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History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australasian Radio World/Issues/1937 07

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Front Cover
The Australasian Radio World

JULY 1, 1937; Vol. 2 - No. 3; Price, 1/-

Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post as a periodical

Cover Photo: Photo of Amateur Communications Eight (See Page 3)

Highlighted Contents: Eight-Valve Amateur Communications Receiver: Jones' "Super-Gainer": Wiring the "1937 Eaglet All-Wave Two": Designing Vibrator "B" Eliminators: Shortwave DX Contest

P.02 - Editorial Notes
'''Editorial Notes. . .'''

Two cases recently reported of "gyp" radio service practices indicate the urgent need there is in this country for government licensing of servicemen. No doubt typical of thousands of similar instances, these two illustrate the necessity for protection, not only for the legitimate serviceman as well as the set-owning public, but also for reputable radio manufacturers, whose reputations must suffer considerably at the hands of the part-time "voltmeter and pliers" mechanics who attempt to service their receivers. The first case concerns a set-owner who, when asked if his receiver used an earth, replied that a serviceman had fitted one some time previously. Investigation showed there WAS an earth lead, but it was attached to the iron grating of a nearby fireplace! In the second instance, a so-called serviceman had attempted to repair a defective wet electrolytic by filling it with water. Both cases seem so ridiculous that it is difficult to believe them true, but they are vouched for by the serviceman subsequently called in by the set-owners concerned. As well, they are not isolated instances; no doubt every serviceman practising anywhere in Australia to-day could recall similar experiences. To-day, anyone knowing the difference between a resistor and condenser, and finding himself out of a job, can hang out a shingle and become a radio serviceman. Whether he stays in business long or not is beside the point; while he IS in he can do the servicing profession a tremendous amount of harm. And servicing IS a profession; one that needs years of specialised training and constant study if it is to be followed successfully. In New Zealand to-day, the "gyp" serviceman is rapidly being forced out of business by the licensing system adopted some years ago. The electrical regulations as applied to radio have been tightened up considerably, so that now a salesman not holding a service ticket is not even permitted, under penalty of heavy fine, to change a power plug. And with the serviceman's licence came the serviceman's award. Today the award wage, which has been steadily mounting during the past few years, stands at £5/16/- per week. No further arguments should be needed to convince servicemen in this country that, in both their own interests and those of the public they serve, licensing is urgently needed.

P.02 - Contents Banner
The Australasian Radio World

Incorporating the

All-Wave All-World DX News

Managing Editor - A. Earl Read, B.Sc.

Vol. 2. - JULY, 1937 - No. 3.

P.02 - Contents
CONTENTS:

The Amateur Communications Eight. . . . 3

Radio Ramblings. . . . 10

New Radio Installations Regulations. . . . 15

The Jones' Super-Gainer Two. . . . 16

25 Years In Amateur Radio (3). . . . 18

"Radio Aid" Explorers Track Down Noise. . . . 21

Designing Vibrator Type "B" Eliminators. . . . 22

Assembling And Wiring The 1937 Eaglet All-Wave Three. . . . 26

Radio Step By Step (10). . . . 27

The A.T.R.S. Bulletin. . . . 28

Breaking Into The Amateur Game (6). . . . 30

What's New In Radio. . . . 34

The All-Wave All-World DX News. . . . 37

Trans-Pacific DX On 10 Metres. . . . 38

Erecting 45-Foot Masts. . . . 40

Shortwave Review. . . . 41

DX News And Views. . . . 44

Climbing 6ME's 400-Foot Mast. . . . 48

P.02 - Publication Notes
The "Australasian Radio World" is published monthly by Trade Publications Proprietary, Ltd. Editorial offices, 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Telephone BW6577. Cable address: "Repress," Sydney. Advertisers please note that copy should reach office of publication by 15th of month preceding that specified for insertion.

Subscription rates: 1/- per copy, 10/6 per year (12 issues) post free to Australia and New Zealand. Subscribers in New Zealand can remit by Postal Note or Money Order.

Printed by Bridge Printery Pty. Ltd., 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W., for the proprietors of the "Australasian Radio World," 214 George St., Sydney (Footnote P.48)

P.18 - 25 Years In Amateur Radio (3)
'''25 Years In Amateur Radio. . (3)'''

Some interesting war-time radio experiences are related in this instalment of a biography dealing with radio in the early days, written for the "Radio World" By DON. B. KNOCK (VK2NO) (Radio Editor "The Bulletin")

THREE weeks were spent in passing trade tests, being graded in rank, and being "kitted." The trade tests weren't easy, even though men were at a premium. Those examining naval officers knew what they wanted, and got it.

I was handed a lump of mild steel, given a few old files and a hacksaw, and told to duplicate by hand the lock of a Vickers machine-gun. It finally emerged by dint of hard work, and don't forget that one can take off in filing, but can't put on! The micrometer was put over the work, and according to accuracy men were graded. I got through with the rating of air mechanic, 1st class.

Some disciplinary training followed, and the usual working parties, and one day I found myself detailed to take charge of a squad of aircraftsmen for a rather unpleasant job better left out of print. In that party was the self-same man who had "ordered" me as an unknowing recruit to sweep out those stores. I got, my own back!!

From Crystal Palace a number of us left for training, and we were drafted to Cranwell aerodrome (now the Sandhurst of the R.A.F.). As we approached that huge training school by tender from the nearby railway station, we were interested to note in the distance a semi-rigid airship rising rapidly, but apparently out of control. Three objects which we took to be sandbags dropped from it at around 2,000 feet.

On arrival we found that these were no sandbags. The ship had broken away from the mooring party and tore herself aloft with three men clinging to mooring ropes. They had no chance. One man was left on board, and the ship eventually came to earth safely 10 miles distant. Such was my welcome to my first training school.

Followed two hard months of disciplinary training; up and down the hard parade square with rifles. At the end of that time we were the picture of health and burnt brown in the heat of that unusually hot English summer.

Tests With 'Plane Radio. One day, off duty, I wandered around, and from the door of a hut near a hangar heard a familiar sound. It was a rotary gap! I peered in, and the important man inside deigned to explain that they were working with "that RE8 up there."

When the machine landed I got my first look at an aeroplane's wireless gear —a one-inch Sterling spark coil, helix, and carborundum crystal receiver. It worked over about 10 miles, and that was O.K. for artillery spotting and other purposes. I made closer contact with one of these 'plane spark installations a year or so later in an unexpected manner, as will be related.

With naval discipline well under the skin, the serious business of making us useful mechanics began, and then came a shock. A parade was called, and every alternate man ordered to take a pace forward. I was one, and then we were told that forthwith we were to be sent to Eastchurch (Isle of Sheppey) for training as armourer mechanics. Armourers! The most dangerous and least liked job of the service!

However, there was no alternative, and in due course Eastchurch was reached, and wireless seemed to slip farther and farther away. Guns, bombs, bomb-sights, gun-timing mechanisms firing through propellers; all these and more were firmly ingrained into our very characters.

'''An Exam. In Bomb Loading.''' Came the "pass-out" day, dreaded by all, and for a good reason. Hitherto we had worked only on dummy bombs; going through the motions of arming with exploders and detonators. The final examination for this part of the training consisted of wheeling a live 65-pounder on a rubber-tyred trolley hundreds of yards away from the class in the open, loading it, and bringing back to the instructor for inspection.

The idea was obvious; if a chap made a slip, he only blew himself up! We all got through.

It was at Eastchurch I got my first taste of war, when one night a German Gotha squadron roared in over the coast, headed for London, and "archies" opened up. There was a sinking feeling as one realised that up there those fellows were carrying the same kind of "toys" we were now used to handling. Familiarity breeds contempt, and after a few weeks of this, most fellows would stay under the warm blankets, come what may.

On several occasions "pills" were dropped at us as the raiders returned from London. My closest shave at this period was being blown out of bed in the port of Sheerness when on leave, when a bomb wrecked half the street.

In order to become familiar with other aspects of naval armoury training, a number of us was selected for a course at the Senior Gunnery School at Whale Island, Portsmouth. There we met up with the really rigid naval discipline, and felt proud of being counted in as "dinkum" naval ratings.

An Aerial Disaster. It was here that I witnessed a historic occurrence. One mid-day, when leaving the mess en route to class, a 'plane was observed to fly out of a cloud near-by. Before it was realised what was happening, he crashed headlong into one of the 350-feet lattice towers of the Horsea Naval Wireless Station (BYC). The rotary engine bored into the tower, and the portion above bent over alarmingly with the weight of the huge aerials.

The pilot was thrown out of his seat, unconscious, and fell on the upturned top wing. Only his arm crooked around a strut saved him from sliding off. Two A.B.'s climbed that huge tower with ropes, slung the pilot in a bosun's chair, and lowered him to earth. They were justly decorated.

By a coincidence, that pilot was later on my commanding officer in Russia. The makers of that tower, when broadcasting commenced years after the war, used the photo of that crash in advertisements as proof of the great strength of their design of aerial support. It was well founded, too, for that was a wooden and not a metal lattice tower.

The special course finished, we were returned to Eastchurch, and then came the time for foreign draft. Mudros was the place I was picked for. The place had an unsavoury name in the service, but events turned out for the best, as will be seen.

On the appointed date, the draft lined up on Waterloo station, London, with all active service kit. Roll was called, and when competed it was found that seven of us were left apart with no names called. The C.P.O. in charge scratched his head, said there must have been some mistake and that we couldn't go. Wroth at having to be parted from our pals, we protested, but the C.P.O. pointed out that we would be wise to keep our mouths shut, as it was only a few days to Xmas. The upshot was that we reported to Wormwood Scrubs airship station and were blessed with leave home for a few days.

It transpired that our original draft never reached Lemnos. A day out from the Pireaus in the Aegean Sea the troop transport was torpedoed and there were only one or two survivors.

