PROGRESS IN RADIO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22084, 13 April 1935, Page 14

PROGRESS IN RADIO

NEW ZEALAND PRAISED VIEWS OF MR. E. T. FISK MODERN AUCKLAND STUDIOS "The new IYA studio building is a great credit to the Broadcasting Board," said Mr. E. T. Fi.sk, managingdirector of Amalgamated Wireless (Aus-* tralasia), Limited; in an interview yesterday. "While it is on a smaller scale than many in the great centres of population, it is excellently designed and thoroughly up to date from jthe technical point of ; vicw." AJr. Fisk. who arrived in Auckland from Wellington yesterday, will leave with his family by the Rangitano to-day on a business trip to Britain and the Continent. He intends to spend some time in the United States on the return journey to Australia • The Broadcasting Board was following a sound policy in providing stations of comparatively high power with the object of giving a good local service to all parts of New Zealand. Mr. Fisk continued. It was important in broadcasting to provide as much "field strength" as possible in order to overcome atmospheric and other interference. Listeners had no cause for complaint if they now found it more difficult to tune in Australian, stations. By European or American standards, the ether in Australia and New Zealand was still not at all overcrowded. The Broadcasting Board would be failing in its duty if it sacrificed its own service in order that Australian stations might be heard to the best advantage. Speaking of broadcasting in Australia, Mr. Fisk said that progress was being made in erecting stations of considerable power—up to 7 J kilowatts —to serve the country districts. For the remoter back-blocks, short-wave transmissions were proving successful. The chief drawback was the "skip-dis-dance," which created a zone within which a station could not bo heard. Beyond that, reception was usually good, with little trouble from atmospherics. The wide popularity of all-wave sets made it possible for backblocks people to get suitable apparatus quite easily. The radio industry was advancing very rapidly in Australia, ■ and almost 100 per cent of the sets sold were now locally made. The same applied to most components except valves, although the latter were being made in large quantities. Radio manufacture gave much employment, and if war should occur it would be a most valuable national asset. The public did not seem to be fully aware of the technical progress being made in commercial wireless, Mr. Fisk remarked. Perhaps the most important advance had been in aids to sea and air navigation, such as direction-find-ing. Echo-sounding, while not quite in the category of wireless, was technically akin to it. By his experiments last year, Marconi had shown that the use of directional micro-waves enabled a vessel to bo steered with remarkable accuracy over a t6rtuous course on entering or leaving port.