Radio Broadcast (May 1927-Apr 1928)

JANUARY, 1928 BRIEF NEWS ABOUT IMPORTANT RADIO MATTERS 201 lines. It describes an experimental relay of programs for Sidney as barely recognizable; a parallel attempt to relay Melbourne a few days later as a complete silence. It regrets that so much emphasis has been laid upon the possibilities of international broadcasting and points out that considerable development work is necessary before we can hope for regular and reliable international broadcasting, I I I E. T. Somerset writes us from Sussex, England, that he enjoys wgy, wjz, wlw, weaf and kdka on their regular broadcasting channels, but American programs come in with much greater regularity on the high frequencies. 2XAZ, wgy's short-wave twin is the star performer, with kdka on twenty-six meters and 2xaf following. He has also heard with great clarity, 2XAH, wrny and wlw on its short wave, and anh, Radio Malabar, Bendosng, Java, on 17.4 meters and last, but not least, 2ME, Sidney, Australia. It gave him a particular thrill, he writes, to hear the clock striking four a. m. in Sidney, when it was still seven p. m., British summer time, of the previous night. Mr. Somerset advises American fans to listen for 5 gb, Daventry, England, on a frequency of 610 kc. with 30 kw. output, and Langenberg, Germany, with a 25 kw. output on a frequency of 640 kc. Ill Sam Pickard, who first gained fame in radio circles as director of the Department of Agriculture Radio Service, has been made Federal Radio Commissioner to succeed Henry A. Bellows, recently resigned to resume the management of wcco. The Commission loses Mr. Bellows because the gentlemen of the Congress failed to confirm his appointment. He was a useful and hardworking Commissioner. Mr. Pickard is qualified to serve on the Commission because of his familiarity with its problems as its former secretary. Carl H. Butman now becomes Secretary of the Commission. He is well known to the newspaper fraternity and may be helpful to the Commission, not only as an efficient secretary, but in advising it how to handle its relations with the press and the public. I I I " I Have come to the conclusion that it is not a practical or even a theoretical advantage to a broadcaster to sponsor a program through any small station. The companies that are marketing national products can use radio advertising to excellent advantage but for local companies to broadcast through a small local station is not good advertising, in my opinion. Their efforts are so mediocre in comparison with the programs sponsored by the big companies and transmitted through the high power of a well equipped, well operated station, that a bad impression is made and no benefit is derived." That is the statement, not of a newspaper publisher, but of Mr. Robert A. Fox, of Ashland, Ohio, who owned and operated station wlpc. Realizing that the small station serves little useful purpose, wlpc requested the Federal Radio Commission to cancel its license and its owner now states that he wishes "about two hundred more stations, now operating, would do the same." f f f The Department of Agriculture Farm Radio Service is being broadcast by eighty-nine radio stations in thirty-four states. Each of these stations will broadcast one or more of the eleven regular farm and household radio services prepared and released by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Such services as these help to sell radio to the farmer. NEWS OF THE PATENT FIELD I EE DEFOREST won a victory over Edwin Armstrong in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals at Philadelphia, which decided that he is the inventor of the regenerative or feed-back circuit and the oscillating audion. Since the right to use both DeForest and Armstrong patents is included in the R. C. A. license, the decision does not affect the R. C. A's licensees particularly. Certain companies, however, operated under licenses granted by Armstrong before his patent was acquired by the Westinghouse Company, appear, through this decision, to be liable for royalties under the DeForest patent. There is a possibility that this case may now reach the Supreme Court, although that body has the power to refuse to consider the matter. I I I The Mackay interests announce that the DeForest victory places them on an equal footing with the Radio Corporation of America in the field of wireless communication. They will undertake immediate steps to establish short-wave wireless systems across the Pacific Ocean and throughout the United States. Iff Patent No. 1 ,639,042, recently issued to Wilford MacFadden of Philadelphia and assigned to the Atwater Kent Manufacturing Company, describes the use of a potentiometer for the stabilization of radiofrequency amplifiers. This system was used extensively before the neutrodyne system of stabilization was developed. I I I The Dubilier Condenser Company has notified a number of manufacturers of the scope of patents 1,635,1 17, 1,606,212, and 1,455,141, describing platecurrent supply devices and power amplifiers. Included among prospective defendants under these patents are various Radio Corporation licensees. One of these patents describes a power system comprising rectifiers, filter and choke circuits, using a. c. on the filaments; another, a two-stage power amplifier with alternating current on the filaments and a C battery used to obtain grid bias; plate potential is obtained from a thermionic rectifier. AMONG THE MANUFACTURERS THE Sonora Phonograph Company, manufacturers and distributors of phonographs and radio sets, the Bidhamson Company, a patent holding corporation, organized by John Hays Hammond, Jr., Lewis Kausman and others, and the Premier Laboratories, headed by Miller Reese Hutchinson, have recently merged to form a corporation devoted to the manufacture of acoustic devices. Iff Arthur D. Lord, receiver in equity of the DeForest Radio Company, has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Clause IX of the R. C. A. license contract. This clause specifically forbids R. C. A. licensees to equip and sell licensed radio sets without equipping them with R. C. A. or Cunningham tubes to make them initially operative. In his complaint, Mr. Lord claims that the consumer is penalized because he is forced to take a tube which otherwise might not be his choice. The clause is obviously aimed at independent tube manufacturers. He expresses the belief that this is an attempt at monopoly and restraint of trade, a direct violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Clayton Act and the Sherman Anti Trust Law. I 'f I In full page newspaper advertisements in the principal newspapers of the country, Mr. A. Atwater Kent announced a price reduction of twenty per cent, in his receiving sets. This reduction, says the announcement, is made possible by tremendous increase in production facilities. Particularly in the lower price classes, we may expect an era of intensive price competition with consequent advantages to the consumer. I f I PowelCrosley, Jr., has announced that his Bandbox model will probably not be changed for several years. This is the first time that a manufacturer has ventured such a prediction. Ill The Stewart Warner Speedometer Corporation, which has long defied the R. C. A. in patent matters, is the most recent addition to the ranks of those committed to a 75 per cent, royalty. A STATEMENT by Dr. J. H. Dellinger, *» calls attention to a general current misunderstanding regarding short-wave beam communication. The international short-wave beam links confine the radiated energy to a thirtydegree arc which is indeed not concentration in a single narrow path. It represents merely, Doctor Dellinger points out, an economic advantage and not a secrecy system. Science has been unable to affect a concentration of radiated wave energy, either light, sound, or heat, in a perfect single beam by the aid of any form of reflector, and there seems little ground for hope that we shall soon achieve it with radio telegraphy or telephony. The concept that we may reduce beam transmission to a concentration comparable to that obtainable by wire communication is now untenable. THE NEW COAST GUARD SHORT-WAVE TRANSMITTER B. J. Fadden, chief radioman aboard the U. S. C. G. Modoc in ice patrol duty is shown standing beside the 35.5-meter (8500-kc.) transmitter. The transmitter on this wave is used for direct communication between the Modoc while in the North Atlantic ice fields and headquarters in Washington