RADIO WORLD HAPPENINGS

Franklin Times, Volume XXV, Issue 59, 24 May 1935, Page 2

RADIO WORLD HAPPENINGS

ANSWERING ENQUIRIES. Any listener having an enquiry that lie or she desires answered is invited to write in to the editor of this column setting forth as briefly as possible the nature of the information required, giving a pen-name, and enclosing name and address as an indication of good ,faith. Enquiries will be answered in this column under the nom de plume supplied. STATION 4YA. Difficulties are retarding progress on the construction of the building to house the new 4YA transmitter, so that it will not be until, toward the end of July that the engineers will be able to commence the assembly and installation of the plant. As this is a somewhat lengthy business, gauged by the time required in the case of IYA, it is unlikely that the transmitter will be ready for testing until about the middle of September. A few weeks should suffice for the preliminary trying out of the plant, which should be prepared for its regular schedule about the beginning of November. TALLER AND TALLER. About £50,000 is shortly to be spent on the construction of a new station, to be called 6WA, with a mast 700 feet high—2oo feet higher than lY'A’s Henderson mast, which has since its erection claimed the title of the tallest structure south of the Equator. This new station is to be the national broadcasting transmitter which is being erected at Minding, 14 miles west of Wagin, in Western Australia. Work on the station is well advanced, and it will transmit on a wave-length of 536 metres. The initial power of the station will be ten kilowatts in the aerial, but the plans provide for a power'of 60 kilowatts. The station is designed to serve an area with a population of 78,000, in which there are only about 4500 listeners at present. It is expected that 6WA will be in operation before the end of the year, providing day-and-night reception over a 200-mile radius.

FRENCH LESSONS. Under the auspices of the Tufts Service Centre for Modern Language Teachers of New England, U.S.A., ; series of French broadcasts has been planned over WIXAL as the first step in teaching languages. STATION AT PORT MORESBY. Port Moresby is to have its own broadcasting station, the equipment having been dispatched a week or so ago from Sydney by Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Limited. Residents of Papua and the mandated territory will thus be able to hear radio programmes without excessive .atmospheric interference. The new station, to be known as 4PM, will be conducted by A.W.A., by which company the plant was designed and manufactured. The transmitter is of the latest high fidelity type, and will have a power of 100 watts in the aerial, operating on a wavelength of 221 metres. The Port Moresby station will be the first broadcaster in the South Pacific Islands. AN EFFICIENT AERIAL. From a short length of ordinary wire-netting a very efficient aerial may be built, writes “Spark Gap,” in the “Australian Journal.” Three yards should be sufficient. This should be tacked to two light slats of wood slung between two poles, using a length of copper wire soldered to one end of the wide-netting as a lead-in. This type of aerial has proved very satisfactory for reception where the ordinary single-wire aerial has failed to bring in distant stations. An ordinary wire mattress has frequently been used as an efficient aerial, even with a crystal set, and during the cricket season the writer used such an aerial to bring him in the latest scores as he was lying in bed. It is a wise plan to overhaul the aerial and earth once every three months. Often it will be found that the aerial has corroded or that the insulators are coated with grime, partially short-circuiting them. This is more prevalent in late summer than in winter, as the rain usually washes the insulators clean. Attention should also be paid to the leadin tube, as a bad connection here will ( undo the work of the best of aerials.

DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN. 2FC and 2BL are both rated at 5000 watts, and their studios are in the same -building-, hut by one of those freak 3 of the ether that no one can fathom they vary greatly in volume. At some periods 2FG is 50 per cent more powerful than its neighbour, and at H others the position is reversed. Lately it has been 2BL’s turn to be in the ascendant. The only explanation for this phenomenon seems to be that the atmosphere is more receptive to a particular frequency at one time than another.

THE NEW 3YA. • In a few weeks the aerial power of 3YA, Christchurch, at present 2 A kilowatts, will be permanently increased to 10 kilowatts, equal to IYA and twice that of 2YA. The present extensions to the transmitter, in addition to increasing the output fourfold, aim at thoroughly modernising the equipment so that it may in all respects reach the same standard of excellence as the Auckland plant. It is expected that much louder and clearer signals will be received from 3YA and that in consequence listeners will be in a position to avail themselves of the recent programme co-ordination and listen to 3YA when other' programmes of IYA do not appeal. AERIAL LEAD-IN. Set owners frequently And that the matters of bringing the lead-in into the house is something of a problem. The usual flexible straps that go under the windows are highly unsatisfactory, as their insulation is poor and their construction weak. Many people consider the idea of drilling the upper pane of the window, and using small feed-through insulators. This „ unquestionably makes a neat arrangement, but the possibility of cracking the glass is so great that the job should be attempted only by a man who has had considerable experience. A safer plan is to install a snugly-flt-ting strip of \vood in the window, frame, with the holes for the insulators cut in it with a reliable M augur bit. If the available window is of the casement type, it is a simple matter to remove one small pane and to replace it by a well-varnished or shellaced board. In all cases, the lead-in on the optside should be looped downward a little below the insulators, so that rain-water will drip off.