Radio Digest (Oct 1926-Jan 1928)

RADIO DIGES T— Illustrated CALIFORNIA CLAIMS KEENEST RECEPTION THAT FAMOUS ATMOSPHERE BEST FOR RADIO Pacific Slope Ideal Haunt for DX Hounds — Distance Under 5,000 Miles "Local" "Getting the coast" has been, one of the most popular objectives of Eastern and Middle Western DX hounds. But "getting Australia" or "getting Japan or the Philippines" seems to divert the "West coast distance hunters. At least a score of letters have been received from ardent fans up and down the Pacific coast, stating that they had received these far countries across the Pacific. Confirmation letters and Ekko stamps have been entrusted to Radio Digest to prove the claims. This has led to the surmise that California is peculiarly blessed and endowed With Radio reception as it has unquestionably been with the quality of sunlight that makes good photography. Again the question arises, "What is the relation between light and Radio transmission?" Radio "waves" and light waves travel at the same speed, by one chance out of 186,000 they both hit the same 186,000 miles a second clip. But Radio waves get farther and easier when the light waves are somewhere else. Why? This would seem to be the reverse of conditions in California where light is most abundant — and yet any number of people span the Pacific regularly. In fact, one station, KFRC, San Francisco, developed the reception of JOAK, Japan, so efficiently a few nights ago it was able to re-broadcast the Japanese program with reasonable clarity and volume on the 268 wave length for all California to hear. The distance covered was 6,000 miles. JOAK is said to broadcast with only 1,000 watts. Donald Wright, among other notable California DX pioneers, used to invite a score of Japanese friends in to hear the program from Tokyo at 4 o'clock in the morning via loud speaker. 3LO at Melbourne is heard regularly by the Pacific coast listeners. Wait until the Hollywood stations begin to use television with all these California superiorities — then the weary housewife will have real concern for midnight ether prowling of friend husband who jaunts afar for hfs Radio fun. Tomy and Song Popular DETROIT. — Chief Tomy of WCK, Detroit Free Press, holds the record for encores on a single song. "Let's Grow Old Together," is in constant demand by scores of listeners who make a special request for the song to celebrate wedding anniversaries. The Chief has a way of doing it so that the more they hear it the better they like it. WOC ECLIPSE CLIPPERS CAPER ON MELODY LAWN HARRIETTE QUICK KNOWS HER ANTENNAS, ASSEMBLES OWN SETS AND CLIMBS CHIMNEYS Mr ™ W MEVER again be r x~ guilty of that saying, "there is nothing in a name." At the right you behold the living refutation of that saw, for her name is Harriette F. QUICK. Try and watch her fingers at work putting a set together and then dare say she isn't. Miss Quick lives in Brooklyn and knows her antennas from the ground up to the top of the tallest chimney. The first set she ever saw she pulled it apart and put it together again. And it worked, BETTER THAN IT DID BEFORE! Xi .-,■.■.■■ ...■• ■-.; .:..;■!■,■,.■,.. -. . ' §l||g»f|«: \ . «ii: LION ANNOUNCES OVER 6XBR MIKE "G R-R R-R R-Y-E E -R St-t-tt-shunSiccs-x-brrr!" When they heard that unusual announcement come out of their loud speakers 1,397 little boys and girls dropped their Teddy bears and their dolls and ran to their mothers, shouting "O-oooh! Wild animals is coming out of the Radio!" And no wonder. Just look at the picture. That is what it was — a mountain lion at KFWB, the Warner Brothers' station in Hollywood, Calif. The beast was trying to announce the short wave station, "Greetings, from Station 6XBR." Weather Forecast Saves Berry Crop WLS Keeps Farmers Posted — "Frost Tonight" Means "Get Out the Wet Straw" CHICAGO.— The remark, "Well, folks, what are you going to do about it?" injected into the weather report from WLS, the Sears Roebuck station, as broadcast one cold threatening morning, saved farmers in the Middle West a lot of money, according to letters which have been received at WLS. A letter from Murray McLaughlin at Carter, 111., "where peaches grow juicy and apples grow as big as cantaloupes, down in Egypt," as he says, tells of one neighbor who answered the question of the WLS weatherman, Fred L. Petty, by saying to his wife, "I'm going to cover my berries with wet straw." Boys Help Save He called his young boys to help him and together they put wet straw over about one acre of strawberries. Some short rows he failed to cover because of lack of time, though they worked at it until dark. The berries which were covered came through the low temperature in first-class shape and those not covered were a total loss. Where the straw was thin along the edges, the frost did damage, but even there some of the crop was saved. The strawberry patches in the community which were not covered," wrote Mr. McLaughlin, "were frozen black. The man who covered his berries says he will get more than 150 cases and all because he covered the plants when Radio brought him the weather forecast" THESE are the days when lawn parties are in order. And here are the Eclipse Clippers of Melody Lawn who are making thousands of lawns throughout the Middle West melodious with their broadcasts from WOC, Davenport, Iowa. They take the air from WOC every Tuesday night at 8 o'clock, central standard time. Eclipse Clippers are also heard from KYW, Chicago, at 9:30 on Thursdays and from KDKA, Pittsburgh, from 6 to 7 p.m., on Fridays. All the Eclipse Clipper programs are sponsored by the manufacturers of the Eclipse lawn mowers. Selections are of the popular variety and of the highest artistic merit. Stations WSB, Atlanta, and WBAP, Ft. Worth, will be added to the Clipper system next January. WHOLE WORLD SEEKS RADIO DISCOVERIES Americans Lead With New Photo Transmission System NEW YORK. — Research and developing laboratories on both hemispheres are running a breakneck race for new discoveries in the field of Radio. American scientists at this time seem to be in the lead. The latest from the Bell laboratories in New York is the successful transmission of sound and image on a single Radio wave length. In the presence of company officials images were transmitted simultaneously with speech from Station 3XN, at Whippany, N. J., to New York by Dr. Herbert E. Ives and it was said transmission over a single wire also is feasible. Transmission was by a single Radio set. A band of 20,000 frequency cycles was used for the images and one of 5,000 cycles for speech. Both were carried on a wave length of 191 meters. RICHARD L. GOLDEN, "BABY" ANNOUNCER "N EXT numbah will be the well known rock-a-bye song by Master Richard Lee Golden," announced Ernie Golden, orchestral impresario of the Hotel McAlpin, New York, N. Y. Then came a little squeak, a gurgle and "Goo-gug-la-a-ah," which, in the language of a one month old soloist means "Rock-a-bye baby upon the tree top, what is that big shiny thing, a moon or bottle of milk?" Some day he will know all about a microphone and, perhaps, take his dad's place in the I WMCA broadcasting studio.