“ON THE AIR”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17126, 5 December 1929, Page 12

“ON THE AIR”

THE BEAM SERVICE I )EVELOI’MENT OF WIIIivLESS TELEPHONY -SYDNEY, Nov. 19. Sir George Mason Allard, chairman of directors of Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd., at the annual meeting of shareholders, stated that during the past 12 months Government statistics showed that the beam carried nearly two-thirds of the total traffic between Australia and England. For some months Mr. Fisk and his engineers had been carrying out telephony tests with England. 'I hose tests had proved so successful that all parties had agreed to open a commercial service with the existing apparatus as soon as mutually satisfactory conditions were agreed upon tor the conduct of tho service and with regard to rates. Will FLEAS TELETHON E ,SERVICES Mr. 1.. J\ Fisk, managing director, said: “You have hoard from the chairman that we are carrying, out and have been for a long time carrying out experiments in wireless telephony. For several hours in cadi day from this building we are able to carry on very effective two-way conversations with people in Great Britain and other countries, and we hope very shortly—tlie time now depends very largely upon the various Government departments—to be aide to open what we would call in the first instance a limited wireless telephone service. That will mean that people wishing to ring up—l say that in the ordinary sense, because it will be practically the same as making a trunk call to Melbourne—friends and business associated in Great Britain will come litre, or, if they prefer, will go to the Post Office, where there will be a similar call box, make their call and speak to their people in Great Britain just as you do when you speak to people in Melbourne. Eventually this will he extended to other countries. It will at first he a limited service for a few hours each da v from a call box, but the next stage will be the linking of' the service with all local telephone networks. so that instead of coming here to make a call you will be able to do' it from borne or office by using the ordinary telephone. What will be the value of that service to the company it is not possible to say to-day. It is ipiite new; there is very little experience anywhere in the world to go upon as to the amount of use that will lie made of it, or what is the proper charge to make, but we propose to establish it as soon as possible, and then push it forward for all we are worth.”

DAY OF AERIAL DONE NEW HTGH-POWER, STATION PROJECT MANCHESTER, October 15. Discussing wireless reception, Captain R. P. Eckersley, formerly of the 8.8. C., in a lecture here to-day, stated (he day of the aerial and earth must die. < The ideal set of the future would have no aerial and no earth, would be plugged into electricity mains, worked by. one handle, and “wedded” to a gramophone. “We must he prepared to lhce,’’ he added, “the wedding of the gramophone and the wireless. Then, by means which T cannot reveal here, we shall get many more programmes. You will he able to pick up a permanent service of time signals, a- permanent service of news and quotations of stock prices Television will not come yet, because quantitative conditions are against it.” Speaking of the alternatives offered by long and short wave lengths, Captain Eckersley stated that on a medium wa\e length a wireless station was not worth listening to outside the radius of ICO miles. “It is ‘house full’ in the European ether, so we are aiming at gottipg a few station? of high power serving 981, per cent of the population erf the British Island offering an alternative programme to 85 per cent, of the population.” He added that a sito had been found in the Pennines for a. station to supply an alternative programme for Manchester. It would he working in a year’s (time WIRELESS'RETS FOR MOTOR CARS “PLUGGING-IN” DEVICE LONDON, October 16. Radio engineers seem to l|ave been concentrating on sets- which can be oasilv used on motor cars. On a visit to the*Wireless Exhibition, recently, I was struck by a particularly convenient device of this type. I was told that, one simply has to plug in the set to the electrical equipment of the car, push a- knob, and the set is woiking beautifully. It, had the great advantage of being quite small—for the batteries and accumulators are dispensed with. The old style of portable with its attache case appearance is demoded An upright, model which can be easily converted for use in the drawing room, by simply removing its waterproof cover and carrying strap, has been biouglit out. It, is a. completely self-contained set without earth or aerial wires to ofHend the eyes Ts it always the lady who insists on having the wireless m her car? All these sets are intended to please her. They could even be lacquered free of charge to suit- the car’s color scheme.