ON THE BROADCAST BAND

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19512, 10 June 1933, Page 15

ON THE BROADCAST BAND

Church services to be relayed tomorrow night are:—lYA, St. Andrews Presbyterian; 2YA, Vivian Street Baptist; 3YA, Church of Christ; 4YA, Moray Place Congregational.

“There is nothing like a sea trip to bring the best out of you.”—Unconscious humour by a Sydney B announcer.

3YA's senior announcer has returned to duty. A good man is not properly appreciated until a substitute has to be endured.

At 9 o’clock to-night, 4YA will broadcast a record on "Golf Hints” by Archie Compston.

Community singing started from BYA on Thursday. All the cities now have a midday session on one day during the week.

It is understood that the Broadcasting Board is paying £lO per station for each of the 8.8. C. recordings.

Many listeners report good reception of Australian stations from midday onwards on some days during the last

Two girls read a Home Science "talk” from 4YA last week boosting cotton as the ideal winter underwear. That would be a popular item with the Use No More Wool campaigners. The talk would have been more convincing had it been less giggly.

The King’s Speech at the opening of the World Economic Conference on Monday will be recorded by blattnerphone, and broadcast by Daventry at 5.30 p.m. (N.Z. time) on Tuesday. If conditions are suitable the YA stations Will carry out a rebroadcast.

' The “B” class stations must be given credit for one good thing—the periodical extension of YA hours.—The morning sessions which are to begin on June 18th will be popular ones, and if an extra half-hour was tacked on to the Sunday evening programmes there could be no further cause for complaint regarding that day. Half an hour of "meditation music” such as is broadcast in Australia would be a. good feature.

Although the Labour Party in New South Wales had much to gain by using radio for propaganda work, the Trades Hall station, 2KY was for years about the worst in the world. Two or three months ago a new plant was installed, and the station comes over in excellent style.

Mr. Malcolm Frost the representative of the British Broadcasting Corporation, who is making an Empire tour, gave a talk from Auckland on Sunday night. He informed listeners that the 8.8. C. was vigorously attacking the problem of giving satisfactory service to New Zealand from Daventry, and asked for patience in the meantime. Mr. Frost referred also to the recorded programmes from the 8.8. C. studios which are to be broadcast in New Zealand, and hinted that if good results can be secured in the Empire broadcasts, the Dominion should share the cost. It is just possible that this question of finance is at the back of his tour.

Tenders for erection of the new 3YA buildings at Gebble's Pass are due next week. Roadlngs to the site are now under construction.

A new release of American valves has been placed on the market in America (says “Wireless Weekly.”) In past years the release of a new series of valves has had a vast effect on the design of Australian receivers, and natuAlly at the moment many traders and enthusiasts are shivering in their .shoes lest their present sets be made obsolete by the arrival of the new valves, which are timed to arrive here this week. As it happens in this instance there is nothing particularly awesome in the new valves, except their call-signs. The new types are known by such titles as 12Z3, 25Z5, and so on, and have already been nicknamed the 2FC-2BL series. But to get down to the crux of the matter, will the new valves make the existing receivers obsolete? In our opinion the answer is most decidedly in the negative. Take, for example, the most popular type of commercial receiver to-day, and we find that it is built up using a couple of 57 types, a couple of 58, a 247 or 59 pentode and the good old 280 rectifier. Running through the lists of new types we find nothing to replace the 57, 58, and 280 types, so that the only chance of a change is in the output socket. For this socket the ideal valve will be the 2A5. but a closer analysis shows that there is nothing startling about this valve. We are not sure whether it would be safer to call it a simplified 59 or an Indirectly-heated 247. However, one fact stands out very clearly—it is identical in every way to the KR2S, which has been on the Australian market for months. In performance it is impossible to detect the difference in the operation of two sets, one using the 247 and the other the 2A5. So on the face of it we don't think that the general design of the present commercial receivers will be greatly affected by the new valves.

FACES like; skeletons. Writing in “Popular Wireless,’’ S. G. Coley, says: “The fan who has just completed the construction of the latest in wireless receivers is ‘full of it;' and the world must know about it. But my experience of television has been disappointing. Instead of ‘full of it,’ I rather think ‘fed up with it’ more nearly expresses my feelings. It is an anti-climax after the excitement of winning a televisor, and I will try to explain the reasons for it.

“Some delay was caused when I found that a source of high-tension supply giving 250 volts was required, for my eliminator only serves up to the usual 150 volts. From this it would appear to be virtually a necessity to work a televisor from an all-mains set. However, the necessary apparatus forthcoming, the viewer was ready for action.

“With the speaker connected, the set was tuned into London National, and when the characteristic chirruping of the broadcast vision was heard a change over to the televisor was made. The televisor corresponds to the speaker of a wireless set, but seems to be more particular than the latter about the output from the receiver, judging by the results obtained. In the half-hour of my first “peer,” I expectantly moved the knob controlling the speed of the revolving disc, in the hope that the flickering background of red streaks would resolve itself Into a picture. But that night I saw nothing but the background. One thing was clear to me, however, and it was the inadequacy of the half-hour broadcast. If television is admitted to be a success it deserves more programme time. If the broadcasts are intended to help research the same applies. “The next evening, prior to the vision transmission I carried out a few rough tests by utilising the fact that ordinary wireless sound waves affect the light of the neon lamp used in the viewer. These sound waves are visible on the screen as a constantly changing pattern made up of black rectangular spots. A pull-over designer's nightmare, in fact. “I found that by altering the output transformer ratio from 1 to 1 to 3.5 to 1 the pattern-weaving became much more clearly defined. An improvement was immediately apparent when I again attempted to receive the vision, and soon the chequered floor was discerned. A moment later, and I had the pleasure of seeing for the first time the image of a person transmitted by wireless.

It is not often that a broadcast of Australian Rules football is heard here, but 7ZL Hobart, which can be picked up early just now, can be tuned in on Saturdays and holidays. About the best broadcast of Rugby—best from the point of view of reception —yet heard from Sydney came over from 2BL on Monday from the Sydney Cricket Ground. Volume was really remarkable. Another interesting overseas item was a relay by 2FC from 3LO of the King's Cup race at Flemington.

Static and signal strength go hand in hand, and while we have been favoured with wonderful volume lately there has been a lot of static during night sessions. There is seldom any static during daytime, but then local interference has to be contended with except on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. If every day and night were like last Sunday, we would have a radio paradise.