THE WIRELESS WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22627, 19 July 1935, Page 3

THE WIRELESS WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES By Magna Vox. Items of local interest are invited by " Magna Vox" for publication in this column. It is necessary that such matter should reach this office by Tuesday of each week for insertion on the following Friday. 2BL, Sydney.—Bss K.C., 353 metres. 2FC. Sydney.—66s K.C., 422 metres. 3AR, Melbourne.—62o K.C., 492 metre* 3LO. Melbourne.—B3o K.C.. 371 metres. 6CL. Adelaide.—73o K.C.. 395 metres. 4QG, Brisbane.—76o K.C., 885 metres. IYA, Auckland.—6so K.C., 461.3 metres 2YA, Wellington.—s7o K.C., 526 metres. 3YA, Chrlstcburch.—72o K.C., 416.4 metres. 4YA Dunedln.—79o K.C.. 379.5 metres. 4YO. Dunedln.—ll4o K.C., 261 metres. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. " Dead-end," Middlemarch.— Obviously you have not built the set to the original circuit, and as the trouble is in the tuning end of the receiver I would suggest that you have not made correctly the modification required to use this type of kit. Unfortunately, you give me very little information on this point. I can only advise you to make sure that your circuit and connections are quite right. If the set canndt be made to work, then I should suspect the coil kit, but this is hard to estimate, as I do not even know just what circuit you have used, or how you have modified it to suit the different coil kit. F. R. D., Anderson's Bay.—lt is not necessary in most cases where the average aerial coil is used. It will, however, enable a better impedance match to be had with the aerial, especially if one of the high impedance aerial coils are used. I would suggest thaV you first of all try coupling without .the transformer, and not worry over it unless your volume drops, or results are not what you think they should be. The average cost of the coils is about IBs, and they can be procured from almost any radio dealer. "New Chum," M'Lennan. —The best plan for you is to use the battery edition of the converter, although it is preferable to use such a converter only with a fairly sensitive battery set of about six valves. It is impossible to say much about the conversion of a short-wave set, without a list of parts, but I should think it would be possible. You could use three valves. Any combination would serve so long as each valve was suitable for its socket. Why not write again and tell me what valves you have to give me an idea what types to suggest? I could suggest several good combinations for everything from 2 to 6 volts operation. To get the voltages mentioned use one 60 volt block for/the 60 volts and another 45 volt battery to make up the remainder. Use an aerial as high as possible and about 40 feet •in length for short-wave recer„ion. 3YA'S POWER. It is announced that owing to the inability of the Public Works Department to complete the construction of the power-transmission line the power of the new 3YA plant will not be increased from its present 2£ to 10 kilowatts until some time next month. The delay has arisen owing to difficulty in securing delivery of necessary poles and insulators for the power line. It is hoped that the projected output of 10. kilowatts will enable 3YA ,to put down, over much of the South Island and part of the signal strength to over-ride the noise level, and thus ensure excellent reception.

FOR MEN ONLY. London's latest pre-breakfast amusement is " face golf. It was started by Punch, and has caught on astonishingly. The idea is that whilst shavings each morning a man counts the strokes necessary to secure a clean shave. Strokes are to be on one plane only—a stroke down the cheek and round the chin is forbidden. 2UVV Sydney has seized on the idea, and will give the man who claims to be. able to complete a round effectively in the least number of strokes a chance to broadcast a stroke-by-stroke description of his achievement. The prize will be a razor specially designed to reduce strokes per round, At last here is a sport tne women cannot break into! . ' RECORDS BANNED. A new station is to be established on the top of the Princess Theatre, Melbourne. It will have the call sign 3XY, and will be known as the Efftee Broadcasting Station. It will operate on 1420 kilocycles (211 metres). 3XY will specialise in flesh and blood artists, in preference to recordings, and will have a power of 600 watts unmodulated in the aerial. It is expected that the station will be in operation by the beginning /Oi September. DAVENTRY TRANSMISSIONS. The Daventry short-wave transmissions have been modified, and from next Sunday week the following schedule will be observed, the times given being New Zealand standard and the compass points the optimum direction of the radiated wave: —GSB-GSD, east and west, 4.45 p.m. to 6.45 p.m.; GSG-GSF, east and west, 10.30 p.m. to 12.15 a.m.; GSG-GSF, east and west, 1.30 a.m. to 3.15 a.m.; GSE, 3.30 a.m. to 4.30 a.m.; GSB-GSD, north and 60Uth, 4.45 a.m. to 8.30 a.m.; GSD, north and south, 8.45 a.m. to 11.15 a.m.; GSD, north-west and south-east, 10.30 a.m. to 12;30 p.m.; GSC, east and west, 10.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. On Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays any two of GSD, GSC or GSL on north-westerly and south-easterly directions will transmit' between 2.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. There are, in addition, two experimental transmissions on GSI and GSL radiating north-east and southwest or north and south, depending on conditions between 4.45 a.m. and 8.30 'a.m.

