation. In addition to its charter, the corporation holds a license and agreement from the Postmaster-General, under the terms of which it actually operates. The 8.8. C. holds the monopoly of broadcasting in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and receives, under the terms of the agreement with the Postmaster-General, an agreed proportion of the revenue derived from the sale of wireless licenses by the Post Office. In 1935 a further committee was appointed by Parliament, under the chairmanship of Viscount XJllswater, to investigate the work of the 8.8. C. during the past nine years. On tho findings of this committee now published the future constitution arid policy of the 8.8. C. may be determined. The committee, after referring to “ tjhe influence of broadcasting on the mind and spirit of the nation,” says that “ a great debt of gratitude is owed to the wisdom which founded the British Broadcasting Corporation in its present form, and to the prudence and idealism which have characterised its operations.” Among the recommendations of the committee are:—That the charter of the 8.8. C., with certain modifications, be extended as from January 1 next. That the governors be appointed in future by the Crown on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. Their number be increased frqm five to seven. That the present policy of decentralisation and of using regional programme material be continued. That direct advertisement be excluded as heretofore from B.G.C. programmes. That great importance be attached to the maintenance and development of the Empire service, which- should be recognised as an important, noimal function of the broadcasting organisation in this country;

There is not likely to be a major difference of opinion on these recommendations, except over the length ot life for the new charter. A longer period has important advantages when it comes to planning the future of a costlv, and swiftly expanding service The ’ fairness of returning more ot their 10 shillings to listeners in the shape of better (programmes and other advantages is uncontroversial. Last year the 8.33. C. took 5s 2d, and the balance went to the State, partly to pay for the service of the Post Office, but largely for general revenue purposes. Since the charter was granted £9,782,000, ' drawn from license fees, has gone to the Exchequer. There are, however, several proposals advanced by the committee which will not be received without opposition.

The corporation lias, in its brief history, been called upon to play a part unsupported by _ precedent, through more than one episode of high national importance—the death of a reigning Sovereign, three general elections, and a general strike. _ Its engineers have had to wrestle with a continually changing series of scientific problems. Those in chaise of its programmes have been required to create, as they went along, new ways of spreading education and entertainment. It would have been easy for them to lapse into an unambitious and unprincipled observance of what was deemed to be the widest—-and—lowest—standard of popular taste. Instead, they have sought to make broadcasting a reflection of all the vitality and diversity in our national culture. The future of this great experiment can be shaped by thoughtful public opinion, to which the 8.8. C. is invariably responsive. The nature of the mandate given to those responsible for the day-to-day direction of broadcasting is thus a matter of the utmost significance. STRAY SPARKS A Cambridge man, Mr J. L. Sullivan, has received word that ho has won the world championship organised by tho International DX Association for the largest number of verifications lor the year ended August. 1930.

Tiie subsidy granted from the Unemployment Fund for the purpose of encouraging the creation of theatre orchestras and bands gave rise to a demand for the services of skilled musicians, wind instrumentalists being specially in favour. As a consequence most of the players of wind instruments in the IYA studio orchestra sought fresh fields, and the orchestra, perlorce, became a string one.

The Honolulu station KG (I (750 kc) is multilingual. Coloured races in Hawaii comprised about 90 per cent, of the population of listeners, and each day KGU broadcasts in Japanese for one hour, in Chinese for one hour., and in Filipino for half an hour.

Because of the success of the first competition held a few weeks ago, station 4ZO has decided to hold a weekly contest until further notice. The first of the present series was held last Monday night, ami was modelled on similar lines to the previous one. Over 400 entries were received within the next few days. The next will be on Monday, at 9.15 p.m

