EMPIRE BROADCASTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 693, 19 June 1929, Page 14

EMPIRE BROADCASTS

BRITAIN LAGS BEHIND

CHARGE OF APATHY

“Britain will shortly stand alone as the only country possessing extensive overseas territories without an adequate broadcasting service,” says the “Daily News,” revealing the extent to which other nations are developing such services.

Two important orders for the design and manufacture of powerful shortwave wireless transmitters, says the “Daily News,” have been received by Marconi’s from foreign broadcasting authorities —the Italian Broadcasting Company and the Soclete Beige Radio-Electrique, on behalf of the Belgian Government. Both transmitters will be specially used for the transmission of programmes from these countries to their colonies, and will thus provide special broadcast facilities for their overseas subjects. United States Programmes

The “Daily News” proceeds to attack the British Broadcasting Corporation’s “incomprehensible apathy,” which has resulted in other countries leaping ahead, while Empire listeners are compelled to listen to United States programmes. A correspondent of “The Sydney Sun” questioned the broadcasing corporation, pointing out that experiments bad been carried on for 18 months without having established an Empirewide broadcasting scheme, except for the SSW experimental broadcasts. A corporation official denied that there was apathy. He said that the corporation was doing as much, if not more, than any other country. Em-pire-wide broadcasts were given daily from SSW, and, although called experimental, they were extensive short-w-ave programmes, covering more hours than those of any other countries dispatching to overseas possessions.

The corporation considers that it is too early to establish Empire broadcasting on a permanent scale. It is still largely experimental, and does not justify heavy expenditure because wireless is developing so fast that what is established today might have to be scrapped tomorrow. “Britain will have permanent Em-pire-wide broadcasting as soon as the corporation is satisfied that the experimental stage has been passed,” added the official. IYA MUSICAL COMMITTEE The IYA Musical and Dramatic Committee met at the Auckland studios of the Radio Broadcasting Company on Friday. Present: Mr. Karl Atkinson, in the chair, Auckland Gramophone Society; Mr. A. B. Chappell, Dickens Fellowship Society; Mr. V. Trask, Athenian Club; Mr. J. Tait, Society of Musicians; Mr. N. M. Richmond, Workers’ Educational Association; Mr. C. B. Plummer, Auckland Choral Society; Mr. J. F. Montague, Auckland Comedy Players; Miss R. Walker, University Students’ Association; Mr. L. C. Barnes, station director at IYA; Mr. D. Wrathall, programme organiser at IYA. A letter was received from the Bohemian Orchestra, offering the Broadcasting Company one or two items from their semi-final rehearsal of their next and second concert. The offer was recommended for approval. A suggestion to hold elocutionary competitions for children together with the suggestion for entertaining short talks on music to the children was referred to the childrens’ committee. The Victoria College debating team, which is shortly to tour America, will hold a debate against a team from the Auckland University in September, and the offer from the Auckland University Students’ Association to broadcast this debate was accepted. It was reported that the IYA broadcasting choir’s first rehearsal was to take place on June 10, the first work being Sterndale Bennett’s “May Queen.” DIRECTIONAL AERIALS A vertical aerial is one of: the most efficient of all forms of antenna, and as it has no directional qualities it is an excellent form for broadcast receiving purposes, although difficult to erect. Another panacea for jamming frequently offered is a frame aerial, which you are told is so directional that you literally turn it away from interfering transmitters. But a frame earial really is an inefficient collector of energy, and you have to add two or three valves before you retrieve your lost sensitivity. An outdoor aerial can be highly directional—a point you may have overlooked. Most outdoor aerials take the form of inverted “L’s.” That is, there is a horizontal or nearly horizontal wire or wires, which continue in a vertical wire, generally termed the "down lead.” Such an aerial receives best from the direction to which the down lead is pointing. Threfore you can, within limits, add or take away the strength of the signals received from various stations by swinging the free end (the end farthest from the down lead) of the aerial round.