Evening star., 1934-09-30

SNC41 W CAdo4 OAAS oN ~
being marketed.
Meetings have been held by the
moguls of radio engineering behind
closed doors during recent months to
correct this off-side situation. Par
ticipating have been the Radio Man.
ufacturers' Association, the Engineer
ing Committee of the National Asso-
citation of Broadcasters and the
Broadcast Committee of the Institute
of Radio Engineers. They want to
work out a system whereby the entire
broadcast picture can be developed
horizontally" or on a co-ordinated
basis. rather than through separate
development that will give one or the
other the advantage. They want the
development co-ordinated from micro
phone to loud speaker, which takes IN
every one of the score of intermediate
stages.
One Fidelity" Station.
Also entering into the picture, on
the side of the broadcasters, is the
worlds first bona fide high fidelity
station. 1t bears the call letters
W2XR and is being operated in Long
Island City, N. Y, experimentally with
$50 watts power and on the l,550kilo-
cycle channel-one of the three high
fidelity" shorter wave broadcasting
bands set aside by the old Radio Com
mission last Summer. Last April the
former commission authorized three
other such stations in this new eth
ereal domain lying just above the con-
ventional broadcast band. but W2XR
is the only one thus far in operation
They are to be located in Waterbury
Conn; Kansas City and Bakersfield
Calf.
The operator of this new station
designed to provide quality Of service
surprising any other station on the
air from the technical point of view
is John v. L. Hogan, noted radio en-
s:neer, who invented the single dial
radio control. The station is on the
air but two hours daily-from to
2 p.m.-at present. but its schedule
will be increased, according to Hogan,
as the experimental work progresses
According to Hogan, an analysis
shows that about 10 per cent of all
receiving sets can tune the l,550-kilo-
cycle channel, despite the fact that
his station is the first regular broad
casting unit ever to be assigned be-
yond the ,500-kilocycle outpost. Prac-
tically all new sets have dials that in
clude that wave. Already. said Hogan
hundreds of listener letters have been
received from all over the New York
area, telling Of reception of this new
station. while a sprinkling of re-
sponses have come from Michigan
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts,.
Wide Range.
Upon the results achieved in these
thigh fidelity" station experiments
future ALLEGATIONS of stations will be
worked out by the authorities. The
channels are 20 kilocycles wide, or
twice the breadth of the conventional
radio band. This, engineers state
should greatly enhance the quality OF
transmission and, therefore, of re-
ception.
In the current high fidelity" COM
petition between the 900 regular
broadcasting stations and the set man.
ufacturerS, the open admission that
the receiving end has the upper hand
came from the Engineering Commit
tee of the National Association OF
Broadcasters. In his annual report
Joseph A. Chambers, chief engineer of
WLW. Cincinnati, the worlds biggest
station, and chairman of this commit
tee, declared that the improved re-
ceivers of today are capable of repro
ducing a wider range of freuuencies
than receivers heretofore CONNER
cially obtainable.
Deficiencies Cited.
because of this" he said, "they
will much more readily show up any
deficiencies in/ the broadcast trans
mission system. This imposes upon
the broadcaster the responsibility for,
and the necessity Of, maintaining en-
gineering standards much more rigid
than those which, unfortunately, the
committees recent survey of several
member stations indicated are being
adhered to. Our survey disclosed the
fact that while ma jority of the sta
tion installations were capable of pick
ing up and transmitting a signal at
least equal to the reproducing ability
of the most modern receiver, they fall
short Of their capabilities