Evening star., 1934-01-21
SETH PARKER TRIP
TO Be BROADCAST
N. B. c. to Handle Regular
Programs During
Cruise.
By MARTIN CODEL.

10 allow Inc taQlO &uQleuCe 70
share its adventures yicariously.
Like Admiral Byrds flagship the
8. 9. Jacob Rupert, now in Little
America and broadcasting via the
short waves directly from ship
board to the Columbia network each
Saturday night. the schooner Seth
Parker. carrying Phillips II. Lord and
crew, bound for nowhere in particular,
will carry ice-broadcastins apparatus
In the expectation Of making periodical
contacts by short waves with the Amer
lean audience.
Seth Parker's expedition is now
headed for Miami. whence it will leave
for West Indian and South American
ports and then 90 to Cape Town and
the South Sea Isles. En- route to
Miami 1t Is stopping at Eastern sea-
ports for its present series Of Commute
broadcasts on Tuesday nights over the
N. B. G. network. The microphonee
for the present series are wired to the
network directly from the ports where
the schooner Is docked.
Itinerary Unknown.
When the expedition, headed by the
famous youn' radio artists. leaves Miami
at the end of February on an un-
scheduled itinerary that will take it
for a year probably over the seven
seas, it will have to depend solely
upon radio to keep in touch with CIV
ilization
Definite arrangements for the relay
short-wave broadcasts direct from the
vessel. wherever it may happen to be
during its big cruise. are now being
made. To the normal code apparatus
the ships wireless men only this week
added l.000-watt voice broadcasting
set similar to the one being used on
music will come through on the short
waves remains to be determined in pre-
liminary tests to be conducted during
the trip to Miami
The wave lengths to be assigned by
the Federal Radio Commission will be
virtually the same ones used by Ad-
miral Byrd, lying in the ship telephone
bands between 5000 and $4,000 kilo-
cycles. All kinds of atmospheric prob
lens will be encountered. but the fair
degree Of success encountered by the
Byrd radio experts has stimulated the
Seth Parker entourage in the belief
that at least occasional "hookups" can
be established while at sea or in re-
mote ports
To Be ReIayed.
Short-wave listeners may be able to
tune in the Seth Parker directly, but
the average radio listener will hear
1t on the network, which will use pre-
cision instruments to tune 1t in at
strategic points and then relay 1t by
wires to its member stations for re-
broadcasting The call letters KNRA
have been assigned the expedition and
Carey p Sweeney, young radio en-
gineer, will be sent along to handle the
radio contacts.
The second Byrd expedition, OF
course, had not planned at first to at
tempt the precarious short-wave voice
relays from shipboard. but the sponsor
thought 1t was worth a try and the
Saturday night schedules have beer
coming through with varying quality
Byrd's plan is to establish the ship
radio station at Little America, using
the towers Of his first expedition with
directional antennas. Then the relays
should come through regularly at least
within 95 per cent of perfection, &C
cording to the technical experts.
Like those Of the Byrd expedition
the programs from the Seth Parker
may be sponsored. The sponsorship. il
is understood. depends largely upon the
degree Of success attained with the
radio apparatus, which represents 9
considerable departure from normal
ship radio transmitters. almost all o1
which employ the less erratic dots anc
dashes Of international code.
Boyhood Dream.
The cruise Of the Seth Parker, named
for the leading character in the homely
Sunday night program of Maine folk
life which brought fame and fortune tc
Phillips Lord, is the realization of q
boyhood dream. Young Lord has al
ways wanted to visit the out-of-the.
way places Of the earth on his OWL
ship and he made a boyish resolution
to do 1t when he had earned a fortune
He recently bought the former lumber
carrying schooner, outfitted her, en-
gagged the crew and appointed himself
captain.
q million dollars from his radio ano
stage work since he started about five
years ago. and he is spending half OF
his fortune on the present voyage. He
has no definite itinerary and will &c
where the mood moves him. When the
ship leaves Miami it will not even have
any Of its present actors aboard Any
shows that Lord presents from wherever
he may be will employ himself and his
crew as the performers, or whatever
native talent they may hnd at the va
rious stopping-of places.
The present jaunt down the East
Coast will end at Miami February q
after which the ship will make fol
Trinidad, proceed down the Eastern
South American coast, cross the South
Atlantic to Cape Town and then head
into the Indian Ocean and the South
Sea Islands, with possible stopovers ir
Australia. But Phil Lord calls It q
"trip to nowhere" for he may change
his course and decide on his stops or
mere whim.
En- route to Miami the vessel will con.
ttnue its Tuesday night radio series
docking at Norfolk January 23, wash.
ington, January 30; Newport News
February s; Charleston, February l3
Jacksonville, February 20, and Miami
rat.,