Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1925)

76 Radio Broadcast the power of this colossus? Answer^ kw. You may breathe again. Moreover, the engineer of the company informs the world that this new station will "influence profoundly broadcasting in daylight." This gives the impression, to the lay reader, that the daylight range of a 5 kw transmitter must be somewhat comparable with the night range of the present order of figure o .5 kw sets. This belief is entirely erroneous. Messrs. H. W. Nichols and Lloyd Espenschied, two prominent radio and telephone engineers, investigated this subject some years ago, in the course of a larger work which occupied them at that time, and reported their results in a scientific paper. (Nichols and Espenschied: "Radio Extension of the Telephone System to Ships at Sea," Proc. I. R. Vol. XI, No. 3, June, 1923.) They made actual measurements. It was found that in order to equal during daylight the freak ranges secured by radio telephone stations on broadcasting wavelengths (then 360 and 400 meters) during the most favorable times at night, about 10,000 times as much power would be required. A 0.5 kilowatt station would have to raise its power to 5000 kilowatts! But what's a little multiplier like 1000 to a publicity representative and radio engineer, model 1925? Less than nothing, for these gentry never heard of Nichols and Espenschied and Alexanderson and Wien and Braun and Armstrong and Latour and DeForest and the few hundred other earnest engineers whose exclusive creation radio broadcasting is. And, if they have heard of them, they care no We iveecl drtistic microphones more for scientifically derived data than the Long Island fanatics who recently awaited the end of the world. Artistic Stands for the Microphone THE design of microphone stands, at the present time, is far too conventional. They are tame, unimaginative things wrought of bronze pipes or onetime respectable parlor lamps. This has a depressing effect on the whole broadcasting art, for the general public gets its ideas of radio largely from the myriads of pictures showing the great, and the aspirants to greatness, posed before a microphone stand in the attitude of talking to 10,000,000 fellow citizens — even when the station power is about 10 watts. What an opportunity is neglected here! The future belongs to the genius who will express himself through radio microphone stands, fitting them to special situations, somewhat as follows: A ravishing silver-plated girl in attractive deshabille for lecturers on literary censorship, denouncers of the younger generation and petting parties, etc. For Mayor John F. Hylan of New York City, a bust of Gen. John F. O'Ryan, his opponent in the local traction controversy. General O'Ryan could hold the microphone in his teeth. A foaming stein or champagne bottle for prohibitionists. At woe, the learned chiropractors might talk to a mound of issues of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the microphone surmounting the same. For Messrs. Arthur Lynch, Willis K. Wing, and Zeh Bouck, the desperate crusaders for a squealless ether, what could be more appropriate than a gigantic diagram of a singlecircuit regenerator, rampant, with the microphone suspended from the oscillations? The ramifications of the idea are obvious. Its inspirational properties are unlimited. We leave its execution to philanthropists and artists. Note on Announcing A COMMITTEE has recently been occupied, in New York City, with the task of raising the standards of announcing. Various conclusions as to rate, pitch, inflections, and other characteristics were reached and duly published. A most praiseworthy work. But the committee omitted consideration of one funda