Radio broadcast .. (1922-30)

THE MARCH and Interpretation of Current (^adio Events How Short Waves Are Linking Far Corners of the Globe IN DAYS of old, the fading light of the last northerly port was the courageous Arctic explorer's last contact with civilization. Then followed months, usually years of cold silence. Just half a century ago, Sir Allen Young faced this dreariness in a mission of mercy. With him he carried a packet of letters for his compatriot, Sir George Nares; letters of home, of friends, of news, to break the cruel silence of the Arctic. These, by prearrangement, were left at Cape Isabella. MacMillan, several years ago, found this packet, unopened. And twenty feet away from it, he found another, records Young had buried before resuming his northward march. What a change in fifty years. A dirigible whisks sixteen men skyward. A matter of hours, and they pass over the Pole. A newspaper correspondent clicks off a radio message to his sheet, where waiting men only hours later set up the type which crystallizes the achievement. The busy world soon forgets, but Sergeant Albert Payne will never forget. His Signal Corps radio station at Nome handled 22,000 words of press about the flight of the Norge. The flight of the Norge has been the sub The top-of-page illustration shows the apparatus employed by the government to check up on broadcasters to see that they do not stray from their assigned frequencies ject of thousands of words of comment, but not all the commentators have taken into consideration the fact that it was radio which mainly made it possible. The direction finding equipment was in constant use and gave important bearings to the navigators. Groping through the Bering Sea fogs, a chance signal from an Alaskan station told the navigators where they were and led to the successful landing of the ship at Teller, Alaska. The transmitting equipment of thi; ship, following the lines of present English practise, did not provide for short waves. They depended on 900 meters and 1400 meters (333 and 214 kc.) which worked successfully enough up to and over the Pole. But from the Pole to Alaska, the longer waves did not come through. One ventures to say that if the Norge had profited by the previous shortwave experience of others, the operators could have maintained constant communication. The year 1926 is the year of explorations. Six expeditions will have penetrated the Arctic before July. At least two important expeditions will pierce the heart of South America. Francis Gow Smith, of the Museum of the American Fndian, aided by native guides, is now going slowly up the River of Death, perhaps the most dangerous region in all South America. With him is a simple two-tube short-wave receiver. Signals from WGY'S 32.79-meter (gi4O-kc.) transmitter were received by him with excellent volume at Corumba, Brazil, almost 5000 miles from Schenectady. In the interior, the time signals and news broadcasts will prevent the silent forests from shutting off all contact with civilization. The receiver was designed and built by RADIO BROADCAST Laboratory. By the time this magazine appears, the Dyott Expedition led by Commander G. M. Dyott under the auspices of the Roosevelt Memorial Association will have sailed for Brazil, to explore and photograph in still and moving pictures the territory first traveled by Roosevelt — the River of Doubt. Two complete radio stations will be set up, one at a base station above Corumba, Brazil, and another portable set with the party. Short waves will form the link with the United States, and Commander Dyott hopes to send frequent dispatches back to the New York Times. His equipment is being built and operated under the direction of RADIO BROADCAST Laboratory. Toward the last of June, two ships sailed to Greenland in the MacMillan expedition. The good old Bowdoin, commanded by MacMillan will lead, and the new schooner Sacbem, newly built for this