A Visit To An Old Friend. On the next draft I had the fortune to spend three weeks at Malta, after having travelled through France and Italy by train, and our quarters were slap alongside the great Rinella wireless station (BYY), a station I had often listened to on my long telephone wire aerial at home, around 2,500 metres. I got the "open sesame" from an operator and revelled in looking at the huge air-cooled gaps and massive inductances.

At night, in my quarters, I spent hours listening to that roaring spark slamming out its traffic to ships in the Mediterranean. It was all in wartime code, of course, but I got a lot of practice in keeping up my Morse by writing it down.

Some nights I had the (then) proud job of doing sentry duty around the station. My job was still nothing to do with wireless, but this station at least brought a breath of the near past. After the worst sea passage in my experience, I at last saw Mudros on a grey dawn — that place where not so long before Anzacs had camped and many were buried. I saw in the cemetery the graves of older school-fellows who had gone west in the Gallipoli campaign.

Mudros harbour, on the island of Lemnos, was now a Royal Naval Air Service base for activities against the Turk and Bulgar. It was a hotbed of sand-fly fever and other ailments to which we all eventually fell victim. It was a casual war here at this time, and the safeguarding of health was a major problem.

Further Shift To Stavros. After a month or two I was drafted to Stavros, a little harbour on the Macedonian coast, not far from the mouth of the River Struma, on the other side of which were the Bulgarian trenches and gun emplacements. There was a fair amount of action, but in a chivalrous sort of way so far as air opponents were concerned. I got my share and lived to see the beginning of the end of the war here, when the Bulgars retreated in rout before the British and French armies.

It was at Stavros I met my first wireless valve, previously only read about as a development far surpassing the crystal detector. Our wireless station found me a constant visitor in spare hours, and I would sit entranced with headphones, listening to the powerful Telefunken signals from the German warship "Goeben" up in Constantinople harbour, and all kinds of signals. Again my Morse got a chance, but it was to be some time before I got a chance to use it as a wireless amateur again.

Photo of 2NO in 1917
Familiarity breeds contempt! The author loading a 65-pound aircraft bomb during the last year of the War.

Photo of 2NO in WW1
From amateur wireless to high explosive. The author (with pipe) and some of his "toys" during the War.


text:
History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australasian Radio World/Issues/1937 08

Link to Issue PDF
| WorldRadioHistory.com's scan of | Australasian Radio World - Vol. 02 No. 04 - August 1937 has been utilised to create the partial content for this page and can be downloaded at this link to further extend the content and enable further text correction of this issue: | ARW 1937 08

In general, only content which is required for other articles in this Wikibook has been entered here and text corrected. The material has been extensively used, inter alia, for compilation of biographical articles,  radio club articles and  station articles.

Front Cover
The Australasian Radio World

AUGUST 2, 1937; Vol. 2 - No. 4; Price, 1/-

Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post as a periodical

Cover Photo: Photo of No. 1 W/T R/T radio station of Cavalry Division Signals, Australian Corps of Signals (See Page 8)

Highlighted Contents: "Sky-King Dual-Wave Five": "Jones' Super-Gainer Two": 7-Watt Low-Cost High-Fidelity Amplifier: Multi-Band Crystal-Controlled Transmitter: Latest Shortwave News

P.02 - Editorial Notes
'''Editorial Notes. . .'''

The unexpected death of Marchese Marconi on July 20 last came as a tragic surprise to the whole world. As the man who pioneered radio as we know it to-day, Marconi has done incalculable good for humanity, and the gigantic network of broadcasting stations and radio communications systems that covers the globe to-day will form an everlasting monument to his memory. A brilliant thinker, Marconi was at the same time far more than a man of exceptional scholastic attainments. A visionary, he had as well the ability to apply his ideas in practical form, and in this combination of the theoretical and practical lay his genius. One of Marconi's early associates and lifelong friend was Sir Ernest Fisk, chairman of directors of Amalgamated Wireless (A/sia) Ltd., who, speaking from London by radio telephone the day following Marconi's death, paid the following tribute to the great inventor's memory:- "By the death of Marconi the world has lost one of the most illustrious figures and one of the greatest benefactors of our generation. I have also lost a beloved friend and leader of many years' standing. "It is astonishing to contemplate the enormous range of human activity in which Marconi's work has become applied during his lifetime, and perhaps even more remarkable to consider the fruits yet to be gathered from the great science and industry pioneered by Marconi. He was a great scientific visionary, who always saw ahead the possibilities and the means for developing beneficially the use of electro-magnetic waves in the ether. First to protect human life and property at sea and to overcome the isolation previously associated with seafaring life, he then attempted, in the face of scientific opposition, to span the oceans, and succeeded magnificently, and later he caused his waves of intelligence and goodwill to cover the great distance between the Old Country and Australia and then to encircle the world. "He discovered the principles which enable thousands of wireless stations to work simultaneously without mutual interference, and then proceeded to develop that most efficient system known as the Wireless Beam, by which we can send electromagnetic waves in any direction we choose. "In more recent years Marconi applied his research in the field of those ultra short waves which will eventually make television practicable, and in the new field of microwaves, the enormous possibilities of which will be demonstrated in years to come. "He was a modest gentleman who always recognised that as his work developed it required and utilised the co-operation of innumerable other inventors and scientists who were attracted by the beacon light which he carried forward. "Although born an Italian, and remaining constantly loyal to his native country, Marconi became essentially an international figure and world possession. His great achievements were recognized by Governments and scientific bodies and endorsed by many decorations granted to him in the principal countries of the world. "The British people will always recognize the debt of gratitude to Marconi for his great work, which has enabled all parts of our widespread Empire to be linked with means for instantaneous communication. They are proud of the fact that Marconi's mother was British, and that most of his early experimental work was carried out in Great Britain by the British Company which he established. Direct communication between Australia and Great Britain is an outstanding result of Marconi's work -as also is the linking by wireless of half a million telephone subscribers in Australia with more than thirty million telephone subscribers of the outside world. Our broadcasting stations, which convey information and entertainment to every home in the country - no matter how near or remote - constitute a further tribute to this great man. In the Navy, in the Mercantile Marine, in the Commercial and Defence Air Services, in the vast interchange of commodities known as international trade, and in the transmission to hundreds of millions of people of news and information through broadcasting, and in the new field of the use of wireless waves for healing purposes, in the saving of life, and in spreading understanding among the peoples of the world, Marconi lived to see the fruits of his great faith and imagination, his wide knowledge, and his untiring work. "The newspapers of Great Britain to-day are unanimous in paying tribute to the most outstanding man of our time. "As President of the Institution of Radio Engineers of Australia, and on behalf of its Council, I had invited Marconi to attend our World Radio Convention in Australia next year, and he had enthusiastically accepted. Only a few days ago I received a telegram from him inviting me to go to Rome to discuss this and other matters of mutual interest."

P.02 - Contents Banner
The Australasian Radio World

Incorporating the

All-Wave All-World DX News

Managing Editor - A. Earl Read, B.Sc.

Vol. 2. - AUGUST, 1937 - No. 4.

P.02 - Contents
CONTENTS:

"Sky-King Dual-Wave Five". . . . 3

Ham Jargon. . . . 5

"Air-Cell Pentagrid Seven". . . . 6

"Fluttering On The Short Waves". . . . 8

Radio Ramblings. . . . 10

Trans-Tasman Reception With "Companionette". . . . 15

YL Radio Enthusiast Builds 15-Valve S.S. Super. . . . 16

High Fidelity Amplifier Uses Push-Pull 2A3's. . . . 18

Over 30,000 Miles Covered In Round Table Hook-Up. . . . 20

The "Jones' Super-Gainer Two". . . . 22

Breaking Into The Amateur Game. . . . 26

Home-Built Talkie Plant Gives Excellent Performance. . . . 29

Multi-Band Transmitter Uses Unique Assembly. . . . 30

The A.T.R.S. Bulletin. . . . 32

Tracking Down Distortion. . . . 32

What's New In Radio. . . . 34

New 5-Metre Records. . . . 36

25 Years In Amateur Radio (4). . . . 37

All-Wave All-World DX News. . . . 39

Shortwave Review. . . . 40

DX Contests Arouse Widespread Interest. . . . 42

DX News And Views. . . . 43

Round The Shacks (1). . . . 44

Round The N.Z. "B" Stations (4). . . . 45

Crown Radio Shift To Larger Factory. . . . 47

P.02 - Publication Notes
The "Australasian Radio World" is published monthly by Trade Publications Proprietary, Ltd. Editorial offices, 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Telephone BW6577. Cable address: "Repress," Sydney. Advertisers please note that copy should reach office of publication by 14th of month preceding that specified for insertion.

Subscription rates: 1/- per copy, 10/6 per year (12 issues) post free to Australia and New Zealand. Subscribers in New Zealand can remit by Postal Note or Money Order.

Printed by Bridge Printery Pty. Ltd., 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W., for the proprietors of the "Australasian Radio World," 214 George St., Sydney (Footnote P.48)

P.37 - 25 Years In Amateur Radio (4)
'''25 Years In Amateur Radio. . . (4)'''

The fourth instalment of a biography dealing with radio in the early days, written for the "Radio World" by DON B. KNOCK, Radio Editor, "The Bulletin."

MUCH could be told of both unpleasant and congenial war experiences, but as they would occupy a volume, it is sufficient to say here that from the Bulgarian theatre of war we returned to Mudros, and carried on with the bombing of Constantinople.

It was during these operations that I had a very near shave in connection with an aerial. Two of we armourers were preparing a DH9 with 6.5-pound "pills" under the wings and a 230-pounder under the fuselage. Seated on the ground with my back to the tail, and with another fellow lifting the nose of the bomb, I almost had it in position in the frame when things happened.

