History of wireless telegraphy and broadcasting in Australia/Topical/Publications/Australasian Radio World/Issues/1951 05

Front Cover
Australian Radio and Electronics

incorporating

Australasian Radio World

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

MAY, 1951 - Vol. 15, No. 10

1/6

P.01 - Contents Banner
AUSTRALIAN RADIO AND ELECTRONICS

and incorporating

AUSTRALASIAN RADIO WORLD

Vol. 15 - MAY, 1951 - No. 10

P.01 - Contents
CONTENTS

Our Cover. . . . 1

Editorial. . . . 2

An Easily Constructed Instrument for Measuring R.F. Resistance & Other Important Quantities. . . . 4

Audio Frequency Distortion Measurements. Part I. (By Eng. Dept. Aerovox Corp.). . . . 7

Some Waveforms & How To Make Them (Part 2). . . . 12

Novice Set Building (A Section for the Beginner). . . . 16

Circuit Symbols and What They Mean. . . . 18

Shoes and Ships (Useful Hints & Tips). . . . 22

"Ham" Activities. . . . 23

Short Wave Review. . . . 27

Our Cover
OUR COVER

Development of modern permanent magnet alloys such as the Anisotropic Alnico made by Rola Company (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. for use in their loudspeakers is one of the most important contributions made in the electrical and telecommunications fields in the past decade. And this research into improved magnet alloys and the abstruse problems of their heat treatment is still going steadily on. Our Cover picture shows one of Rola Company's team of physicists checking up the results obtained from a new batch of experimental magnets.

P.01 - Publication Notes
Subscription Rates: 12 Issues 18/- Post Free

Published by the Proprietors: Radio & Electronics (N.Z.) Ltd. (Publishers - Incorporated in N.Z.) 17 Bond Street, Sydney, N.S.W.

BLACKOUT BLUES!! Owing to the DRASTIC newsprint and paper shortage, plus prevailing power blackouts, we have found great difficulty in maintaining the desired high presentation and appearance standard of our monthly journal. However, we feel our readers and advertisers will understand and appreciate the difficulties of obtaining suitable paper and bear with us as and when occasion demands. Irrespective of what class of paper we are forced to use from time to time, our Technical standard will not suffer, and we wish to assure all patrons and followers that everything is being done that is humanly possible to produce regularly, IRRESPECTIVE OF ALL OBSTACLES, Australia’s only publication entirely devoted to Technical Radio.

Managing Editor: '''LAY. W. CRANCH''', AMIRE (Aust.), M.W.I.A., VK2XC

Providing National Coverage for the Advancement of Radio and Electronic Knowledge

Sole Wholesale Distributors - Gordon & Gotch (A/asia) Ltd.

Wholly set up and printed in Australia by R. V. Byers, 9 Wetherill St., North Lidcombe. 'Phone: UX6681 (Footnote P.1)

P.02 - Editorial
EDITORIAL

In a recent issue of the British magazine "Wireless World," is a short paragraph which draws attention to the late Lord Derby, and the fact that as Postmaster-General, in the year 1904, he was responsible for setting a precedent for which amateur transmitters throughout the Empire should be eternally grateful. The occasion was the passing by the House of Commons of the first Wireless Telegraphy Bill, and the noble lord's words during his second reading speech are worth quoting: "The class with whom I have the greatest sympathy," he said, "are those who wish to go in for experiments in this science, and I have been able to frame a clause which will give absolute freedom in that direction, merely requiring registration on the part of those who wish to engage in experiments. In a matter of this description the House will doubtless desire that the Act should be administered as liberally as possible, and I shall certainly do my best in that direction. For what it is worth I will give an undertaking that no request for a licence for experiments be refused unless the refusal has been approved by me personally." These words might well be termed the Magna Carter (sic) of the amateur transmitter. Needless to say, the original delightfully simple state of affairs has not been retained, but it is important to note that the principal has not changed at all. The additional restrictions that have been placed on amateur activities have perhaps been regrettable, and no doubt call forth some nostalgic sighs from many "Hams" whose memories are not even as long as 1904, but the fact remains that they have been essential, in a world where radio communication has become such a vital service that every available kilocycle of the spectrum is needed. We are prone in these times to bemoan every additional restriction in an ever more regimented world, but the fact remains that with the frequency requirements of the nations so vast, amateurs are lucky to have any space left to them at all. Let it not be inferred that this journal does not believe that amateurs are worthy of every consideration. In the past, amateurs have rendered very great service to the nation, both in peace and in war, and it would be a very unjust thing if amateur activity were to be prevented because of restrictive legislation. On the other hand, amateurs should not forget that they possess their present frequency bands by way of privilege, and not as of right, and that given the appropriate conditions, they can be put off the air by legislation, as surely as they occupy their present position by virtue of other legislation. In time of war, amateur radio has to be suspended for a number of reasons, and it should be the constant concern of organised amateurs to see that their members themselves give no cause for peace-time restriction of their privileges. There is a large body of amateurs whose interest in transmitting is not technical, but centres rather round the making of conversation with other amateurs, and forming "over the air" friendships. No one would say that those who go in for this sort of amateur activity should be discouraged. Indeed such a recommendation would be highly undemocratic. But some of these "talkers," as we may call them for want of a better term, are anything but an ornament to amateur radio. Their conversation and operating practice is on the air for all to hear, and many non-amateurs with all-wave domestic sets do listen to the amateur bands. It follows, therefore, that the "talkers" are those among the "Ham" fraternity whose activity comes most before the public view, if only for the reason that they spend more time on the air than many whose interests are elsewhere. Unfortunately, however, some of the worst operating practice comes from among their ranks, and some of it sounds fairly dreadful even to other amateurs, let alone to the general public. Again, the "talkers" are prone to long spells at the microphone, very often with quality of transmission that leaves a good deal to be desired. This sort of thing does not make them popular with other amateurs, particularly when the bands are so crowded, and it is quite understandable when in consequence, they are taken to task in the amateur literature for their lack of consideration for other users of the bands. Even a casual search round the 80-metre band these days gives one cause to reflect that amateur radio is not what it was. At one time the people who came on the air and talked about anything but radio were fairly few and far between, because the main bond between amateurs was their common technical interest. Much of the technical talk that used to be heard was ill-informed, but almost all of it was characterised by an obvious desire to learn, and those amateurs whose technical knowledge was rather greater than the average were keenly sought after by the less knowledgeable. This sort of thing seems to us to be much nearer to the kind of amateur whom Lord Derby had in mind when he framed his 1904 legislation. He could not have foreseen the "talkers," aforesaid, and the point we wish to make here is that he might have been horrified if he had been able to! The moral of all this is that those responsible for controlling amateur radio by the granting of licences, and the administration and framing of amateur regulation do not have to foresee any thing of the kind, because it is therefor the hearing, and if a sufficiently large number of people among those in authority should decide that any section of radio amateurs is sufficiently little of an ornament not to be considered useful, it is not a long step to the restriction of amateur radio privileges, and not necessarily in a way that can be ascribed to the exigencies of ether space.