ENGLISHMAN GETS WGY ON TWO-FOOT LOOP

The extraordinary reception of music from the General Electric Company station, WGY, on a two -foot loop in London, England, is commented upon as follows by E. Blake, A. M. I. E. E., in the London (England) Daily Mail of January 1.

"The challenge palm for the reception of long-distance broadcasting undoubtedly belongs for the time being to Captain H. J. Round, of the Marconi Company, for his performance on Christmas Eve. Using a six-valve Marconi-phone plus two `Note Magnifiers' (i. e. low frequency amplifiers), he received music and speech from several United States stations. A pianoforte solo broadcast from WGY (Schenectady, United States) was received at Captain Round's house at Muswell Hill, N., fairly uniform in strength and of about the same audibility as the Manchester Broadcasting Station, also received at the same place.

"Two facts in particular render this result remarkable. First, the aerial employed was a frame 2' square; that is quite a moderate size for a frame aerial, even for amateur use, and I wish Captain Round would measure the electromotive force it acquires from the Schenectady generator, for it must be easier to measure than to imagine. Also I should like to know whether he elected to sit up to the small hours with that pathetic little frame out of pure optimism or because he had what Schenectady would term a `hunch.'

"Much trouble was experienced as the result of jamming by harmonics from Leafield, Oxfordshire and Northolt, Middlesex, which stations are evidently competing keenly with each other in the `jam' trade. Hence amateurs will do well to give further study to the possibilities of frame aerials, for these will enable them to escape a certain amount of interference.

"The other interesting fact about Captain Round's Christmas Eve -Christmas Morning vigil is that there was no mere `pig's whisper,' but a loud speaker in full blast. Now, one needs quite a respectable volume of sound to make a loud speaker shout about the house, so, although eight valves were at work. the result is really surprising, and should give a fine fillip to amateur endeavor. I may mention, for the benefit of those who wish to repeat the experiment, that the wave -length on which WGY was sending was about midway between those of the Manchester (385 meters) and Birmingham (425 meters) Broadcasting Stations, and that the signals were heard before 2 a. m. (Greenwich)."

From Radio News, May, 1923.