Notes and News from Far and Near.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 732, 8 April 1933, Page 27 (Supplement)

Notes and News from Far and Near.

THE EMPIRE STATION. The programmes to hand from the 8.8. C. during the past week show that the Australian and New Zealand broadcasts are being carried out bv GSD on 25.53 metres, and also by GSC on 31.3 metres (11.750 and 9585 kilocycles, respectively). From next Monday, April 10, a change in the programme schedule is noted, in that the sessions will open with the news session, instead of at the end. as hitherto. Although summer time (when clocks are advanced one hour) commences in Britain as from Sunday, April 9, the Daventry broadcasts will continue to be put on the air as hitherto—9.3o to 11.30 a.m. (G.M.T.), which is equivalent to 9.0 to 11.0 p.m. same day here. Has anyone heard anything of Daventry either on 25.5 or 31.3 (or 19.8) metres during the past week? No trace audible up my way and am wondering if the “ converter ” has fallen

down on GSD—although Khabarovsk 2ME and others “ come in ” all right.

We are so much accustomed to think of waves which travel round the earth in a fraction of a second that it is a shock to learn that a wave has been discovered which takes twenty-four hours to encircle the earth. It is reported that at the last annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science it was stated that lunar attraction raises a bump daily on the earth’s surface and this bump travels as a wave round the earth every twenty-four hours. The effect of this wave is to increase temporarily the distance between London and New York by 63ft once every twenty-four hours. A Signal Booster. M.H., Linwood, supplies the following details of a “ signal booster.” He writes: ” This gadget will increase quite noticeably the signal strength of any local or loud distant transmission but, in addition, more than doubles the volume from weak DX stations.” Construction: Obtain a cardboard tube, with quarter-inch walls, four inches long by three inches outside diameter. Cut the tube into two equal halves lengthwise. This gives you the former you need—half a 3in tube 4in long. On this tube wind lengthwise as much 24 s.w.g. enamelled copper wire as it will hold. Commence the windings with the wire made securely fast, up and down twice through two holes. Wind on the wire tightly and closely. Finish off through two holes, leaving six inches of wire spare. Leave about half an inch of tube clear down each side where it was cut. This is to enable the tube to be screwed down on to a piece of dry wood 3?in wide by 4in long. At the front end, recess the wood to take a piece of ebonite on which is mounted a sliding contact switch, whose blade must be long enough to move over the whole of the wire on the front edge of the coil. Mount on the ebonite, also, two terminals—one, connected to the switch arm, to which the aerial lead-in will be connected; the other, to which is connected the spare 6in of wire at the end of the coil, to be connected, also, to the aerial terminal of the set. Carefully scrape off the enamel from the wire in the “ travel ” of the switch blade (as for a sliding contact in a

crystal set). Set the arm at “halfway," to commence with, tune in any station, then adjust blade for best volume.