Evening star., 1932-08-07
rowing STATIONS
COME INTO VOGUE
Tiny Units Using Short
Waves Allowed for Many
Purposes.

~ OWING broadcasting stations,
, weighing so little that they can
be carried on ones back trun-
1 died in small carts or trucks,
taken aloft in planes and bal
! looms or otherwise hurried from place
| to place are coming into new vogue
in radio. Operating on ultra-short
wave lengths and requiring extremely
| low transmitting powers. these stations
are being used more and more to carry
voice and code reports from remote
places to established pickup points,
| thence to be amplifed and relayed for
rebroadcasting over regular waves so
that the multitudes may listen in.
Current uses of the extremely high
| frequencies. as indicated in wave-length
! applications before the Federal Radio
| Commission, reveal that many broad
casters as well as scientific expeditions
are seeking them for various purposes
! Fortunately. the radio spectrum below
| meters offers an almost infinite num-
Der Of channels so that the supply is
long way from being exhausted.
Golf Players Followed.
One of the most interesting uses Of
these channels was reported last week
| by WTMJ. Milwaukee. whose annCunc-
| ers followed a truck carrying portable
| transmitting equipment during a golf
| tournament. enabling them to describe
| 1t play by play from any point on the
| course. TWo-Way communication with
| a receiving station in the clubhouse
was made possible between 5 and 10
meters, for which a special license was
issued to WTMJ by the Radio Com
mission.
Recently, several broadcasting sta
| tionS in Buffalo did practically the
| same thing to report to their audiences
the details of the Buffalo Centennial.
1t is recalled that Floyd Gibbons. the
N. B. c. radio reporter. carried such a
| transmitter strapped to his back to
| report the landing of the Graf Zeppe-
| lin at Lakehurst last year.
| The commission has Just issued a
60,000-kilocycle (5 meters) license to
John NJ. Wells of Southbridge. Mass. to
enable him to relay to a ground sta
! ton the reports of his observations
! from an autogiro plane during the solar
| eclipse. which will be observed in East
( ern Canada and over a strip of New
England on August 81. When Prof
| Auguste Picard, the Brussels Univer-
| sity scientist. makes his second ascent
by balloon into the stratosphere $4,000
or more feet above the earth about the
middle of August. he plans to take with
him a specially constructed radio
| tranSmitter to broadcast on Al and
| 428 meters and also in the 1886 meter
band to keep the world informed of his
progress in flight.
Harvard University's School of Geog-
raphy Is planning to secure a set of
ultra-short wave channels for calibrat-
| ing seismogra phical instruments in its
| field work. Explorers for oils and min
| erals have for many years been using
mobile portable stations in lieu of the
| traditional "divining rod in seeking
out deposits under the earth.
Granted Movie Party.
High frequencies-but not in the
| ultra-high Category-have just been
granted by the commission to Metro
| Goldwyn- Mayer. Hollywood motion pic
| ture producers, to be used by a filming
I party it is sending to Alaska shortly.
| Using only two-tenths of watt power,
! this party'S radio stations will go ION
! location" with actors. communicating
with the party's base ship and with the
Army Signal Corps station at Point
Barrow on 414O and 621O kilocycles.
The ultra short waves are in the eX-
perimental category and are issued by
! the commission only to forward the
radio art. Work like the foregoing is
regarded as experimental, so that the
licenses are issued more or less freely
to reputable parties. Licenses are
| labeled as portable mobile" and cover
the experimental frequency 81, 400 kilo-
cycles (5.8 meters) and the band from
10000 to 100000 kilocycles IS to OTIS
meters). The transmitting and receiv-
! ing apparatus for these extremely short
waves usually requires a rod antenna
about feet in length.