Just behind my neck dangled the lead weight of the wireless aerial from the observer's cockpit. A W /T mechanic proceeded to test the gear, and pressed the key. A biting, excruciating spark hit me in the neck, and both of us handling that bomb got the full benefit. When we had recovered sufficiently to realise that we were still part and parcel of this world, we chased that W /T man in anger out of the cockpit.

Beyond a few bruises on the legs and cuts on the hands where the heavy bomb had dropped on us, no damage was done, but how easily it might have been otherwise! A solid spark from detonator to bomb casing would have been all necessary, but fortunately most of the spark discharge went to earth through our bodies.

Experiences in South Russia. When Johnny Turk threw in the towel, we kicked our heels for a few weeks in anticipation of England, home, and beauty. That wasn't to come for another year, for the squadron was suddenly re-formed, and in short order I found myself willy-nilly in Southern Russia as a cog in the wheel of the Caspian "police force," ostensibly to protect British interests against the revolutionary onslaught. Here I made closer contact with the wireless section again, and have vivid memories of the work done by our little quarter K.W. spark outfit with Douglas engine and rotary gap.

Outside the port of Petrovsk, where we were stationed, stood a massive wireless tower and the buildings of a Russian station. In a previous retreat before Denikin's white armies, the revolutionaries had completely destroyed what had been an excellent telefunken station of the 5 K.W. variety. Nothing could be used. Even the winch at the base of the tower had been wrecked, the cables released, and the foundations on one side dynamited. It was too tough a job to attempt re-construction under circumstances of swift action, and so our own 80-foot masts were erected, and an aeroplane packing case used for a "shack."

"Souvenired" Radio Gear. Much happened in that year, and in the end swift evacuation was imperative. The revolutionaries were sweeping all before them, and it was a case of "get out quick or take the consequences." British armed intervention in Russia came to an end. There was only time to remove a little equipment – most of it was destroyed. With all the instinct of a "ham," however, I scrounged a nice pair of Ericsson high resistance headphones and some useful gadgets, stowed them at the bottom of my kit, and in due course these treasures reached England safely with me (despite kit inspections).

It was as an older young man that I left London for home, once again a civilian, and wondering what to do in future. Like most returned men, I possessed a neat war gratuity, and after a hectic week or two of celebration with old service pals, my thoughts turned to a motor cycle and, of course – wireless.

The old London Wireless Society was formed; the P.M.G. lifted the ban on amateur wireless, and clubs began to spring up all over England. I became a foundation member of the Southport (Lancashire) Wireless Experimental Society, met kindred spirits, and "ham" radio started in earnest.

Valves Selling At £2/10/-. With the war over, government surplus stores were selling ex-service wireless gear at ridiculous prices, and I obtained a C MK III trench amplifier for £3. This was a wonderful thing in those times, with three stages of transformer-coupled "note magnification"! The price of valves was another matter. The French R valves were the only ones available, and at what a price! They cost £2/10/- each, had greedy filaments, and lasted about six weeks before burning out.

I made up a massive loose-coupler tuner (honeycombs weren't thought of then) with a galena detector, and hitched the amplifier after them. One of the Ericcson 'phones went behind a long brass phonograph horn to make what must have been one of the first loudspeakers in England.

Melba Broadcast From Chelmsford. That year occurred the epic broadcast from Chelmsford (on 2,500 metres) of Madam Melba; and myself, family and friends listened entranced to that historic broadcast. I shudder to think of the quality of reproduction now, but wireless broadcasting of any kind was a miracle then, and the fact that anything even resembling a voice could be heard and understood was marvellous.

Then came the tests from the liner "Victorian" as she crossed the Atlantic, and after this the famous "2MT Writtle" station opened up, with a versatile announcer in charge named Eckersley. That announcer was destined a little later to become England's number 1 radio man, first Chief Engineer of the early B.B.C.

Meanwhile I had to start work, and the "guv'nor" insisted that I continue engineering. I got a job as improver-apprentice in a big Liverpool shipyard, but again wireless took up all my interest. Improving time finished, needs must that I justify myself, and before I realised it I was engineer afloat with the P. and O. Company.

My First Visit To Sydney. In 1922 I first visited Sydney as junior engineer on the Naldera. Most of my time off watch was spent in the company of "sparks," and it was while tied up at Circular Quay that I first heard old 2CM's programme (Chas. Maclurcan) on 440 metres.

Two years at sea were sufficient to prove to me that my interests lay elsewhere, and against the wishes of an angry parent, I "came ashore" and secured a position as sales representative with a large North of England motor manufacturer. Selling cars and trucks came easy to me, and I flourished, but all my spare cash went in radio.

All this time broadcasting had been getting a hold, and the wireless business was growing rapidly. From being a hobby of young men looked upon as fanatics, it had grown to an industry for which the public was clamouring. It was time to make another move, and so I joined the Sterling Telephone Company as sales engineer, moving thence to the old Burndept Co., on the servicing side.

Naturally, being employed commercially in radio, the amateur game at last came into its own, and unhampered I entered the phase of real DX, under the call-sign G6XG. The method of licensing "hams" in England is quite different to that obtaining in Australia. Firstly, an artificial (dummy) aerial licence is given, and when the experimenter is considered advanced enough, he applies for a "radiating" licence. Mere reasons of DX and suchlike are not enough. The actual technical reasons as to why the transmission licence is needed must be given.

A Transmitting Licence At Last. It took quite a long time before my well-thought-up reasons satisfied the P.M.G., and after many months of correspondence, backed up by representation from the R.S.G.B., the Department eventually succumbed. Quite a difference to pre-war affairs, but wireless was no longer a "willo'-the-wisp," and the race was on.

It was in 1924, in London, that I established my first post-war station, which ran entirely from accumulator power. The house had no electrical power, and I had to do the best I could. Around 200 metres was the order of things, and G6XG of 1924 sprouted a massive multi-wire cage "T" aerial, a ten-wire counterpoise, a single DE5 valve in a "reversed feedback" circuit, an ex-army "TVT" unit (spark coil power supply), and a three-coil receiver with "swinging coil" reaction.

I made an awful noise around London N.W.8., but I reached out. A great thrill was the working of old Finnish 2NM as my best DX on 200 metres, and Frenchmen, Belgians. and Dutchmen I worked by the score. I still have dozens of old original 200-metre QSL cards from those days, and they are among my treasured possessions.

Gradually the B.C.L.'s around my district became aware of the fact that the terrific noise all across their dials came from a "ham." A petition went in to the P.M.G. to stop me transmitting, and the Department descended in just wrath. Result – out with the spark-coil I.C.W., and in with pure C.W. The M.L. Magneto Co., of Coventry, lent me a dinky little rotary converter that gave 500 volts D.C. at 40 m.a., and then things began really to happen.

John Reinartz (then U1XAM) had launched his famous "Reinartz" receiver on an interested "ham" world, and I duplicated laboriously a faithful copy. How that receiver perked!

Getting Down To The Short Waves. Meanwhile, the famous U1MO-F8AB contact across the Atlantic on 100 metres had taken place, and "200" was relegated to the discard. All the G's got busy on 100 metres, and with the "Yanks" on 85 metres, what a great time we had. It was quite an effort to get "down" to 100, too! There was no 10-watts regulation for G's in those days, and most of the gang, Marcuse (G2NM), Partridge (G2KF), Hogg (G2SH), Simmonds (G2OD) and Goyder (G2SZ) were using power, and plenty of it, on Marconi T250's and similar valves. I had to be content with my little DE5 (similar to a 201A).

My First American Contact. Nevertheless, my puny little D.C. converter got me "across the pond" for my first American contact with U1BHM, and the high-power gang couldn't believe their ears! It had been worth lugging my heavy accumulators to the charging station a mile up the road after all, as this was the first trans-Atlantic low-power QSO. The possibilities of QRP began to be realised, and some marvellous work was done by old G5SI and G6TD with similar equipment to my own.

At this stage I recall an historic event. Listening around 85 metres at about 7 p.m. one foggy winter's night, I heard a weak but perfectly readable signal calling "lCCM de Fisk." That signal (as I heard in later years) originated from the experimental station of Mr. E. T. Fisk, at Vaucluse, in Sydney, and he was calling the Elettra, Marconi's yacht.

Z4AA Was First ZL Worked. Then came the Antipodean era! Most G's had worked with a station in Buenos Aires signing CB8, and it was considered that Australia or New Zealand couldn't be too much to hope for. Cecil Goyder, of Mill Hill school, staggered the world by working early one morning with Z4AA (Frank Bell) of Palmerston South, in New Zealand. This was on 95 metres at the English end. Goyder (now chief engineer of "All India Radio") couldn't believe that it was genuine until a cable arrived from Bell in confirmation.

What a rush! The air was filled with "T-E-S-T NZ, AUST de G – ." Then the Australians broke through. Simmonds, of G2OD, worked Max Howden (A3BQ), and Chas. Maclurcan (A2CM) appeared on the scene. The globe was encircled – there seemed little else to do. Considering the then comparatively inefficient gear of those times, this amateur work around the 100-metre mark was no small achievement.

Photo of 2NO's station in 1924
A station operated by the author in England in 1924. Undoubtedly "haywire," but a good station as they went in those days.

