A few da go 1 paragraph for this column rema how fine things were for really distance listening, pointing out that in one evening alone Daventry, Berlin, Rome, Moscow, Paris, Manila, Tokyo and Hongkong were "booming" on the broadcast band, while on the amateur band I was getting R8 or even R9 signals not only on locals like XU8RB, KAIMO, etc, but also on a couple of Californian hams whose QRAs escape me for the moment, and then, right in a row, LIBJ ("Boston Japan") of Argentina, CE(A?)3AX, CA3DW. of Santiago, Chile, and CX2BK and CX3Bl of, I think, Montevideo. Suddenly, everything seemed to go wrong; Daventry would come in excellently on Transmission 2 only, Berlin's South American transmission came in 100 per cent. while the Far East broadcast faded and was interfered with, Moscow on Sunday night was faint and almost unintelligible, Paris was ditto and so was Rome. On the 3l-metre band, however, things were etter, with VK2ME, Sydney, Aust-alia, Berlin (on 3148 metres). KZRM, Manila, and of course ZBW3, ongkong, coming in extremely well. But what has happened to the 16, 19 and 25-metre bands? I though at rst that the bit of wire I am usin; n aerie] for the moment was laying me tricks, but other listeners wt the same state of affairs, 1 love sunspots or something have to "do with it, so let's hope they go awa jor whatever it is they do. really A Real Tennis Match The first commentary on a real tennis match ever to be broadcast will be heard by Daventry listeners week. The match to be described ill be between two first-class players on the court at Hampton Court. This court was built by Henry VIII after 6, en Wolsey surrendered to him the lease of Hampton Court Palace. Real tennis, not to be confused with the lawn tennis, is one of the oldest and most difficult of ball games. It was extremely popular with Royalty in the Middle Ages, especially among French kings and nobles. King Louis X died from a chill contracted after playing it, and Charles V was devoted to the game, though he vainly tried to stop it as a pastime for less exalted classes, Trans. 1: Nov. 25, 17.00] Shanghai time; Trans. 2 Dec. 1, 19.10; Trans. 3: Nov. 27, 23.45.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.