Abstract
THE effect produced when a wireless set receives two different programmes on the same wave-length, although the stations may be widely apart, is sometimes called ‘radio hash’ in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission spaces two stations producing the same wave-length as widely apart as possible, but according to a report issued by Science Service, Washington, D.C., the whole country is spotted with these ‘hash’ or interference areas. In the June number of Electronics, the editor of which, Dr. C. H. Caldwell, was formerly a radio commissioner, a method of synchronising several stations on a given wave-length is described and thus space could be saved in the broadcasting spectrum. If the plan were carried out, no less than 1,527 radio stations could be constantly working in the present 106 channels. If all the stations, on a great nationwide ‘chain programme’, broadcast only on three adjoining channels, 750, 760 and 770 kilocycles, for example, then it is only necessary to turn on one of these to get the corresponding programme. If one turns to other wave-lengths, then other chain programmes are obtained. In addition, low-powered stations, one kilowatt, for example, could be working—twelve to a broadcast channel—throughout the country. These programmes would be sharply differentiated from the ‘chains'. Ten channels would be allotted to Canada, Mexico and Cuba, all of whom are asking for more space on the ether. For the American farmers there would be seven channels for superstations up to 2,000 kilowatts, so that every farmer, however remote, could hear. The 1,500 new stations could be heard with less interference than the few hundreds they would displace.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Synchronisation of Radio Stations. Nature 136, 429 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136429b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136429b0