Radio Broadcast - 1925, February - 113 Pages ... - VacuumTubeEra

The International Radio Broadcast Test, 1924
STATION SBR BRUSSELS
Signals from this station, on 265 meters were reported as far west as Denver, Colorado
four-tube receiver at his home on Long Island
received Madrid every night they broadcast
with intensity enough to permit a group of his
friends plainly to hear their programs through
the loud speaker.
Verified similar instances of just this sort
occurred times without number all over the
country as any reader may discover by inquiry
in almost any radio group.
THE COMMUNICATIONS AT HEADQUARTERS
HAD the announcements from foreign
stations been more frequent, the total
number of verified North American listeners
to those stations would without question be
enormously increased. Many heard fragments
of programs and even one or two complete
musical numbers but the station faded
out before the announcement was made. This
made the work of verification at our office
much more difficult, because the foreign
stations were transmitting between four and
five o'clock in the morning their time, and it
was obviously very difficult to get many
artists at their studios at that time. Their
programs depended much on the ingenuity of
the studio manager. Most of the selections
broadcast from the English stations were
phonograph records of well-known operas,
although organ music was sent from several
of the English stations during the early nights
of the tests.
Very general good sportsmanship was shown
by listeners on this side who heard programs
on wavelengths on which no American stations
were sending. These listeners wrote us,
wired, and telephoned about the signals they
had heard, but made no effort to claim reception
when they had not intercepted a
definite announcement.
But there were other sides to the communications.
"Last night, at 11:20, I heard a
woman singing a soprano solo. What foreign
station did I hear" was a question asked more
than once, probably in all seriousness. A
radio enthusiast in Costa Rica wrote in that
he had heard nothing about the tests until
on the second night, he heard announcements
from several American stations. Accordingly,
he tuned-in on the foreign wavelengths and
heard the test programs in succession from
both continents. Another listener in Denver,
Colorado, wrote in to ask what American
amateur station was using the call letters
5 NO, saying that he heard a radiotelephone
program whose operator used that call. It
should be remembered that American amateurs
use call letters beginning with numerals.
THE ARRANGEMENTS IN ENGLAND
THE burden of making the extensive and
difficult arrangements for the tests on the
Continent and in England fell on the capable
shoulders of Hugh S. Pocock, editor of the