WIRELESS WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 January 1926, Page 2

WIRELESS WORLD.

RADIO RIPPLES (By G.Q.”) Wune reception this time of the year is never as good, as in the winter, listeners have small cause to grumble at th« Australian stations thia week. 2BL. while not as loud as usual, has been wonderfully clear, and 3W, Melbourne, has been a little better than last week. 2>FC, Sydney, of course, always has more static than other stations owing to its long wave length Some new stations have been heard on the air of late, and listeners would do well to have a listen for them. One of them is located on the Trades Hall, Sydney, and works on a call of 2>KY. The wave length is listed at 280 metres, hut it seems to ibe working on a somewhat longer wave. This station also broadcasts on the short waves, programmes being sent out on 30 metres, and the signals appear to be much louder on this wave than on the long wave of 2SO. This station holds the unique position of being the only station in Australasia to operate on two waves simultaneously. 2Y*L, Naprer, is another new broadcasting station which should be worth listening for. This station will be operated by Mr. B. C. W. Spackman, who is well known to those who can read ‘Morse as 28M,. and we expect h<» will give good, service if his broadcasting station is as efficient as his short wave transmitter. IAL, Auckland, will be on the air also about January 1, and there is a rumour that another broadcasting station will be starting in Auckland shortly, so New Zealand listeners will have no lack of entertainment in the future.

There are 10,378 wireless receiving sets 'in rural Pennsylvania, it is said, radio appearing to be most popular with farmers round Philadelphia and Pittsburg. During the Rochester industrial exhibition -arrangements were made for amateurs who were members of the American Radio Relay League to transmit messages /ree of charge for visitors to the exposition. Messages were sent and receivefl from many countries and from all over the United States. This service was given gratis, and much appreciation was shown by persons taking advantage of the service. The American Radio Relay League make a general practice of transmitting messages for the public without charge, and they have developed a wonderful net of communication not only throughout the United States but to othei Relay League was start ed in the old days of wireless, when the transmitters and receivers then used by the amateurs would only cover a few miles, and to send a message from one end of the States to the Other, handing it from station to station was a feat to be marvelled at. Now these same amateurs handle messages to almost every part of the world, and amateurs in New Zealand may hear them at it any night if they listen in on the short waves. Of course, such a handling of messages is not permitted in New Zealand, where the Government hold a monopoly, but in the United States privately owned companies handle the commercial telephone and telegraph lines, so no harm is done t-he Government by these free transmissions.

Few* people know that until recently most of the tungsten was mined in New Zealand, and, in fact, she held the mar ket right 'ip te. the close of the Great War. At one time the export of scheelite, as tungsten is called, in the raw state, amounted to over £23,000 a year, the total export from New Zealand being somewhere in the neighbourhood of 23V3 tons, valued at £297,926. Scheelite is found in Otago and Marlborough. Many listeners who heard station KDKA, Pittsburg, some time ago, will be interested in the following which appeared in an American paper some weeks ago.-—Experiments at KDKA show that a low aerial on a hill is better than a high aerial in a valley. In tests made cn a nine storey building in East Pittsburg to a new, site on aYill a mile from the old station, it waa found that signals sent from the low aerial on the hill did not fade so badly, and reached distant cities with greater force. They do not state at what date the change was made, but the signals broadcasted from KDKA used to come in with great volume on 62 metres about three or four months ago. Telephone engineers are tackling the problem of trans-ocean telephone? and it is expected that in the near future a telephone subscriber in London will be able to call any telephone subscriber in New York, or, for that matter, anyone connected to a telephone fxchanee in England would be able to call anyone connected to an exchange in tue I mtvd States. This, if successful, will prove wonderfully useful to business men, who will be able to keep in personal touch with their representatives across the water. The main trouble appears to be static and weather conditions generally. Tests have been carried out through the 24 hours all through the year, and if it was not for adverse weather conditions reliable telephone

communication would be practicable without having to use any groat power at the transmitting station, but, as it if*, it would take a power of over IVO kilowatts to provide reliable telephone communication between England and America. The receiver used has a loop aerial, and the time at which receiving conditions were worst was when the sunset line was between the sending and receiving stations, that is, when one was in daylight and the other was in darkness. It is estimated that the public of Great Britain is spending over £10,000.000 a year, and gives employment to more than 35,000 people in its pursuit of wireless. Now that the holidays are on ns we should take the opportunity to look over our sets and aerials, as there are always little things that want attention, and, if looked, to, will save vou trouble and perhaps a cronk set some night when you have visitors and want to show off. Insulators should be given a good scrub with soap and water to remove dust and spray, which will be found to have accumulated on them. Soldered joints should have attention, and the ground should be looked to. Sometimes when tins have been placed underground the wire that leads from them to the set wifi be found to be corroded, and will take but a slight pul] to detach it from the ground altogether. Pulleys and should lip 'looked to. and if rope is used; it is well to see that it has not rotted during the winter rains. The; -aerial should be tightened up. and everything made tight for another, six months, for little tilings, if left too long, will sometimes give trouble when you have no time to tend to them, and perhaps spoil many : nights! recepuon before the cause of the i trouble is located, ;