Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

Long Distance Amateur Work in Australia 217 Maclurcan made arrangements with Mr. Dixon, the wireless operator on the S. S. Montoro while this boat was proceeding north from Sydney. Mr. Dixon wired back the following: "10 P. M. June 3rd. 420 miles, telephone strength 6; continuous wave and tonic train strength 8." " 10 P. M. June 4th. 705 miles, continuous wave strength 6." Mr. Dixon was using one valve with standard ship's equipment. Brief mention was made -of these results in the daily press, and amateurs in the country and operators at sea immediately took the keenest interest, with ths result that Mr. Maclurcan commenced broadcasting every Sunday evening. Amateurs all over Australia are now receiving these concerts, and reports are daily coming in from farther and farther afield. Music is being enjoyed from experimenters as far as 600 miles away and considering that Mr. Maclurcan is using only 8.25 watts, the results, to say the least, are very encouraging. An extract from a letter received from Mr. Hull in Melbourne, 450 miles southwest of Sydney, is of interest in this connection. "Was not able to listen for you until 8:40 P. M. and my accumulator was on its last legs. "Upon switching on, however,, reaction at zero, your music was excellent, readable at arm's length, to my intense surprise. At this stage of the proceedings the accumulator began to "peter," and I was obliged to switch off to give it time to pick up. "At about 8:55 the record 'Mon Homme' was of similar strength to the above and I enjoyed almost the whole of it. Toward the end of the piece the accumulator gave up all hope." In order to appreciate fully these results of Mr. Hull's it should be known that his receiving aerial consists of two wires 30 feet long supported at the eaves of the house 20 feet high and brought down to the edge of the workshop 10 feet above the ground. The whole aerial is below the level of the house and according to our ancient ideas he should be completely screened from anywhere. Instead of which Mr. Hull on this very inefficient aerial receives music and speech from a transmitter hundreds of miles away using less than 9 watts. The writer is appending the circuit employed by Mr. Hull as it presents several novel features. By referring to this diagram it will be seen that only two valves are used and made to function MR. CHARLES MACLURCAN One of Australia's leading experimenters who has been doing remarkable work on low power transmission as radio-frequency amplifier, detector, and audio-frequency amplifier thus doing the work of three. The writer has carefully tried out this circuit and finds it the best 2-valve circuit he has yet used, so some of you will doubtless be interested in trying it also. Mr. Maclurcan has just completed some tests with the -object of ascertaining how far his speech and C. W. could be heard. He made arrangements with Mr. Tuson, the operator of the S. S. Ulimaroa to listen-in while proceeding from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand. Mr. Tuson's report discloses that he could read the C. W. at the wharf at Auckland (strength 4) and heard snatches of speech (strength 2). The distance of Auckland from Sydney is 1400 miles. One of the New Zealand land stations also confirmed Mr. Tuson's reports. This reception, by the way, was with a single valve. Several weeks ago, Mr. Maclurcan received a telegram from Mr. Dixon on the S, S. Montoro from Thursday Island requesting him to transmit. Accordingly, signals were sent and a telegram was received stating that C. W.