Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

AUGUST, 1928 AMATEURS IN THE TEN-METER BAND 197 WHERE SHORT-WAVE MESSAGES ARE RECEIVED The barrage antenna and receiving shack are part of the Federal Telegraph Company' s station near Los Angeles, California. Coastwise and marine commercial radio traffic is carried on by short waves quirements are well known to all radio engineers. We have only 89 wavelengths. For good radio, not over 160 stations of the 500-watt and 5000watt classes can operate simultaneously on 85 of these wavelengths. On the remaining four wavelengths we can tuck in a couple of hundred 50 or 100-watt transmitters. And there you have the outline of the possibilities in the present state of the art." No more courageous and clear cut statement has ever emanated from the Federal Radio Commission. It must not, however, be regarded as anything more than the statement of one Commissioner who understands the situation and is in favor of carrying out his duty. It can be fairly charged that the majority of the Commission is totally lacking in ability and courage and has utterly failed to protect the interests of the listener whom it is supposed to serve. So long as the local interests of politicians and the shortsighted demands of individual broadcasters have the ear of the Commission rather than the radio audience at large, the present confusion will persist. Mr. Caldwell's is a voice crying in the wilderness. More power to it! On May 27, the Federal Radio Commission promulgated its Order No. 32, the first drastic measure to reduce the number of stations on the air. It lists 162 broadcasting stations which must sign off August 1 unless they can show good reason for renewal of their licenses. A careful scrutiny of the list shows that many of the stations have been inactive and that it comprises only stations of a very low order of merit, occupying extremely congested channels. While the number of stations involved is considerable, this is only a first step, which will bring very little noticeable relief. It does not attack congestion of the type to which the Commissioner referred, involving stations rendering important service. The real problems of the Commission will not begin until it disposes of stations of some technical ability which serve no real program purpose. But the measure is a good beginning which, we hope, is only the first of a series of major steps to relieve broadcasting congestion. AMATEURS IN THE TEN-METER BAND r^. K. AT WATER of Upper Montclair, N. J., has been successful in establishing twoway communication on 10 meters with 6ann, Long Beach, Cal., 6uf, Los Gatos, Cal., and 8ct, Arachon, France. Commenting on this remarkable achievement, the American Radio Relay League stated that the ten-meter band might yet prove of actual worth in long distance transmission of messages by radio and that experiments by amateurs might ultimately solve many difficulties on this band hitherto considered ' insuperable by communication engineers. There is no justification whatever for the statement that engineers consider the difficulties to the utilization of super short waves insuperable. We refer the amateurs to a paper by Marconi, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, August, 1922, describing experiments conducted over a period of years on wavelengths between 1 and 20 meters. Since that time, continuous research work has been conducted on ultra-high frequencies in many professional laboratories. Several international commercial circuits operate regularly on 1 1 meters, and no communication engineer who has worked on high frequencies has ever made a statement justifying the A. R. R. L's boast. The amateur is to be commended for his experiments, but the statement that he is pioneering in the ultra-high frequencies, spurned by engineers, is not supported by the facts. i I Here and There A WIRELESS station is being completed at Horta, Azores Islands, by the Portuguese Government for the purpose of radiating detailed weather reports four times daily. It will be of special service to transatlantic aircraft. THE National Broadcasting Company has formed the National Broadcasting and Concert Bureau, with George Engles, former manager of the New York Symphony Orchestra, as its managing director. The National Broadcasting Company now arranges 5,000 microphone appearances each month. STATION wgy, on April 30, rebroadcast a program radiated from 2FC, Sydney, Australia, on a 28.5 meter wavelength. H. M. Myers of Birmingham, England, reports an amazing feat of international reception in which 2XAF, wgy's short-wave sister, participated. Tiring of local programs, Mr. Myers tuned to Stuttgart, Germany, then rebroadcasting 2xaf. The Schenectady announcer informed his audience that a program from London was coming in so well that 2XAF would rebroadcast it. The Britisher listened to the London program to the end, setting his watch by Big Ben, after the signal had made two trips across the Atlantic. Distance lends enchantment! A FLYING description of the parade in honor of the Bremen crew was broadcast by wor on May 6 with the aid of an announcer aboard a plane. A short-wave transmitter, working on 65.48 meters, utilizing two 210 tubes, served the transmitter. THE Crosley Radio Corporation, operating wlw, has obtained control of wsai, U. S. Playing Card Co., of Cincinnati. It hopes, by combining these two stations, both of which have a cleared channel, to secure an exclusive channel for the proposed 50,000 watt wlw transmitter. STATION woo, pioneer Philadelphia broadcaster, operated by the John Wanamaker store since 1922, signed off June [. "Investigations made by special inquiry among radio listeners during the past two years have revealed that broadcasting is not helping the store in general or in an advertising way, hence our decision to discontinue operations indefinitely." Hundreds of stations, making a similar impartial investigation, would come to the same conclusion. Maintaining a broadcasting station is a costly operation, and a single retail organization can no longer justify the expense of running a full time station by the resultant goodwill and sales. permalloy saves the cable companies IN a paper appearing in the April, 1928, issue 1 of the Bell System Technical Journal, entitled "High Speed Ocean Cable Telegraphy," O. E. Buckley discloses the progress made in high speed cable communication, largely attributable to the use of permalloy loaded cable. The first of these cables was laid in September, 1924, between New York and Horta, and there are at present seven high speed permalloy loaded ocean cables, totalling 15,000 miles in length. Their capacity is 2,500 letters per minute. Mr. Buckley's conclusion is that "permalloy loading has so reduced that part of the total cost per word for which the cable itself is responsible that the advantage of radio can never be very great. It has yet to be shown that radio telegraphy can furnish as reliable and satisfactory service as is now provided by the cables. ... It is evident that only a much higher degree of perfection of radio communication than has yet been attained can permit wresting from the cable the advantage which it has so long maintained." THE New York Central Railroad has asked the Commission for short-wave telegraph assignments in order that it may equip some 300 small harbor craft with radio telephony of low power. Successful experiments in communication between engineer and conductor of long freight trains will sooner or later require additional channels for the railroads. Inasmuch as