ON THE WIRELESS.

Waikato Times, Volume 99, Issue 16596, 12 September 1925, Page 2

ON THE WIRELESS.

NOTES FOR USTENERS-iN.

(By Vernier.) - We will soon uc able to recer\e Australian broadcasting on a crystal set, I think. I heard 2FC intcn< J? ,° increase his power and all the oth«. arc going to have 5000 watts. Wake up, New Zealand, we are well out-or-date here, and are still patiently waiting for our 500 watt station. Who is Responsible? Who has been responsible for the hold-up of the New Zealand broadcasting scheme? It is now over 18 months since we were promised one of the finest broadcasting schemes m the world. Never mind, when it does come it will sweep the country like a tidal wave. Nothing can resist it. An Export Suggosted. Various writers arc urging that when the New Zealand big broadcasting scheme- is to be introduced the services of a highly-trained expert should bo secured from abroad, it is contended that judging from past experience of New Zealand broadcasting the importation of a superintending radio engineer is essential to the success of the scheme. The Man in the Street. The man in the street who will take up radio merely for broadcast entertainment will not care a fig about the scientific side of wireless. He won’t join a club where they learned y discourse about valve curves, grid biases, aperiodic coils, and kllamanjaro circuits. The man in the street will want to organise to get full value for his money from the broadcasting for which he is paying. He may also find it necessary to send a deputation to the Postmaster-General about sundry matters. He won’t forget the power of the Press, and may arrange a Press campaign. Then there is his Parliamentary representative to button-hole. He will purchase a ready-to-work radio set and all he will want to know is 'how to operate it. The people who purchase gramophones don’t join clubs to learn how to construct talking machines. It is only we cranks now at the game who “want to sec the wheels go round.” A Yankee journal recently admitted: “Of the thousand and one circuits published by radio editors, which claim to put it across ajl- predecessors, not more than three or four are worthy of a moment’s serious consideration.” Tuning In. The greatest need of the present day listener is to learn how to tune his set without creating a bedlam of interference with all other listeners-ln within a three or four-mile radius. I know of no radio editor who is catering for this need. What’s the use ''of Mr Moneybags buying a 60-guinea receiver when he can’t get an “outside” broadcast station when the atmosphere is saturated with howls and squeals. He is bound to be disgusted with radio. And there is no necessity to have all this interference under our present excellent Radio Regulations. The good old three-coil set- is quite innocuous when handled with only a little care. Met a youth the other day who has been “on the air” for six months and had no idea how to tell when Ms valve was oscillating! This is the sort of thing that is doing more harm to radio than anything else. Here is a field for the “experimenter” to exploit. Let him | educate the'novices. Radio-frequency Amplification. At a meeting of the Wellington Radio Society a lecture was given by Mr H. Hardcastle on radio-frequency amplification, with a special reference to its use in circuits designed to prevent interference by radiation. The various methods of coupling, radio-frequency amplifiers were analysed and compared, and the methods used in stabilisation wepe discussed. The lecturer expressed his belief that amplifiers stabilised by means, of balancing capacities were of the highest efficiency, and also provided the operator with an apparatus with which it is remarkably easy to work. A circuit to which attention was particularly directed was armodification of one known in the Unified States as the “Roberts,” the modification being to make it suitable for a wide range of wave-lengths, and easily constructed from an ordinary three-coil regenerative receiver. Australian License Fees. The radio licenses’ fees collected by the Commonwealth Government for the year ending May 30 last totalled £113,658. The 1 apportionment to broadcasting stations was: Farmer and Go., Ltd., Sydney (2FG) £34,628; Broadcasting, Sydney, Ltd. (2BL) £12,018; Broadcasting Co., of Australia, Melbourne (3LO) £14,4444; Associated Radio Co., Ltd., Melbourne (3AR) £4080; Westralian Farmers Ltd., Perth (6 WP) £4220. Out of the above • amounts the broadcast stations have to pay their performers, lecturers, and maintenance charges. Do Radio Sets Go Out of Date? How many times have people said that they like to listen to radio programmes, but will not buy a set because it may be out of date in a few weeks? It is' probable that almost Everyone has at one time or another heard this said by some person who (f should be a radio enthusiast, but fears the rapid progress of the industry, as . be calls it, will antiquatc his sot. Just how this idea is obtained by some , people is a mystery, as the only radical improvements in the game have been the development of new receiving sets and the improvements of broadcasting stations. This improvement of rc- ' ceiving sets, however, has not—at least not yet, and it does not seem on its way to do so—antiquated any receivers that were in use before the beginning of the broadcasting. Receiving sets’ used in amateur stations before the general public took up this interesting pastime are still in use, and bid,, fair to outdo most of the receivers that arc supposed to be so and superior to all that have gone before. During the last six years the circuit arrangements or the standard sets have not changed one iota. There have been a lot of "new circuits” devised by experts, but everyone of these can be traced down to the old standbys. The neutrodyne is a new circuit and has done much to popularise radio, but the standard sets that all the oldtimers know have done more than their share in this work, and doubtless will do a great deal more. Apart from the above reasons for the claim that sets do not become out of date and thereby make it necessary to buy new ones, there is one that outshadows all the rest in importance. This is the fact that until the pro: method of transmitting is changed any receiver now in use will always be able to receive signals from stations that are transmitting. The distance reception of these wijl also remain the same.