OVER THE AERIAL.
RADIO NOTES. FROM FAR AND NEAR. (By TUNE-IN.)
From the Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 229, 27 September 1935, Page 14.
Listeners are reminded to put their clocks on either to-morrow night or early on Sunday morning, when New Zealand daylight saving time starts. A good idea is to set clocks by the time signals from the national stations.
A large section of the German radio exhibition last month was devoted to television. The German broadcasters, who have a contract with the German Post Office to broadcast publicity on week-day mornings, are now anxious to eliminate publicity broadcasts, beginning toward the end of this year.
The position regarding harmonics from broadcast stations remains about the same—except that only one faint harmonic, lYA’s, is now to be found in the shortwave band. IZB is now the chief offender in this respect, numerous powerful harmonics appearing in the 15 to 200-metre band.
1ZM’s programmes during the past week have been particularly bright and entertaining and, in view of the difficulties caused by the restrictions on records, reflect great credit on Mr. W. W. Rodgers, the programme organiser. The minstrel show presented on Wednesday was good fare and would easily stand repetition.
The hours of transmission since the Broadcasting Board took over the national service on January 1, 1932, have been more than doubled. The third annual report of the board shows that at January 1, 1932, the hours of transmission were 10,612 per annum. One year later they soared to 16,484 hours, while at the beginning of last year the total hours numbered 23,036. At January 1 this year the hourly figures were 25,700.
If the noisy background to lYA’s transmissions is duo to interference from high tension lines between the studio in Shortland Street and the transmitter house at Henderson, it is strange that the trouble has been apparent only during recent weeks. Unless the conditions are due to faults on either the power or telephone lines, the noise would doubtless be in evidence from the time the new lines came into use, if it was due to interference from the high tension lines.
The October issue of the “Broadcaster,” the official organ of the Manurewa station, IZM, is now on sale. This bright and well-illustrated radio magazine contains the full programme schedules for the whole of the coming month, a number of special articles of interest to listeners, reading matter for the younger listeners, amusing cartoons, past and future doings of the station, and a log of overseas short and long-wave stations. Last month’s issue was sold out a few days after publication, so in order to avoid disappointment listeners are advised to buy their copies right away.
Although the DX Association of New Zealand has a membership of about 1600, the enthusiasm of Auckland members appears to be on the wane. This is the opinion of a local member of the club, who says that the meetings have recently been poorly attended and that but for a few staunch supporters it would probably collapse. It is probable that the lure of DX cannot compensate for the frightful noises to be endured when Auckland’s trams are on the move. Were it not for these, American broadcast stations would be regularly available to Auckland listeners. As it is, those listeners who live near tram lines have to be content with local stations, so bad is the interference.
The recent big increase in the sales of radio sets, particularly all-wave machines, is attributed largely to the All Blacks’ visit to England. No doubt this tour has been responsible for the unusual interest in licenses for August, when a total of 6601 were taken out. The average monthly increase in radio licenses in the past year was just under 3000. At the end of last month there were 171,012 paid receiving licenses in the Dominion, an increase of 32,661 at the corresponding date last year. Of the New Zealand total 52,538 are in the Auckland district, the other totals being Wellington 63,713, Canterbury 31,045, and Otago 23,716. Wellington has also the largest number of licensed radio dealers with 379, the other totals being: Auckland 370, Canterbury 212, Otago 141.