FRENCH BROADCASTING CONTROL. By a recently enacted decree France has embarked on a most democratic method of controlling radio broadcasting, especially the programme eide of the service. Each person who payg a radio licence fee a member of a district association and may vote in the selection of 10 elected members of the committee which manages the Government broadcasting station of that particular district. The elected members form a substantial portion of the various committees, the Government appointing a few members only. In addition, there is a central body for the whole country, but this body has advisory powers only. GERMAN SHORT WAVES. Germany is making every effort to make her world broadcasting service on the short waves as good as anything of its kind. Taking a leaf out of Daventry's book, the Germans have now instituted zone broadcasting, no less than five different transmissions, each intended tor a particular part of the world, being given during the 24 hours, and each upon the wavelength most suitable to the hour, says the Wireless World. Were the service to be purely for entertainment purposes, everyone would welcome it with open arms. .TELEVISION POSSIBILITIES.

The 8.8. C. will shortly commence a television service, with a coverage of 25 miles. Alternate programmes are to be given by Baird and Marconi systems. Receivers capable of handling the service are estimated to cost from £SO to £BO. Germany now plans to go- past the experimental stage and will inaugurate a " regular" service from Witzleben, but only three programmes of 1* hours are to be transmitted each week. People who hope to see television in New Zealand shortly will be surprised to learn that the stations now being installed in London will cost nearly £200,000 —and the R.C.A. promises to make them backnumbers insk'e 18 month* ' ''•*• • •■» n--change). Such a station in New Zealand would run into about £300,000, and Receivers would cost from iiuu uuwiiru.s. Programmes would last only an hour or two a day, so it is obvious that television is out of our financial range just yet.

LATEST LICENSE FIGURES. The increasing popularity of radio as an entertainment is shown by the latest figures released by the Poet and Telegraph Department showing the total number ot licensed listeners. Up until May 31 last the numbers of receivers licensed in Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago respectively were 48,142, 58,9a0, 28,701, and 21,710, a total for the Dominion of 157,508. The figures for the corresponding date last year were 120,893. Broadcasting licenses were reduced by one to a total of 24. Up to May 31 there was an increase of 61 in the number of dealers' licenses. Perhaps the radio license figures are the only infallible barometer as to the success or otherwise of a broadcasting policy. If that be the case it is interesting to see the license increases have remained normal, some 35,000 on the preceding year. All told, there are over 157,000 radio licenses at the present moment. If the average radio set represents a family of four there are very nearly three-quarters of a million listeners in New Zealand. This leaves about three-quarters of_ a million people who have not facilities for listening to the programmes. It will never be possible to obtain 100 per cent, of a population as listeners, but at present no country in the world seems to have reached saturation point. It will not be long before there are 10,000,000 licenses in England. This will represent about 40,000,000 listeners, which is the whole population in rough figures. It would seem, therefore, that when we reach license totals of one-quarter of our population, say 400,000, we shall be very near to saturation point. One outstanding fact, however, is that in matters of this nature there are no facts to go on. ADAPTORS AND CONVERTERS. More and more interest is being taken in overseas short-wave broadcasting, which is the only satisfactory means by which very distant countries may be hpard. Manufacturers have gone as far as they can to meet thi6 position by producing receivers which cover both the ordinary broadcasting range of wavelengths and the short waves' as well, and the proud possessors of these modern sets are able to arouse a good deal of envy among those whose outfits are a littie older. Consequently there is a tendency among the latter to consider " turning in" their old receivers and getting new ones, until they find that the "turning-in" process is not a very profitable one. However, it is possible to obtain supplementary apparatus which will enable a broadcast receiver to deal with short-wave transmissions quite successfully. There are two types of this apparatus—adaptors and converters. An adaptor is in itself a complete short-wave receiver which, if desired, can be used independently with a pair of head-phones! It consists of a detector, with or without a radio frequency stage, and for use with an existing set must be connected up in the same way as a gramophone pick-up would be. If there is anything in favour of the adaptor, it is its availability for use with headphones," for there are points in usimr these for shortwave listening. (One such point is that very often the rest of the family do not want to listen.) There is not much else in favour of adaptors The converter is rather more elaborate. It is a superheterodyne stage, and has the effect of converting the short-wave transmission into one of 500 metres or so, which can be dealt with by the standard receiver. A good converter will be constructed with two or more valves, unless it uses some of the complicated multiple-service valves that have been developed lately. It is not usable aa a separate unit.