RADIO NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19125, 9 December 1933, Page 18 (Supplement)

RADIO NOTES.

SUMMER TIME RECEPTION. INCIDENCE OF STATIC. Summer-time reception, especially from distant stations, Is often Interfered with by atmospherics or static disturbances. These are what the service and commercial radio operators call "X’s.” Atmospherics cause all kinds of noises, varying In intensity from a mere gentle scratching noise to a sound resembling that of a handful of gravel being thrown against a window. There is also the type which sounds like the sharp crack of a whip, followed by minor disturbances, which betokens nearby lightning. All atmospherics are the product of electric storms. ! It is possible to record atmospherics from thunderstorms thousands of miles away, but the average wireless set is capable of picking up these atmospherics when the centres of the disturbance is at a distance of 400 to 500 miles. It Is therefore no wonder that during the summer we are seldom entirely free from static noises in our loud-speakers as soon as a distant station is tuned in. There may be no sign of atmospherics with the set tuned to the local station, because of the greater ratio-of signal strength, and also because the receiver is then usually In an insensitive condition; but when the range of th' set is increased to bring In the distant stations it also picks up any atmospheric disturbances there may be about.

Atmospherics as a rule have wave-lengths, but owing to the nature of the discharge are comparatively untuned, as it is said, and therefore they can be heard over the two wave bands, although generally it Is the long wave hand that is most affected, and as wireless waves travel farther at night atmospherics also seem more prevalent during the hours’ of darkness, the reason being the same. It is a wise precaution during the summer to earth the aerial every night when finally switching off, as lightning flashes in the neighbourhood may cause dangerous surges of current in (he receiver and do damage, apart altogether from a direct hit by the lightning, though this is a rare occurrence.