LOGGING THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18629, 26 July 1930, Page 15

LOGGING THE SOUTHERN CROSS.

A good many Australian short-wave workers tried to pick up the messages sent out by the Southern Cross dur- , ing Kingsford Smith’s trans-Atlantic flight. Many of them heard signals from the monoplane, but only one seems to have received a pairly intelligible story. This was Mr J. Duffy, of Waverley, Sydney, who began receiving at 10.30 (Australian time) on the Tuesday night. From two to three o’clock on Wednesday morning, he was able to listen to the Morse on the loud speaker; and he closed down at 4.10 a.m. “There was a good deal of interference from WEC,” said Mr Duffy; “but WEC is crystal-controlled, and has a high-pitched note. VMZAB (Southern Cross), on the other hand, has a low-pitched note, and consequently it was easy, after a while to differentiate between the two transmissions.” The messages which Mr Duffy took down were pirated in the "Daily Guardian” on Wednesday morning. WAVELETS. A British subject, living in America, was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment recently for pirating radio programmes, deceiving the listening audience, and operating a broadcasting station without a licence. He used to set up a microphone in front of his loudspeaker, and re-broadcast programmes of the chief American stations using his own (unregistered) call-sign. To aid its announcers and actors in the correct pronunciation of difficult and disputed words, the British Broadcasting Co. has secured the services of Dr C. T. Onions, editor of the Oxford Dictionary, and Professor Lascelles Abercrombie. These two men, through the advisory committee on spoken English, will fell the 8.8. C. what pronunciation of certain doubtful words shall be used by announcers. And an announcer needs aid in pronouncing words for he runs into many foreign to his native tongue that are difficult to speak correstly.

Sir William Waterlow, Lord Mayor of London, by pressing a button in the Mansion House opened the Melbourne Radio Exhibition. Direct communication had been obtained between the Mansion House and the operator on the stage of the Melbourne City Hall, and at a given signal the Lord Mayor tapped a key, whereupon in the exhibition, 11,000 miles away, a sign was displayed announcing that the show was open. Within a quarter of an hour a cablegram was handed to the Lord Mayor from Melbourne, announcing the complete succes of the demonstration. Later in the day additional lights were switched on in Melbourne by the Mayoyrs of Montreal, Wellington, and from Fiji.

Ten new B Stations are to be licenced in Australia. They are:—N.S.W.— 2AY, Charles Rice, Radio House, 610 Dean St., Albury, 227 metres, 50 watts; 2MO, M. J. Oliver, Gunnedah. 200 metres, 50 watts; 2XN, G. W. Eaton, Lismore, 224 metres, 50 watts. Victoria. —3KZ, Industrial Printing and Publicity Co., 24-30 Victoria St., Carlton, N. 3., 222 metres, 200 watts; 3TR, Gippslands Broadcasting Service, Trafalgar, Ltd., Trafalgar, 234 metres, 50 watts; 3BA, Ballarat Broadcasters Pty., Ltd., 215 Raglan Si., Ballarat, 231 metres, 50 watts. Queensland. —4BC, J. B. Chandler and Co., 43 Adelaide St., Brisbane, 233 metres, 200 watts; 4MK, Williams’ Agencies, Ltd., Mackay, 252 metres, 100 watts. South Australia.— SAD, Advertiser Newspapers Ltd., Weymouth St., Adelaide, 229 metres, 300 watts. Tasmania.—7HO, Findlays Pty., Ltd., 80 Elizabeth St., Hobart, 337 metres, 50 watts. Fortunately nearly all are of very low power, or they might clutter up the air for New Zealand listeners to Australian stations. UMBRELLAS MAY BE LONGER. Long skirts are bringing all sorts of other long things in their train, and among these, probably will be umbrellas. Stubby umbrellas, which matched short skirts so nicely and which were so comfortable to carry, are not supposed, by the aesthetic-ally-minded, to go with long frocks. So the manufacturers are tentatively introducing umbrellas of walking-stick length.

Among the novelty umbrellas, which are always with us, is one that is fitted with an expanding gold bracelet handle. This is intended for use as well as for ornament, and it should be a cause of fewer lost umbrellas.

Another easy to carry umbrella has a disappearing strap. When the umbrella is closed it is held in an inverted position by the strap, but when it is necessary to put up the umbrella the strap is drawn through the handle, to lengthen it. Another umbrella has a decorative knob which is really a box containing powder and puff. This is said to appeal specially to travellers.