P.45 - Round The N.Z. "B" Stations (4)
'''Round the N.Z. "B" Stations. . . . 4'''

'''4ZM. . . . "Voice Of Dunedin"'''

The fourth of a series of articles on N.Z. "B" class stations, written by "The SOUTHLANDER" ("The Southlander" was Merv Branks, then of Winton, later Invercargill- Ed.) STATION 4ZM, in Dunedin, New Zealand, is one of the most modern of the medium-power "B" stations now operating in New Zealand. Associated with the station ever since its owners, Messrs. McCracken and Walls, entered the field of broadcasting, Mr. John Walls, manager and chief announcer, has introduced many popular innovations to broadcasting in this southern city of New Zealand. First Heard In 1927. it was in September, 1927, that the Post and Telegraph Department allotted the call-sign 4ZM to Mr. J. D. McKewen at 418, Anderson's Bay Road, Dunedin, and about one month after this date the station, with Mr. J. Stone as operator, commenced activities. In September, 1929, the owner, for business reasons, transferred the station to the premises of Messrs. Chas. Begg & Co., of Prince's Street, Dunedin. Here its broadcasts attracted an ever-increasing number of listeners, perhaps the most appreciated session being the programme of popular recordings broadcast each Sunday evening. Present Owners Took Over In 1932. 4ZM continued a regular schedule of transmissions from the same location until September, 1932, when Messrs. McCracken & Walls acquired from the original owner the whole of the plant and accessories. A new chapter in the life of Radio 4ZM, Dunedin, had begun. The transmitter at 4ZM remained in its original condition for some time, but coincident with the appointment of Mr. J. P. Pickerill as station engineer, it was decided to dismantle the old plant entirely and build a new transmitter of as modern a design as possible. A small stand-by transmitter was placed in commission to carry on while the main constructional work was being completed, and in due course the new 4ZM commenced broadcasting. To-day a new high fidelity transmitter is being heard from 4ZM, the entire equipment having been designed and built by the staff. Details Of The Transmitter. The transmitter is a M.O.P.A. type, push-pull stages throughout, the antenna power being 100 watts (100% modulation). Owing to the push-pull construction, the transmitter is exceedingly stable, and has a daylight range of 150 miles, expanding to 500 miles at night. Service Of The Helping Hand The Radio Church Service of the Helping Hand was inaugurated in April, 1934, by the Rev. L. B. Neale, known to listeners as Uncle Leslie, and this fine session is probably the most popular church service broadcast in the South Island. The membership of this organisation is over 4,000, and Uncle Leslie conducts these services daily, between 10.30 and 11 a.m. To listeners in all walks of life Uncle Leslie's addresses are most helpful, inspiring and comforting, and his voice over the microphone is eagerly awaited by his Radio Church audience every morning: "I take no thought of my neighbour's birth Or the way he makes his prayer, I grant him a white man's place on earth If his game is on the square. So here's my mite for truth and right And the 'Church of the Helping Hand'." He is the right man in the right place, and his broadcasts are acclaimed on all sides. Each member has a small box, and all that is asked is one penny per week. The contents of the boxes are collected quarterly, and go entirely towards the relief of distress in the city.

Left Photo
(Start Photo Caption) Left: The main studio at Station 4ZM, Dunedin. (End Photo Caption)

Right Photo
(Start Photo Caption) Right: Mr. J. P. Pickerill, station engineer, who designed the transmitter now being used. (End Photo Caption)

QSL Card
(Start Photo Caption) Dxers forwarding correct reports on reception of 4ZM will receive this verification card in exchange. (End Photo Caption)

Facts About 4ZM
Facts About 4ZM

Call and Location: 4ZM Dunedin. 17, George Street; Dunedin, N.Z.

Owners: Messrs. McCracken and Walls.

Frequency: 1010 k.c.

Power: 100 watts.

Transmission Times (N.Z.S.T.): Sun., 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Mon., 9 a.m. to 11.45 a.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.; Tues., 9 a.m. to 11.45 a.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Wed., 9 a.m. to 11.45 a.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.; Thurs., 9 a.m. to 11.45 a.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.; Fri., 9 a.m. to 11.45 a.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.; Sat., 9 a.m. to 12.0, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Longest Distance Verified Report: Mr. A. McGregor, Brogo, New South Wales, Australia.

Manager and Chief Announcer: Mr. J. W. Walls.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australasian Radio World/Issues/1937 09

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| WorldRadioHistory.com's scan of | Australasian Radio World - Vol. 02 No. 05 - September 1937 has been utilised to create the partial content for this page and can be downloaded at this link to further extend the content and enable further text correction of this issue: | ARW 1937 09

In general, only content which is required for other articles in this Wikibook has been entered here and text corrected. The material has been extensively used, inter alia, for compilation of biographical articles,  radio club articles and  station articles.

Front Cover
The Australasian Radio World

SEPT. 1, 1937; Vol. 2 - No. 5; Price, 1/-

Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post as a periodical

Cover Photo: Photo of Repogle World Globe and Amateur Communications Eight (See Page 45)

Highlighted Contents: "Tom Thumb Portable Two": DX Junior Two-Band C.C. Transmitter: More about the "Sky-King Dual-Wave Five": 13-Watt Amplifier: Results of First Shortwave DX Contest.

P.02 - Editorial Notes
'''Editorial Notes. . .'''

Nil

P.02 - Contents Banner
The Australasian Radio World

Incorporating the

All-Wave All-World DX News

Managing Editor - A. Earl Read, B.Sc.

Vol. 2. - SEPTEMBER, 1937 - No. 5.

P.02 - Contents
CONTENTS:

Missing

P.02 - Publication Notes
The "Australasian Radio World" is published monthly by Trade Publications Proprietary, Ltd. Editorial offices, 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Telephone BW6577. Cable address: "Repress," Sydney. Advertisers please note that copy should reach office of publication by 14th of month preceding that specified for insertion.

Subscription rates: 1/- per copy, 10/6 per year ( 12 issues) post free to Australia and New Zealand. Subscribers in New Zealand can remit by Postal Note or Money Order.

Printed by Bridge Printery Pty. Ltd., 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W., for the proprietors of the "Australasian Radio World," 214 George St., Sydney (Footnote P.48)

P.22 - 25 Years in Amateur Radio (5)
'''25 Years In Amateur Radio. . . (5)''' By DON B. KNOCK Radio Editor, "The Bulletin."

In this instalment the author tells of an impulse that brought him halfway across the world to Australia, and of his early experiences in amateur radio here.

MY own fly-power gear wasn't powerful enough to reach the Antipodes, and so I teamed up with a pal, Bloxam of G5LS, and punched the key from this South London station for a while until once again, business affairs demanded a move.

From "ham" radio I graduated to the more serious side of radio transmission by securing a position with the old British Broadcasting Co. as maintenance engineer, being appointed to the Leeds-Bradford relay in Yorkshire. This relay centre fed two transmitters about 15 miles apart, from the control point and main studio in Leeds, and apart from regular station and control duties, much of the work was in connection with OB's.

I was often to be found lugging amplifiers and microphones about, to Harrogate, York, Scarborough, and various theatres. The work proved interesting, and broadcasting apparatus as used to-day brings a smile at the thought of the antiquated gear of those days.

An amusing but rather disconcerting incident occurred one day, when my duty schedule called for the day at Bradford. The transmitter there was housed on the top floor of a dilapidated warehouse, and once the engineer on duty started up at 11 a.m., he was marooned there without a break on his lonesome until midnight. A motor-cycle combination was available for transportation, but this was such a "grid" that one preferred to use the train and travel comfortably.

The Wrong Train! That morning was a murky, foggy one as I waited on the Leeds station platform for the train. It was due out at 10.25 a.m., but no train showed up until nearly 10.40 a.m. Taking a seat along with morning paper, I glanced up to note that the train was apparently making up for lost time, as, contrary to usual, she hurtled straight through Shipley junction, just outside Bradford.

Then along the corridor came a ticket collector. I handed over my Bradford ticket, whereupon the gold-braided one remarked that I "would be a h-- of a time getting there, as this was the Carlisle express!" Carlisle – non-stop – about 150 miles north, and I was due to get that transmitter radiating before 11.30!

At Skipton, north of Bradford, the express stopped to pick up two special passengers, and I nipped out. A train was just leaving for Bradford on the opposite platform, and I made it. Alas, it ambled into Bradford at 11.50 a.m., and I reached the station at almost mid-day.

All land-line indicators from control in Leeds were down, and when I got through to the Chief, his observations were sulphurous to a degree. Furthermore, an ambulance was screaming its way toward me in case I had been electrocuted. Anyway, I never did know whether Chief Engineer Eckersley in London believed the faithful report I returned regarding the fog and the train mixup, but things never seemed to be the same. Complete silence from a B.B.C. station with dealers waiting to demonstrate receivers, to say nothing of housewives missing their morning cookery chat, was akin to sacrilege!

Back To Australia. A year of broadcasting experience passed, and once again I sought a change. Radio was moving ahead quickly, but somehow the wanderlust had not worked off since war service and subsequent seafaring.

Back in the home town in Lancashire, I passed one day a shipping office. Australia loomed large on a poster, and without hesitation in I walked and booked a passage on a ship leaving London in three weeks. It was an adventurous step, inasmuch that by the time I had worked out all it would cost me, I would arrive in Sydney with a sadly depleted pocket-book.

Again I spent most of that passage "upstairs" with "Sparks." Out of odds and ends I conjured up a short-wave receiver, and we had much fun logging amateurs from everywhere. By the time I reached Sydney in April, 1926, the radio business had been through a bad slump for some reason or other. Nevertheless, through the agency of a Sydney friend I had met in London, I stepped into a job of sorts in a little wireless business in the city and began to look around.

Amateur radio naturally came up again. Many of the early Sydney amateurs were already known to me by QSL correspondence, and in short order I was invited to attend a W.I.A. meeting in the old rooms in Elizabeth Street. It was there I met a really fine bunch of fellows, simply brimming with hospitality, and in those days a "G" ham was a novelty. Here was amateur radio plus good fellowship as I had always imagined it to be.

On The Air As A2NO. After that meeting, two members approached me and asked if I intended getting on the air. Could a duck swim? These two were brothers; one was the original A2TM, Haswell Turner, and the other, Harry. The latter had no "ham" ticket, couldn't punch a key, but had a lot of apparatus and enthusiasm. The result was that I joined forces with Harry and quickly approached the P.M.G.'s Department for a licence.

