Radio Broadcast (Nov 1926-Apr 1927)

THE MARCH OF RADIO aJS{em and Interpretation of Current %adio Svents Why Short Waves Should Not Be Opened to Broadcasting VARIOUS proposals are being brought forward to accommodate the excess broadcasters who insist on infesting the ether with their unnecessary emanations. These are offered principally by pacifists seeking to mollify rejected wavelength-seekers, rather than by those who have the good of broadcasting and the development of radio at heart. The most tempting and, to the uninformed, the most logical course is to open the higher frequencies, below our present broadcasting wavelengths, to accommodate a host of additional broadcasters. The amateurs have been able defenders of this wavelength territory and, in this respect, they have been highly useful conservers of wavelength space. Were there any real need for additional broadcasters, it is doubtful whether the amateurs and others assigned to short-wave bands, could retain possession of the extensive frequency territory which they now occupy. The broadcast listener is the principal sufferer if the wavelength territory is extended. To him it means that his present day radio receiver will no longer give him the entire range of programs. To I he illustration forming the heading shows the lonely post of Cliltord York, fire ranger, atop a 6400-foot mountain in the California National Forest. A radio receiver helps while away the hours of this ranger's lonely watch accommodate an enlarged band, receiving sets must be equipped with tapped inductances and switches making them so complicated and inefficient that only the technically inclined enjoy their use. In Great Britain, where broadcasting stations have been spread over a wide range of frequencies, receiving sets are either incapable of tuning to all of them or the listener must fuss with a comprehensive lay-out of plug-in coils. Tuning to stations requires reference to a number of charts. Neutralizing such receivers over the entire range is out of the question without a considerable sacrifice in amplification. So discouraging is the tuning process under these conditions that British manufacturers have found it profitable to market receiving sets to disgusted nontechnically inclined listeners, adjusted to the wavelength of only one particular station. If stations of any account begin radiating programs on the higher frequencies, the broadcast listener will have excellent reason to complain, Either he must deny himself the pleasure of listening to them or substitute for his simple receiver one of annoying complexity. The broadcasting station operating on these higher frequencies will not find itself pleasantly situated either. Short-wave programs are subject to a surprising amount of fading which, varying at different hours of the day and night, will cause him no end of complaint. Heterodyning, by reason of the vagaries of short waves, is not limited to the usual ranges by power, because a short-wave, low power station, hard to pick up at a distance of 25 miles, may be a powerful source of interference at distances of 1000 to 5000 miles. More important than the consideration of the listener and the broadcaster is the importance of conserving radio frequencies for essential services. The higher frequencies are best adapted to point-to-point communication because little power carries great distances The higher frequencies alone are adapted to beam transmission and high-speed automatic communication. The transmission of photographs and motion pictures, the coming of which is as certain as commercial aviation, will be seriously handicapped if the numerous Podunk Radio Companies of Four Corners, seeking wavelengths, have their way. When one examines the list of applicants desiring to broadcast and realizes the remoteness of any chance that they will contribute to the good of broadcasting, one hopes that a way will be found to disregard their clamorings utterly. Recently, we saw an item in an Iowa newspaper which announced that no less than eight