Evening star., 1933-07-30
! EVIVAL Of the almost for
gotten sport< Of DX-ing,
popular pastime OF radio

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IN popular paStime OF radio
listeners who liked to tune
for distant stations, may result
from new operating orders just
issued by the Federal Radio Com
mission which fix schedules OF
past-midnight operation by indi-
vidual stations so that the COM
missions lair police" can check
whether they are straying from
their assigned wave lengths.
Henceforth, between the hours
of 2 and 6 am, some 300 low and
medium power broadcasting sta
tionS will operate on staggered
schedules during the first week CT
each month. Each will have
clear channel, which means that
even those with feeble powers
ought to be heard in many far
corners of the land, as they used
to be before the wave lengths be-
came so crowded.
Even stations in Hawaii, Porto
Rico and Alaska should "come IN
like locals" according to commits
sion engineers, during their after-
midnight operation on clear el1an-
nels. Moreover, listeners won't
have to wait for a seeming eter-
nifty to identify the stations be-
cause the order requires call let
ter announcements every three
minutes.
The new order does not have as
its purpose revival of the DX-ing
fad. It was dictated by Federal
economy. Its real purpose is to
allow the commissions monitor
ing stations in the field to check
the technical operation of certain
stations 70 ascertain that they are
not st.aytng from their assigned
freqaeneies and setting up inter-
ferehce.
Because Of reduced appropria-
kNcns aid personnel ordered by
Congress, the commission has
been forced to close S of its II
monitoring stations In the field.
In the past, frequencies of all sta
tions have been checked during
regular operating hours, but the
curtailed organization makes it
necessary for monitoring stations
far away from many stations to
check them after regular hours.
Only half of the full roster of
some 600 stations fall within the
provisions of the new order. The
other half are within measurable
range of the surviving seven mon
itoring stations. All stations have
been sent detailed logs of the
monitoring schedules.
Each of the stations on the
after midnight schedule will op-
crate for 20-minute period on
the day and at the time speci-
fled in the log. All such tests will
be made during the first week of
each month. When a station is
found to be operating well within
the authorized limits of so cycles
of its frequency, it will hear moth
ing from the commission, and
therefore will know that all Is
well. Stations which deviate ex-
cessively, causing that type of in
reference known as heterodyning,
will be notified promptly and or
dered to adjust their transmitters
accordingly.
II X X u
A MAN who has heard Lowell
"A Thomas, the news commen-
tator, from the submarine Nauti-
lus in the Arctic, and again from
the wilds of Patagonia in South
America, visited Thomas this week
in New York. He was the wire
less operator of the wilkins expe-
dition, in town for a brief respite
before joining another expedition
to far corners Of the globe.
Mrs. Floyd Bennett, widow Of
the late flyer, was also a studio
visitor the same evening. The
aviator and Thomas were init
mate friends.
\ X
Al Jolson, stage and screen en-
tertainer, joins the Paul White