After due consideration, Mr. Malone, the genial Chief Inspector of Wireless in Melbourne, granted me a special licence on the strength of my old English licence, on condition that I took the A.O.C.P. in the prescribed time. There was not much argument regarding power for Australian amateurs in those days, and in mid-1926 A2NO went into action with 250 watts at a location in Cremorne, Sydney. Since then the call 2NO has hardly ever been off the air in various locations.

That pioneer station piled up some good work. Harry did the engineering, and my job was handling the dials and key. In short order I was yarning away on 32 metres with old friends back in England, and life took on a very pleasant aspect. It was at that station that much experimentation was done with antenna systems, and soon there sprouted between the two lofty sky-sticks what was really the first "Zepp" feed antenna in this part of the world before "QST" began to deal with the idea.

Try as we would, we could never clean up the note from the Hartley transmitter, despite expenditure of much cash on filter condensers. We even made up a huge "electrolytic" with aluminium pie dishes, glass strips, and borax, and it withstood 2,000 odd volts!

It was only long afterwards that we discovered the reason for that bad note, which sounded something like tearing silk, but reached all over the world. The high voltage transformer stood hard up against the "shack" wall, which carried a shelf holding the transmitter, with large diameter copper tube coils on glass rods.

It was a massive ex-navy transformer, and it had loose laminations that chattered. The vibration was carried up the wall to the tank circuit, and as the coils merely rested on the glass tubes, they shimmied slightly, but quite enough to modulate the signal almost as if raw A.C. were applied to the plates of the old T250's. If we had only rested that transformer on shock-absorbing material away from the wall, the note would have been at least smooth R.A.C.

Two Years Of Key Punching. That year and 1927 I seldom slept. The DX bug bit hard, and the week-ends particularly would find me glued to the operating table, hardly deigning to look up for a cup of tea. Lasting world-wide friendships were made, and there was always keen competition between A2TM, A2BK, A2YI and A2NO. From 32 metres we explored 20 metres and worked Europeans all through the day, particularly during 1927.

I well recall the occasion when Belgian 4AU told me to inform A2DY up in Gordon, N.S.W., that he had been "R7 here for three or four hours." A2DY had a lone 201A-Hartley outfit, with about 10 watts input in comparison to our 250 watts or more. My own signal report was R7! Don Lindsay (now in A.W.A.'s laboratory) got remarkable efficiency from his little station of those days.

My First C.C. Transmitter. Then came a new era. "QST" (my bible for years) had been talking crystal control, and it was decided that something ought to be done about it. Harry Kauper, of Adelaide (A5BG), had made a start, and his 32-metre crystal signal was a source of joy and envy. Through the late Clair Foster (W6HM), a crystal was obtained from U.S.A., and the job of building the gear began. That crystal, incidentally, cost us around £10 in those days.

Starting off with a 210 oscillator, 210 doubler, and De Forest H tube buffer, driving a T250, we eventually got on the air. It was the first C.C. amateur station in N.S.W., though we only beat Chas. Maclurcan (A2CM) by a day or two.

Then came disaster. Experiments were undertaken with various forms of crystal oscillators, using our lone and expensive piece of quartz. One day Harry · left a partly completed breadboard oscillator on the workbench with the crystal in the holder, which consisted simply of two polished pennies.

Another man who used this bench for odd jobs picked up the breadboard unit and placed it on one end on the floor. Later in the day somebody brushed out the floor of the shack and swept all the debris into the dustbin. Unfortunately our crystal had slipped out of the holder, and had been among all the odds and ends of spaghetti, wire, etc. Wild thoughts of a visit to the Council incinerator were uppermost, but were ruled out as being too much like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The man who shifted that unit was most unpopular!

We visited various opticians in search of suitable spectacle lenses. While the process of examining, cutting and grinding was proceeding, the fact of a silent station chafed, and back went the old 32-metre "rock-crusher." Again that raspy note tore across the seven seas, and all was well.

Nearly a Silent Key. Around this time I nearly came to an untimely end, when sleepily, somewhere around 3 a.m., I put my hands where they would have been safer in my pockets. For a fraction of a second I took the full kick from the H.T. transformer, 4,000 volts across the outside. I came back to earth about half an hour later, lying across the shack floor, very groggy about the knees, and a little burnt at the fingers. The transmitter was still radiating merrily; The house was about 30 feet distant from the shack, and nobody would have been any the wiser until hours later if anything serious had happened.

Old timers of those days on 32 metres will recall some of the unusual and outstanding DX stations – for example, JKZB in Tokio, SK2 in Borneo, the original OP1HR (Manila, Philippines), and LA1X in Stavanger, Norway. (This latter station I kept skeds with every morning at 6 a.m. Sydney time for months, and never failed to make contact). QRM from thousands of "ham" stations as in these days was almost unknown. FO5X in Johannesburg, G2NM, G2OD, G5XY, NU6HM, NU6AM, NU9DNG, and hundreds of others remain in the memory, and the contacts show in the old log book.

It was in 1927 that commercial radio decided that the amateurs had too much to themselves, and that fateful Washington Conference resulted in the allocation of the bands mainly as they are to-day. With the passing of 32 metres, the Australian amateur lost the finest DX medium that ever was. Those who remember, and now listen occasionally to the overseas broadcasters around the 31/32-metre mark, know that it was the amateur and nobody else who paved the way.

I often wonder what would have been the position if, when in the early days, "200 metres and below" was thrown to amateurs had been taken by them in conjunction with International legal agreements that this should for all future time be strictly amateur territory! Amateur radio might have been very wealthy to-day by sub-letting shortwave channels to commercial interests! Instead of which, despite any assertion to the contrary, amateur radio is literally fighting for International existence. There are people who would take from the amateur entirely what little is left to him.

But wise governments encourage their amateurs as much as possible, and in this respect Australians are indeed fortunate. The VK amateur of to-day enjoys many privileges barred to his fraternity overseas, and the Wireless Institute of Australia plays a big part in this respect.

During 1927-28, I had taken to writing occasional pars for the radio publications of the day, dealing mostly with DX achievements from A2NO.

The published description of my pet receiver led to the permanent filling of a staff vacancy on the old "Radio in Australia and N.Z.," together with the "Wireless Weekly" of those days. That receiver was rather queerly named the "Go-Getter," and how it caught on! Probably many readers of these words well remember that receiver and the subsequent "All-Empire." The latter was the first metal chassis receiver in this part of the world, and the first to realise the advantages of the screen-grid valve as a T.R.F. amplifier for high frequencies.

Photo of 2NO's station in 1926
The old original A2NO station in 1926, then located at Cremorne, Sydney. Immediately in front of the author are the crystal oscillator and buffer stages, with a T250 final and MRI rectifiers on the right.


text:
History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australasian Radio World/Issues/1937 10

Link to Issue PDF
| WorldRadioHistory.com's scan of | Australasian Radio World - Vol. 02 No. 06 - October 1937 has been utilised to create the partial content for this page and can be downloaded at this link to further extend the content and enable further text correction of this issue: | ARW 1937 10

In general, only content which is required for other articles in this Wikibook has been entered here and text corrected. The material has been extensively used, inter alia, for compilation of biographical articles,  radio club articles and  station articles.

Front Cover
The Australasian Radio World

OCTOBER 1, 1937; Vol. 2 - No. 6; Price, 1/-

Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post as a periodical

Cover Photo: Photo of 2SM's new AWA transmitter (See Page 8)

Highlighted Contents: "1937 Outdoor Portable Four": More about the "Tom Thumb Two": A.C./D.C. Superhet: Radiokes "Advance Dual-Wave Five": Latest Official List of VK Amateur Transmitters.

P.02 - Editorial Notes
'''Editorial Notes. . .'''

Nil

P.02 - Contents Banner
The Australasian Radio World

Incorporating the

All-Wave All-World DX News

Managing Editor - A. Earl Read, B.Sc.

Vol. 2. - OCTOBER, 1937 - No. 6.

P.02 - Contents
CONTENTS:

The "1937 Outdoor Portable Four". . . . 3

Assembling And Wiring The "Tom Thumb Two". . . . 8

Latest Radiokes Kit-Set Is The "Advance 1937". . . . 10

Radio Ramblings. . . . 12

Radio Club Caters For Transmitters And S.W. Listeners. . . . 16

25 Years In Amateur Radio. . . . 18

VK Amateur Calls. . . . 21

A.C./D.C. Receiver Uses New Radiotron Barretter. . . . 32

Breaking Into The Amateur Game (9). . . . 34

Nine-Channel Ultra S. W. Radio Telephone Link. . . . 38

What's New In Radio. . . . 40

A.T.R.S. Institute — Queensland Branch. . . . 42

Radio Step By Step (11). . . . 44

All-Wave All-World DX News. . . . 45

Shortwave Review. . . . 46

DX News And Views. . . . 49

Zero Beat Radio Club Notes. . . . 50

Round The Shacks (3). . . . 51

Shortwave Station Addresses. . . . 52

P.02 - Publication Notes
The "Australasian Radio World" is published monthly by Trade Publications Proprietary, Ltd. Editorial offices, 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Telephone BW6577. Cable address: "Repress," Sydney. Advertisers please note that copy should reach office of publication by 14th of month preceding that specified for insertion.

Subscription rates: 1/- per copy, 10/6 per year ( 12 issues) post free to Australia and New Zealand. Subscribers in New Zealand can remit by Postal Note or Money Order.