SEARCHERS OF THE ETHER ITEMS FOR THE DXERS RECEPTION GENERALLY IMPROVING. Although static has eased considerably, it still continues to be annoying in the search for the weaker signals of overseas stations. The volume of the evening Americans has improved slightly, but these stations are, with a few exceptions, not yet up to the mark. Tho Hawaiian, KGU. Honolulu, on 750 kc, is by far the most consistent, and on some nights is very nearly equal to Kl'l, Los Angeles, on 640 kc, in volume. It Broadcasts on a clear channel until 8.30 or 9 p.m. here. The Pacific Coasters are more consistent than the Central and Eastern stations. The latter put in an appearance at about 4.30 p.m., and when 4YA was off the air last Sunday several of these were heard, the best being WFAA, Dallas, Texas, on 800 kc. These stations come in too early at good volume, with the result that they do not reach any greatvolume later and are not steady and consistent. The Commonwealth stations are coming in earlier each week, and can now be heard shortly after 5.30 p.m. At the present time SRM, Renmnrk, on 850 kc, is providing an exceptionally good signal, and can be logged easily from 8.30 p.m. until midnight, when it closes down. So far nothing has been heard of the two new Queensland stations, 4LG, Longreach, on l,lookc, and 4VL, Charleville, on • 1,430 kc, as their rivals, 7LA, Launceston, and 2WL, Wollongong, are too strong. No in ore. changes have taken place, nor any of the proposed new stations commenced operations, but a watch should be kept, because of the possibility of a test programme in the early hours of the morning. The small Australian transmitters are not as good as usual, but, nevertheless, are providing good DX. VK4JN, Mitchelton, on 1,290 kc, has put in an appearance, and one of the best VK signals on Monday mornings until closing at approximately 1.30 (New Zealand time). VE3EL, Ehvood, 5.3, operating on 1,232ke, on Monday mornings does not put out a very loud signal, and is not in the same class as 3HF, on 1,400 kc, and 3LU, oh. 1,173 kc, but can he logged after a little patience. SEL’s speech is not as good as it could be, thereby making the Hogging a little harder. Eastern stations are providing fairly good signals, especially the Japanese, the best being JOCK2, Nagoya, on 1,175 kc, and JOBKX and JOBK2, both in Osaka, and on 750 kc and 1.085ke respectively. VUG, Calcutta, India, on 810 kc, has improved in volume lately, and has been heard playing popular dance items on Sunday mornings before closing at 3.36 a.m. here. Other stations, many of them unidentified, have been heard. WLW ASKS FOR REPORTS, The super-powered station WLW writes the following:—“This is to verify and acknowledge your recent; reception report of our station WLW. This station operates on an assigned frequency of V’OOks (428.3 metres), with a power of 500,000 watts. The daily oxieratiug schedule of WLW is as follows: —We go on the air in the morning at 6.30, and then oxierate for 19J continuous hours, signing off the following morning at 2 o’clock (E.S.T.). Radio broadcasting is comX>arable with the stage, excexit in one vital respect—a theatre manager can hear the immediate applause, whereas a broadcaster must depend upon the mail the listener sends to him. We, therefore, appreciate and desire any comments you have to make. You can be assured that your letter is readily apxu’eciatcd. Each and every letter that station WLW receives is read carefully by one of our executives. Tho departmental managers realise that they must do this to keep abreast of the times. Therefore, when you have some comments to make, write to ns —won’t you? This will help ns tremendously in our endeavour to serve you. In the futnre we trust that you will continue to enjoy good reception of our station WLW, and that our varied programmes will always please and entertain you.” WLW is the world's most xioworfnl broadcasting station, but will not hold this distinction very long, as the doctor owner of XERA. Vila Acuna, on 840 ke, has hopes of building a similar 500.000-watt transmitter. The antenna used by WLW is a vertical mast 831 ft high, and is cigar shaped. The base rests on a seemingly fragile piece of cup-sliaped porcelain TJin in thickness. The foundation of this hollow porcelain base is 70ft beneath the ground, and it suxiports a total stress load of 450 tons, including 135 tons of structural steel. One milion gallons of water a day is circulated to cool tho tubes, together witli the use of 1,350,000 cubic feet of air an hour. WLW can be heard in New Zealand all the year round from 11 p.m. in the summer months and from approximately 4.30, p.m, lo 6.30 p.m. in the winter months.. SHORT WAVE FLASHES. Conditions during the past week have heen fairly good for short wave l)X. The Daventry transmitters have provided some good signals, the Anzac commemoration programme on Saturday last coming through splendidly. Listeners should note that overseas stations arc coming in half an hour earlier now that Now Zealand has returned to_ standard time, and therefore close earlier. Daventry opens at 4.45 p.m. and closes at 6.-15 (X.Z.T.). while the German transmission for South Asia opens at 8.20 p.m. A station which was causili" listeners some difficulty to identify is HJU, Beunoventnra. Colombia, operating on 950 megs (31.59 metros). It closes down playing ‘ Good-night, Sweetheart.’ The station is owned by tho National Railways. Another fairly new station for listeners to listen for is HH3W. Port an Prinoe. Haiti, operating on 9.595 megs from 5.30 to 6J!O a.m. and from 11.30 a.m. (o I p.m. (N.Z.T.). The operator

of Uio station is Mr 0. Ricardo, Widmaier. who owns amateur station HH2W.

VK3ME, Melbourne, lias changed its frequency to 9.49 megs to prevent the unpleasant interference with GSB. The amateurs on 20 metres arc still very much in evidence, XE2AH, Tijuana. being very good. This is operated bv the owner of station XEMO.

HPIA, Panama City, Republic of Panama, is another regular visitor to our dials, and is operated by R. D. Prescott. Box. 32, Panama City. The W stations on “ fone ” are too numerous to mention, but W2OA, W6LLQ. W6S.T, and W6CQG have been R 9 at times, while V.K.s have been as numerous as the Americans. V.K.s, 2AS, 2LC. 2BW, and 488 are the best. RECENT LOGGINGS. ( 'ZL42O ” sends in a list of his recent loggings on short waves. These are:— On 14 megs.—lllsX. HKIZ, GTSUR, D4XCG. SAISSX, SMSSU. OA4I, OM2RX, VP6TB. VOU, VQ3EWA, HC2HP. OH3NP. VIvIDC. VP7NG, FKB AA, VSIA.T,' HA ESC. CNIGP, K4BRN. VP9R. MX2A, SPIGZ, ON4P. Also many W’s, W6LLQ being the best, with VK2BQ top from Australia. On 7 megs.—VK2D.L takes pride of place. VK2ABC. 2ABD, 2ABG. 2ABH,, and VK4FTA, with plent CW QRM. On 3.5 megs.—Plenty QI’N, with several VK.s getting through, 2ABJ being RG, A SAG. Throe nights in succession PCJ’S SCHEDULE. Philips transmitting station PCJ, transmitting on 19.71 metres, operates every Tuesday from 7.30 p.m. to 10.30 p.m., and on 'Wednesday from 11.30 p.m. to 3.30 a.in. on Thursday (New Zealand time). Philips Lamps (New Zealand) Ltd.. Post Office Box 1,673, Wellington, will welcome any reports from listeners regarding transmissions, anti will ho pleased to forward them on In 1 he sia Lion.