Evening star., 1933-09-24
Behind the Microphone
BY THE RADIO EDITOR.
MOTHER three to six
\ months will see at least a

A MOTHER three to six
n months will see at least a
~ half dozen additional 50,-
"A OO0-watt broadcaSting sta
tionS on the air-and possibly
more. This can be stated def
nitely as a result of the Federal
Radio Commissions action in
lifting the limit on the number
of such stations allowed in each of
the five zones into which the
United States has been divided
for purposes of radio regulation.
Since this maximum power is
more or less restricted to clear
channels, which means that
50,000-Watt stations have the eX-
elusive use of their assigned wave
lengths at night, the decision of
the commission inevitably will
enable more listeners to hear
these stations regularly. This will
be true particularly of the rural
and remote audience, which gen.
orally must depend upon distant
high-poWer stations for reception
of national programs.
The commissions action, long
expected in view of the fact that
the channels affected already are
clear but that the stations
thereon have arbitrarily been
limited in power, comes on the
eve of hearings asked by a half
dozen stations now having 5000
to $4,000 watts power but want
ing $4,000. Most of these, and
several others, are technically in
position to boost their powers
Immediately the individual au-
thorizations are forthcoming.
At present there are "a sta
tions in the United States having
$4,000 watts power or at present
authorized to build up to that
power. They are divided four to
zone, several of them sharing
the same wave length by sharing
their hours on the air and thus
being counted as single units.
The lifting of the limit from
four to eight paveS the way for
a total of at least 40, and there
are those who believe that near
ly that number will be on the air
within another year-that Is, If
the commission adhereS to the
principle of clear channels, Of
which there are 40.
The idea back of the lifting of
the limit on high-poWer stations
that has been imposed since the
big reallocation of 1927 is that
so long as clear channels are pre-
Served-aS some necessarily must
be to serve the rural audience
it is an economic waste to hold a
station under $4,000 watts if it is
willing to stand the expense of
the higher power operation. Up
to now the commission has ad-
hered to the wattage limit for
the reason that there was a hue
and cry in Congress several years
ago about power trust" domina-
ton, which has nothing to do
with broadcast power ratios. and
there was some doubt as to the
technical desirability of high
power on some of the clear chan
nels.
These doubts have been prac-
tically dissipated in recent years.
The doubt that now exists is
whether the present high-pow-
er maximum of $4,000 watts is
not too low. Europe has fixed
the limit at 10000 watts, which
in American terms of measure
ment is close to 100000 watts.
Soviet Russia is building a $780,
900 waiter and talking about
building station of 100000
watts. An experiment will Short
ly be under way in Cincinnati
with a 500,000-watt transmitter,
which will be authorized to oper-
ate experimentally on the WLW
clear channel with that power
after midnight.
The only problem remaining is
whether higher power will cause
undue interference with equally
high-powered stations or lower
power stations on adjacent wave
lengths. The WLW experiments
will go a long way toward solv-
ing this problem and will, if sue
ceSsful, also probably Initiate a
new era of power in this coun-
try, leading certain selected sta
tions to go to similar power and
thus possibly embrace huge por-
tions, if not all, of the United
States in their regular listening
areas.
THE broadcast of regular pro-
L grams from Little America
to the United States is the mcst
difficult commercial engineering
problem ever undertaken, in the
opinion of technical experts
working on the scheduled broad
casts over the Columbia network
by the Byrd Expedition.
For instance, the transmitter
at Byrd's base in the Antarctic
will have a power of only 1000
watts, less than double the power
of the ordinary household elec-
trio iron.
From this Antarctic trans
mitter it is tentatively planned to
have the programs routed to
New York via Buenos Aires. Al
though short-wave facilities now
exist between the Argentine and
the United States, they compare
in no way to wire lines which are
used between various points in an
ordinary hook-up. These facili-
EAsa