Evening star., 1934-05-30
BYRD MAIL BAG
GAINING INTEREST
Schenectady Station Sends
REGULAR Short-Wave Mes
sages to Antarctic.

F-TER five months of opera
n ton. the worlds longest air
II mail route still seems to be
1 i standing ace-high with both
the members of the second
Byrd Antarctic expedition and their
families and friends in the more
temperate zones.
The Byrd mail bag as it has come
TO be known, is broadcast regularly
to Little America through the facili-
ties of short-wave station W2XAF of
the General Electric Co. at Schnec-
tady. The studio pigeonholes have
held some curious missives during
this time, also, but each has been
kicks have been registered by the
recipients at the other end of the
world
Advice Becomes Rule.
Practical advice on various matters
has become more the rule of late,
croWding out the more routine COM
ments on the weather and the pen
gums which predominated in early
letters. Several weeks ago, when a
member of the airplane crew was in
lured in a fall. W2XAF broadcast
prescribed treatment from a chiro-
practor on the Pacific Coast. Only
recently, when it was made known
that Admiral Byrd's flapjacks we're
sticking in the pan, seasoned advice
on what to do about it was forthcom-
ing from a number of housewives.
The payment of insurance premiums
and the buying and selling of stocks
are also favorite subjects for COM
munication just now. In other words.
there is less emotional content and
more real news.
Birthdays are the occasion for .
flood of messages from relatives and
friends and the broadcast takes on
the semblance of a party. Bill Nc
CormiCk. youthful autogiro pilot and
the youngest man on the expedition,
attained his majority while at Little
America. One of his messages of
congratulation and advice travelled by
a somewhat circuitous route, but it
got there just the same. The writer,
Wallace kellett, autogiro manu-
facturer, penned the letter en- route
to France on the French liner De
Grasse 1t was transferred to the
White Star liner Olympic for trans
mission back to New York, and
W2XAF sent it on its way to Little
America
Uncertainty of Friends.
Since the formation of the ice party
and the departure of ships and part
of the expedition for New Zealand,
considerable uncertainty as to Just
who was in Little America and who
wasn't prevailed among families and
friends. The conductors of the mail
bag checked up on the personnel and
dispatched to the folks at home a list
of the Sc persons now enjoying tenn
peratures of 10 degrees below zero
at the camp, thus clearing up the
situation
The most striking feature of the
short-wave broadcasts to date has
been the practically perfect recep-
ton of the messages reported by the
expedition. The listeners, totally in
closed by the Antarctic night, say
that the voice of the broadcaster
CoIlIeo tilIouslI do CItdIly DIS IL " were
in the next room.
4 X y
THE Russian Ambassador to the
l. United States. Alexander Troy
anvosky, is scheduled to speak
over N. B. C. network June IL.
His address will be made in connec-
tion with the premiere performance
in this country Of the score of the
Muscovite ballet sensation The Red
Poppy"
\ x x
MRS. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
1'1 will begin a new series of radio
broadcaSts over N. B. C. June 6.
She will be heard during the daily
Farm and Home Hour. Her remarks
will be addressed directly to the farm
homemakers of the country