Printed by Bridge Printery Pty. Ltd., 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W., for the proprietors of the "Australasian Radio World," 214 George St., Sydney (Footnote P.52)

P.18 - 25 Years In Amateur Radio (6)
'''25 Years In Amateur Radio. . . (6)'''

The sixth instalment of a biography covering the early days of radio, written for the "Radio World". . . By DON B. KNOCK

THE "All Empire" receiver as introduced in 1928 was the first to use the newly-developed screengrid valve as R.F. amplifier for the short waves, and it worked so well that at least two Sydney radio dealers "made hay while the sun shone." Also, a boom in aluminium followed, for after this the familiar wooden baseboard and bakelite panel were "out."

Radio On Trans-Pacific Flight. It was with the original "All Empire" receiver that I had one of the greatest thrills of my life. Hardly was it completed when news came of the start of the most magnificent trans-ocean flight of all in the history of aviation. The late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, then relatively unknown to the general public, had pulled the old "Southern Cross" into the air from Oakland airport, U.S.A., with full tanks, and with his co-pilot, Charles Ulm, navigator Lyons and wireless operator Warner, was heading for Australia via Honolulu and Fiji.

In those days the shortwave bands were not so congested with the vast number of commercial stations as now, and a few hours after leaving Oakland, the I.C.W. signal from KHAB, the "Southern Cross," was heard giving flying conditions and position reports. KHAB carried a special T.P.T.G. transmitter of 50 watts rating, designed by Heintz and Kaufman, and the signal was received consistently in Sydney throughout the whole of the flying time to Australia.

One could visualise the 'plane forging through bad weather as the signal varied owing to the swing of the trailing aerial. On several occasions the signal was picked up and re-broadcast by 2BL, Sydney, and it was amusing to hear subsequent opinions of listeners to the effect that they "could distinctly hear the roar of the engines." What they heard was the rise and fall in pitch of the wind-driven alternator.

Getting Out On "10". It was around 1928 that Australian amateurs began to take a serious interest in 10 metres, and several made a start with transmitters of sorts. In Sydney, Clive St. John (VK2RX) co-operated with myself, and together we succeeded in putting signals between Rockdale and Randwick. Nothing was heard of interstate stations until 1929, when 4th, 5th and 3rd districts began to break through, followed by New Zealanders, Hawaiians, and finally Americans. Contacts speedily followed.

The great turning point in amateur radio affairs had also arrived about this time, when the rulings of the 1927 Washington Conference came into action. It was good-bye to 32 metres, the most useful band amateurs had ever enjoyed, or are ever likely to. The big advantage of 32 metres, apart from its wonderful DX capabilities, was the fact that one could chat to overseas fellows with little or no QRM. Most overseas stations, with the exception of a few favoured Englishmen and Europeans, were on 45 metres, or 39 to 42 metres.

Australians and New Zealanders enjoyed immunity from congestion, and QSO's were rarely of the "73 CUL OM" variety. The rag-chews were long and interesting. To give up 32 metres and wedge into 7,000-7,300 k.c. was quite a blow, but the amateur has a habit of clearing obstacles, and with "QST" showing the way, transmitters and receivers were cleaned up to meet the new conditions. We still had 20 metres, however, and that band has since proved to be the band of bands for easy DX.

In 1930 an opportunity presented itself to undertake radio communication work in the "wide open spaces," and so I accepted an appointment at Wyndham Meatworks, North-West Australia, to install and maintain a system of shortwave radio telephone communication. The scheme was to link up cattle-drafting centres and stations with the works. The apparatus was constructed in Sydney, and consisted of a 100-watt key and 'phone station, signing VIX on 55 metres, a launch station (VJQX), and a mobile station (6JU) for inland testing.

Static "One Continuous Roar." Arriving at Wyndham in early March, I got an inkling of the hopelessness of radio reception there during the rainy season. I had heard static before, but never anything like that. It was one continuous roar. The receiver was stowed away until such time as the weather gods relented and the blaze of lightning around the sky disappeared.

Before leaving the East, I had arranged for an amateur call-sign, which was granted as VK6NK. How useful this was to prove I little realised at the time. During the bad weather the station VIX was connected up and tested, and aerials erected. The receiver was modelled on the lines of the faithful "All Empire," and proved very sensitive, so sensitive that a bad snag was encountered from the start.

It had been necessary to site the station in a large store quite close to the works power house. When the two 100 k.w. D.C. generators about 150 feet distant were in action, the din can be well imagined! Something had to be done about it, and for certain reasons the station could not be moved. Came a headachy period of testing special receiving aerials. With a vertical aerial consisting of lead-covered cable, with the sheathing earthed, it was possible to hear the stronger amateurs on 40 metres.

Doublet Solves The Problem. During a contact with VK6MO, he described to me in detail particulars of a doublet referred to in "QST," using twisted flex feeders, and suggested I try it. This was erected, with one half of the doublet vertical and the other half directly underneath and horizontally in the form of a circle. The results were amazing. The din from the generators subsided to a low level, and R4 signals could be heard on 40 metres. On 20, results were even better. No wonder that in recent years radio journals have popularised the transposed feeder doublet as an aid to overcoming radio-inductive QRM.

The transmitter for VK6NK consisted of a T.P.T.G. oscillator using a Philips MB1/50, power being taken from a rotary converter running from the works 230 volts D.C. supply. When not engaged in working with VIX and the other stations, VK6NK practically lived on the air on 20 and 40 metres, using a 40 metre "Zepp" with series and parallel tuned 50-foot feeders.

Reception conditions were peculiar at this location, for right behind Wyndham Meatworks is the vast hill known as the Bastion. On lower frequencies, this huge mass of ironstone effectively blocks off all signals from the south in a direct line. So complete is the cut-off that ships approaching Wyndham are able to hear southern broadcasters quite well until within 200 yards of the jetty, when signals completely disappear.

One refrigeration engineer, owner of a very fine American all-wave receiver which he used for entertainment in his cabin, came to me in perplexity to find out what was wrong with the receiver. All he could hear when tied up at the jetty were Japs, Chinese, and the Philippinos. Short waves, however, are no respecters of hills, and have a habit of leaping them, and so 20 metres proved the stepping stone to Sydney for amateur contacts from VK6NK.

Toward the end of April that year I was informed by VK2RX on 20 metres that a Ryan monoplane, "City of Sydney," was leaving Mascot aerodrome on a flight to England via Wyndham, and that she carried radio. Would I look out for signals? A request like that gives added interest to radio, and so the receiver went into action with long periods of searching for VMZAB, known to be somewhere around 34 metres.

Signals Fade Out. One day, about noon, I picked up a strong carrier wave, varying somewhat. Then it was interrupted to slowly sign "VMZAB," with information to the effect that the 'plane had left Newcastle Waters and was heading for Wyndham. The signal was held strongly for two hours or more, when suddenly it decreased in strength and at the same time crept along the dial slowly. Eventually it faded completely out. What had happened?

Some intuition warned me that the 'plane had made a landing, and that the weakening of the signal, plus the variation of frequency, was due to the increasing proximity of the earth as she came down. An hour elapsed, and then came the weak but certain "SOS de VMZAB" repeated several times. The signal was obviously in the "skip" area for reception at my location, but fortunately, at this lunch time period for the works, much of the machinery closed down for an hour or so.

Eventually the text following the SOS calls was deciphered, and was to the effect that "we have been forced down with a broken camshaft. Believe somewhere near Rosewood. Not far from a river."

That was enough for action. Hurriedly putting VK6NK on the air on 20, an "SOS Sydney" call was sent out and was immediately answered by VK2NS in Bathurst. Details were passed on and Evans telephoned Mascot aerodrome. At this stage it became necessary to keep in touch both with the signals from VMZAB and the 20-metre band, so two receivers were used, with one headphone from each, and connected to separate aerials.

Meanwhile, the attention of VK2JP in Sydney had been attracted, and a lengthy period of emergency traffic commenced. The works officials were notified, and local police and bushmen studied maps in an endeavour to place the possible location of the 'plane.

Photo of 2NO and station, Wyndham 1930
The author in the radio room at Wyndham, North-West Australia, in 1930.

Another Photo of 2NO and station, Wyndham 1930
Another view of the author and his radio shack at Wyndham.


text:
History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australasian Radio World/Issues/1937 11

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In general, only content which is required for other articles in this Wikibook has been entered here and text corrected. The material has been extensively used, inter alia, for compilation of biographical articles,  radio club articles and  station articles.

Front Cover
The Australasian Radio World

NOVEMBER 1, 1937; Vol. 2 - No. 7; Price, 1/-

Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post as a periodical

Cover Photo: Photo of Valve testing at Amalgamated Wireless Valve Co. (See Page 8)

Highlighted Contents: "De Luxe Fidelity Eight": More about the "1937 Outdoor Portable Four": Using the 1C6 on Shortwave: Breaking into the Amateur Game: Result of Third Shortwave DX Contest

P.02 - Editorial Notes
'''Editorial Notes. . .'''

Nil

P.02 - Contents Banner
The Australasian Radio World

Incorporating the

All-Wave All-World DX News

Managing Editor - A. Earl Read, B.Sc.

Vol. 2. - NOVEMBER, 1937 - No. 7.

P.02 - Contents
CONTENTS:

De Luxe Fidelity Eight. . . . 3

Valve Manufacture In Australia. . . . 8

Radio Ramblings. . . . 10

W.I.A. National Field Day On Dec. 4. . . . 13

Breaking Into The Amateur Game (10). . . . 14

Round The N.Z. "B" Stations (5). . . . 18

The 1937 Outdoor Portable Four. . . . 20

25 Years In Amateur Radio (7). . . . 24

Radio Step By Step (12). . . . 26

Improved Operating Conditions For 1C6 On Shortwave. . . . 28

What's New In Radio. . . . 32

New Adelaide Station Has Up-to-date Transmitter. . . . 36

The All-Wave All-World DX News. . . . 37

Shortwave Review. . . . 38

Second "Radio World" S. W. Contest. . . . 39

DX News And Views. . . . 41

Ten Thousand Miles On Five Metres. . . . 42

Radio Aids Flying Doctor In Outback. . . . 43

Round The Shacks (4). . . . 45

Shortwave Station Addresses. . . . 46

E. Neill Wins First S. W. DX Contest. . . . 47

VK Amateur Transmitters — Additions And Amendments. . . . 48

P.02 - Publication Notes
The "Australasian Radio World" is published monthly by Trade Publications Proprietary, Ltd. Editorial offices, 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Telephone BW6577. Cable address: "Repress," Sydney. Advertisers please note that copy should reach office of publication by 14th of month preceding that specified for insertion.

