RADIO LOG BOOK

Evening Star, Issue 23421, 11 November 1939, Page 4

RADIO LOG BOOK

DILEMMA , Joseph Ries, • director of the New ■JTork World’s/Fair, studios of WLW, parted taking private lessons in Polish Cat the beginning of the war, but his books did not arrive until after Germany and Russia had split up the country. Now Ries is in a quandary. Will Polish names continue in the war news, or should he turn attention to brushing up on his German and French? MILLS BROTHERS ON TOUR The Mills Brothers, negro vocal instrumentalists, are now in Australia, and broadcast from 2PC each Saturday at 10 ip.m. The Mills combination pioneered the type of entertainment copied bv the Comedy Harmonists, and are more melodious than the Gcrman-Aus-trian party. One of the four brothers died some time ago, and his place was filled by his father, The Harmonists carry a pianist as accompanist, but the Mills Brothers are supported by a guitarist. NEW AUSTRALIAN A new national relay station. 4QS, Dalby, has just been opened in Queensland. COMMANDEERED Jeanne Gautier, a famous French woman violinist, was on the way to Australia under engagement to the A.B.C when the ship on which she was travelling was commandeered at Bombay by the Admiralty. She has now completed the journey, and has commenced her broadcasting tour. “ TRUTH, PEACE, AND FREEDOM " STATION The German rebel station on 29.8 metres is broadcasting pretty regularly between 8 and 8.30 a.m. New Zealand time, but is often jammed bv Nazi transmitters. A Sydney man who speaks German translates one opening announcement as follows :—“ This is the voice of truth, peace, and freedom-lov-ing German people on wave 29.8.” INITIATIVE Quick work by Joseph Rice (WLW studio director at the New York World’s Fair) saved a recent broadcast from disaster. A local power failure threw the etudio building into darkness and the personnel into a dilemma, solved when Ries had an automobile driven into the building to give headlight illumination. The engineer then set up the battery equipment which i« kept for emergency, and the programme went on. CUTTING A THREAD The average “ ham ” not being blessed with a complete workshop, is often caught „ without the means of running a thread. This method should see .him through the difficulty:— Take a bolt having a thread of the required pitch and file the end on three sidee, so as to leave three small parts of the thread. These act as the cutting edges. When the bolt is screwed through a hole slightly smaller in diameter, it leaves behind a clean thread. This device is found effective for all soft materials such as aluminium and bakelite.

FULL POWERS Some time ago Australian theatrical interests talked of Challenging the legality of the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s activities in the entertainment field, alleging that it was not empowered by legislation to conduct concerts outside its studios. .A clause in an amended Brodacasting Act gives the commission full powers to organise or subsidise public concerts and entertainments, provided that some part of the programme is broadcast. HAM MEETING The next annual meeting of the N.Z.A.R.T. will be at Wellington during the New Year period, on a date to be decided later. A MISTAKE On her return to Sydney Gladys Moncrieff announced that she had decided to abandon musical comedy for, the concert platform. “In taking up serious concert singing,” she said, n my inspiration has been Lotto Lehmann.” Physical condition bars Miss Moncrieff from musical comedy on the stage, but if she is wise she will stick to popular numbers, as she did not make a hit with serious songs on her last New Zealand tour. —‘ Titnaru Herald.’ MOST POWERFUL SIGNAL Station WLW will remain on the air 24 hours a day to bring European news when American Press Associations and networks indicate their plans to function past the normal deadline. During the time of the European crisis and its culmination in warfare, WLW stayed on the air constantly. The cost of this overtime operation, together with commercial broadcast cancellations for war news, approximated 25,000 dollars. _WLWO (formerly known as WBXAL) is scheduled to shift from 10,000 to 50,000 watts shortly, and will have access to six different frequencies. The new station will use two transmitters, enabling engineers to change from one frequency to another without loss of time. A directional beam antenna will provide a signal strength of approximately 000,000 watts, the most powerful iu the world.