Subscription rates: 1/- per copy, 10/6 per year (12 issues) post free to Australia and New Zealand. Subscribers in New Zealand can remit by Postal Note or Money Order.

Printed by Bridge Printery Pty. Ltd., 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W., for the proprietors of the "Australasian Radio World," 214 George St., Sydney (Footnote P.48)

P.24 - 25 Years In Amateur Radio (7)
'''25 Years In Amateur Radio. . . (7)'''

The seventh instalment of a biography covering the early days of radio, written for the "Radio World". . .By DON B. KNOCK, Radio Editor, "The Bulletin."

JACK PIKE, of VK2JP, is about the oldest active amateur in Australia, and a key-puncher of no mean repute. When he realised the emergency, he "sat in" on VK6NK and put daily business in the background.

Some idea of the traffic handled on this occasion can be gained when I say that almost 20,000 words were handled over a period of two or three days, and one of the QSO's went on for over nine hours nonstop. I shudder to think of an attempt to duplicate such traffic in these days, with the poor old 20-metre band seething with 'phones from all over the world! Then it was an "open go" and the devil take the hindmost on the key!

At this stage of operation from Wyndham Meatworks, the big machinery had not fully started up on the working season; consequently a small Diesel engine ran a puny 230-volt D.C. generator for lighting the offices and residences at night, until cut off at 10.30 p.m. Normally this was satisfactory, but often, when in the middle of traffic with VK2JP, the voltage would drop to around 100, and lights would dim to nothing. Then 2JP had to wait while I stormed around trying to find who was using an electric kettle or ironing pants! A few expletives, and off would go the load, and traffic proceeded.

The first day had gone by, and at intervals VMZAB was sending that plaintive SOS, asking for help and, above all, food. A search party had been organised, and was threading its way through the long spear grass in the direction where it was thought the 'plane lay. They returned, disheartened — no sign! (Later it transpired, that they had been only 10 miles away, with a mountain range between).

Reports of the search party were passed on to Sydney, and meanwhile organisation at Mascot aerodrome had progressed to the extent of getting a big three-engined Fokker ready to come North and search. It was not needed, for radio eventually saved the day.

Missing 'Plane Found. On the third day, another search party was equipped under Sgt. King, of the W.A. police, with bushman Bill Flinders, of Wyndham town, included. Instructions were given to the effect that if they found the 'plane, the pilot should immediately call me and let me know.

Another day and a half passed, and sitting in the operating position in that corrugated iron-walled radio room was no joke in the heat of the North-West afternoon sun. At 2.30 p.m. this day there had been a long period of silence from VMZAB. It was obvious that the batteries were getting weaker, and soon there would be no juice left for transmission. I had called them repeatedly in the hope that a receiver was on board, until Sydney notified me otherwise.

Suddenly that weak signal was heard calling, "Knock, Knock, Wyndham — Sgt. King's party arrived O.K. All safe now." What a relief! In three minutes Pike had word away down in Sydney, and in another fifteen, newspapers were out on Sydney's streets with the news.

In three days' time Dave Smith, pilot of the 'plane, and his engineer, Wally Shiers, arrived at the works. They described vividly their experiences, and how Flinders had instinctively driven his motor truck straight through the dense speargrass almost to the stranded 'plane. They stayed at Wyndham while a new camshaft arrived by air from the South, and Shiers, aviation engineer par excellence, went back and fitted it to the engine in the staggering heat while being eaten alive by mosquitoes and flies.

In a few weeks' time the 'plane was ready again, and I enjoyed a radio test flight with Smith. The Kimberley country around Wyndham looks magnificent from a few thousand feet —a well-watered country. Early one morning they took off on resumption of the flight to England. Crossing the Timor, the signal from their baby transmitter, powered from 300 volts of "B" battery, romped in until they landed at Bima. They never reached England, running short of fuel in the Siamese forests, and crashing on landing. Neither was hurt.

A few months later I was shocked to find myself copying Sydney Press one night to the effect that young Dave Smith had been killed at Mascot in an accident. To-day, Wally Shiers is Chief Engineer of Airlines of Australia Ltd. — a man with flying in his blood and modern aero engines at his command. He has good reason to know the vital importance of emergency radio communication for aeroplanes flying anywhere over Australia. Shiers is the same Sgt. Shiers who made the historic flight from England with the late Sir Ross Smith just after the War.

Experiments With a Portable. During that year in the North-West there was plenty of opportunity to get inland and see much of the country. The hospitality of the settlers is outstanding, and a visitor is speedily made to feel at home. The mobile station 6JU went with me on these travels, and many interesting effects were noticed in shortwave communication.

One of the most interesting places for remarkable reception is La Crosse island, at the mouth of the Cambridge Gulf. A night was spent on this island, when three of us arrived by launch to run tests with VIX. Only a two-valve "blooper" receiver was used, but the whole world seemed to appear in great strength on the dial. The strength of American amateurs on 40 metres as early as noon was phenomenal. But for the water problem, this island should be an ideal place for a radio centre for flying boats on the overseas air-mail.

La Crosse, incidentally, is a laying and hatching sanctuary for turtles, and hundreds of the little fellows were seen emerging from the warm sand and flopping their way to the water to get their first swim. It is the island from where De Rougemont is reputed to have crossed to the mainland on the back of a turtle.

A Fortnight In Perth. At the conclusion of the season, the works' activity ceased, and I shipped to Perth en route home, spending two weeks with the G.O.M. of radio there, Wally Coxon (VK6AG), and meeting the very enthusiastic and hospitable bunch of VK6's, many of whom I had chatted with from VK6NK.

Back in Sydney, I found that life had taken on a dreary aspect. The notorious "depression" was in full swing, and the outlook was anything but pleasant. Trade was stagnating, but broadcasting was at least alive and doing, so a business offer in connection with a proposed country "B" station at Gunnedah, N.S. W., was accepted.

This station (2MO) started off with next to nothing in the way of finance, and with a broadcast transmitter fashioned mainly from such suitable components as had been available at VK2NO.

Despite the QRP, this station in its early makeshift form reached out with a good signal, and reports began to flow in from all over Australia and overseas. Technical difficulties were innumerable, as the town in those days had 240 volts D.C. It was a case of rotary converters for filaments and motor-driven generators for H.T.

As most readers will know, "B" class stations derive their revenue solely from advertising time. Imagine in 1931 trying to solicit air advertising in a wool and wheat district when prices were down almost to zero! Stores wouldn't advertise as their business was all "credit." City stations were "in clover," but the small country station had a very hard road to tread in those times.

Back To The "Big Smoke." After a month or two with little or no financial return, and power bill, etc., soaring still higher, I decided that two partners could not make ends meet satisfactorily under such a handicap, and disposed of my share. As much as I had grown to love the Australian countryside, it was a case of back to the "big smoke."

One man could manage where two could not, and I am glad to say that my former partner weathered the economical storm. Today his station is a permanency known to listeners far and wide. Back in Sydney, some radio service work and trading was undertaking, with occasional contributed articles to radio and daily newspapers, and back on the air went VK2NO. A keen amateur cannot be kept QRT for long, and gradually the station assumed previous proportions and once again reached out all over the world. The YL became the XYL, and in due course came to know what "BCL QRM" and other jargon implied.

Photo of 2NO in 1930
The author on horseback at Wyndham, North-West Australia, where he spent a year installing and operating a shortwave radio telephony communication system at Wyndham Meatworks.


text:
History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australasian Radio World/Issues/1937 12

Link to Issue PDF
| WorldRadioHistory.com's scan of | Australasian Radio World - Vol. 02 No. 08 - December 1937 has been utilised to create the partial content for this page and can be downloaded at this link to further extend the content and enable further text correction of this issue: | ARW 1937 12

In general, only content which is required for other articles in this Wikibook has been entered here and text corrected. The material has been extensively used, inter alia, for compilation of biographical articles,  radio club articles and  station articles.

Front Cover
The Australasian Radio World

DECEMBER 1, 1937; Vol. 2 - No. 8; Price, 1/-

Registered at the G.P.O., Sydney, for transmission by post as a periodical

Cover Photo: Photo of W.I.A. National Field Day activity (See Page 8)

Highlighted Contents: Amateur Communications Battery Superhet: Making a Reiss Microphone: More about the "De Luxe Fidelity Eight": 15 and 25-Watt P.A. Amplifiers: Latest World Shortwave News.

P.02 - Editorial Notes
'''Editorial Notes. . .'''

Nil

P.02 - Contents Banner
The Australasian Radio World

Incorporating the

All-Wave All-World DX News

Managing Editor - A. Earl Read, B.Sc.

Vol. 2. - DECEMBER, 1937 - No. 8.

P.02 - Contents
CONTENTS:

The A.C. "Empire All-Wave Three". . . . 3

Tasman Crossed On "Five". . . . 7

Radio Ramblings. . . . 10

Battery Amateur Communications Superhet. . . . 12

A 15-Watt Public Address Amplifier. . . . 15

25 Years In Amateur Radio (8). . . . 18

Making A Reiss Microphone. . . . 20

15 And 25-Watt Public Address Amplifiers. . . . 22

Radio Step By Step (13). . . . 25

Assembling And Wiring The De Luxe Fidelity Eight. . . . 26

Round The Shacks (5). . . . 29

Fiftieth Transmitting Member Joins Lakemba. . . . 30

What's New In Radio. . . . 34

Breaking Into The Amateur Game (11). . . . 38

All-Wave All-World DX News. . . . 41

Shortwave Review. . . . 42

Shortwave Station Addresses. . . . 44

DX News And Views. . . . 45

VK Amateur Transmitters - Additions And Amendments. . . . 47

Level Indicator For Public Address Systems. . . . 48

P.02 - Publication Notes
The "Australasian Radio World" is published monthly by Trade Publications Proprietary, Ltd. Editorial offices, 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Telephone BW6577. Cable address: "Repress," Sydney. Advertisers please note that copy should reach office of publication by 14th of month preceding that specified for insertion.

Subscription rates: 1/- per copy, 10/6 per year (12 issues) post free to Australia and New Zealand. Subscribers in New Zealand can remit by Postal Note or Money Order.

Printed by Bridge Printery Pty. Ltd., 214 George Street, Sydney, N.S.W., for the proprietors of the "Australasian Radio World," 214 George St., Sydney (Footnote P.48)

P.18 - 25 Years In Amateur Radio (8)
'''25 Years In Amateur Radio. . . (8)'''

In this instalment the author describes how in 1932, in company with a few fellow-VK's he commenced exploring the possibilities of the ultra short waves. Written for the "Radio World". . . By DON B. KNOCK, Radio Editor, "The Bulletin."

After a period of radio sales and service work, experimental work was carried out with a limited amount of equipment, and using low power, from Bronte, Sydney. This location could be classed as about one of the world's worst. The residence was below road level, being reached by a long flight of steps, and the consequence was that an aerial system, even on 50-foot masts, was only two or three feet above road level.

Despite this severe handicap, a fair amount of excellent communication was obtained on 40 and 20 metres with overseas stations, and some satisfactory 10-metre work was also done with interstate stations. The aerial was efficient, which explained the results. It was a centre-fed 135-foot top running North and South, and despite the heavy screening, reached out very well. The experiences with the station in this undoubtedly poor location brought home the realisation that there can never be a totally impossible location for shortwave communication. It was well demonstrated by reason of the fact that some very useful pioneering work was done on five metres, and for such work one can only comment that the location was well-nigh disheartening.

Early Ultra Shortwave Experiments. At this period, a few of the older hands were turning to five metres for other fields to explore, and among these with the writer were VK2SA (Sgt. Salmon of the N.S.W. police radio service) and Syd. Maguire (VK2XY). These two stations were situated over two ranges of hills in a northerly direction, about three miles distant. With what may now be considered as the most elementary of ultra-shortwave transmitters and receivers, very little trouble was encountered in obtaining good two-way and duplex telephony working.

The transmitters were unstable modulated oscillators, receivers were battery-operated super-regenerators, and the aerials of various kinds, but all plain radiators and not directional. The Pickard type of aerial was favoured at this time, and this is fundamentally about equal to the usual twisted pair doublet.

It was known that over on the other side of Sydney the Lakemba Club had a few members keen on five metres, and engaged in experiments, but Lakemba was then looked upon as excessive DX, and somewhat unlikely as a communication goal from the Eastern suburbs. Nothing was ever heard of the stations over there from the writer's location, but VK2SA, who was more favourably placed, once thought he heard a weak station. In view of subsequent work and achievements in recent years, we can now look pityingly on our former modest hopes!

Back To Radio Journalism. In 1933, the writer returned to the sphere of radio journalism by an appointment as Technical Editor of "Australian Radio News," then published by "The Bulletin," and during the period until this weekly was absorbed in "The Bulletin," a considerable amount of 5-metre investigational work was done. The foundations were laid for an influx of enthusiasm for this previously-scorned communication channel, and more Sydney amateurs were attracted to its possibilities as a very useful cross-city medium.

Following on the initial tests at the home location, with its serious handicaps, possible high elevations were sought with the object of determining just how far signals could travel with the apparatus available. A portable station was made up on a camera tripod. The transmitter had two 71A's in unity-push-pull with two similar valves as modulators in parallel, while the receiver was a separately interrupted super-regenerator with 2-volt battery valves and a magnetic speaker.

This station was taken to the tower on top of "The Bulletin" offices in George Street, Sydney, where a Pickard type aerial was rigged on a wooden support. At once the advantages of an unscreened location became apparent. It was possible to work with the 5-metre gang in all directions around Sydney, as far afield as Mascot aerodrome.

Special duplex tests were run between this station and a police outfit operated by VK2SA from police H.Q. in Philip Street, and a new and interesting era began to dawn in experimental 5-metre radio in N.S.W. Tests were also run about this time in conjunction with Syd. Colville at Mascot aerodrome, and considerable success was had in working over distances up to 20 miles between ground station and 'plane.

Much interest was aroused by the demonstration of 5-metre duplex communication between the "Australian Radio News" and Ever Ready Battery Co.'s stands at the 1934 Radio and Electrical Exhibition in Sydney Town Hall. All this time, transmitters and receivers had been crude, and aerials an inefficient means to an end.

DX With Directional Aerials. With the coming of the directional aerial era on 5 metres in Sydney, this once short-range band began to take on a different aspect. Up in the Blue Mountains, at Hazelbrook, N.S.W., was located a keen experimenter in E. B. Ferguson (VK2BP). Ferguson had dabbled with 5-metre apparatus in the hope of hearing something of the Sydney stations, but after meeting repeatedly with a wall of silence, had more or less given up the quest in disgust.

Late in 1934, a new type of 5-metre aerial was erected at the writer's station (where the previous location had been changed for a more elevated position), this being of the four radiator-four reflector type with the radiators fed in phase, and giving beaming in one direction. It was a bulky affair on a wooden framework, and was perforce so slung between two poles that it gave direction due west.

The transmitter was a T.N.T. oscillator using 45's, modulated in Class B by a 53, driven by a 56. Two keen co-operating experimenters at this time were Harry Chinner (VK2CG) and Will Dukes (VK2WD). It was arranged to run a distance test on this aerial, and on 2 February 35 these two left Sydney by car, carrying a small super-regen. receiver, to make observations on a constant modulated tone signal from VK2NO.

They couldn't lose the signal anywhere along the Mountains Road route, and at Hazelbrook, outside VK2BP's shack, the signal was at maximum. Ferguson was away from home, but a note was left notifying him of the test and the result. To cut a long story short, in a few days' time VK2BP was on the air with a similar beam array, and perfect two-way telephony was established on 5 metres between Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

Active stations using beam arrays following this period were VK's 2BP, 2NO, 2CG, 2WD, 2MW and 2OD. It was attempted to get through to Newcastle, 70 miles airline distance, but that objective was not to be attained until much later, in mid-1937.

Severe QRM Hampers Progress. Several more stations began to be attracted to 5 metres, and the band actually took on a severe QRM aspect. It began to be realised that "squegger" receivers were worse than atrocious in causing severe interference for miles around, and the heavily-modulated self-excited transmitters were guilty of greediness!

Several transmitters were modified by the use of stable grid and plate circuits using the "long lines" principle, and the cleaner signal was at once apparent. Super-regenerative receivers also came in for attention, and separate interrupter valves and an r.f. stage were incorporated in many instances.

It was possible to fit more stations into the band without overlap, but things were by no means perfect. Several misguided people made up simple one-valve transceivers. One of these on the air, with its "squegging" detection and propensity for hopping about all over the band, was sufficient to wreck communication between several stations. It is safe to assume that the "transceiver" as popularised in U.S.A. by several publications did more to hold back progress on five metres than anything. One can imagine the terrific QRM these contraptions must cause in populated districts in the States.

Mobile Tests On "Five." In 1935, a mobile 5-metre test period predominated around Sydney, and several amateurs co-operated in tests far afield. Those test days were full of the most intense interest for those out with the car stations and those at the home locations, and it is a great pity that at the time of writing, this phase of 5-metre activity has suffered from neglect.

The car station for VK2NU (VK2NO's portable) used a unity push-pull oscillator with two 89's, plate-modulated by a 42. The aerial was a half-wave twisted pair doublet projecting vertically from the front bumper. Power was taken from the car 6-volt accumulator via a 300-volt. Carter genemotor, and the receiver had a 955 "acorn" self-interruptor detector and 38 audio.

Many interesting results were obtained with this mobile station, one of which was the fact that a really good place for 5-metre transmission and reception around Sydney is in the centre of the Harbour Bridge. In view of the great mass of steel, this seems hardly likely, but it is so. On one occasion this car station communicated with a similar outfit in a car on Kurrajong Heights, when located near the top of Bulli Pass. These stations were used for lengthy periods when on the move at high speed as well as when "on location."

One important result arising from all this mobile 5-metre work is the establishment of the fact that an undoubtedly ideal location for an ultra-shortwave television station to serve the whole of Sydney and even farther afield is somewhere in the Blue Mountains. With only a 5-watt 5-metre oscillator, it is easy to put a strong signal over Sydney on 5-metres provided that a beam aerial, even in quite simple form, is used at least at one end. A 10 k.w. station working around 6 or 7 metres for television purposes would assuredly cover a wide area with a strong service signal, even from as far afield as Mt. Victoria.

Television for Australian "viewers," however, seems to be a long way distant, for justifiable financial reasons, but no doubt that time will come in the end, and when it does, accumulated ultra-shortwave experience will be of value. My advice to the experimenter with other ideas than DX contests is to get in on the ground floor of ultra-shortwave radio, for it will become increasingly important in the wide future of radio communication generally.

Photo of 2NO and 2XO at Bellingen 1930s
A question of aerial feeder design? The author (left) being shown round by 2XO at Bellingen, N.S.W., a few years ago.