Tuesday, February 24.1978
University Daily Kansan
5
Information 'du jour' available by phone
By JERRY SEIB
Staff Writer
John Harkanson sits on front of a short wave radio in Wescoe Hall at night, slowly turning the radio's tuner in search of foreign language newscasts.
Harkanson, Philadelphia graduate student, finds a newcasting originating from an overseas radio station and flips on a tape recorder next to the radio.
The newcastle service is designed to aid students of foreign languages by making recordings of newcastles in six languages by phone, Harkenson said last week.
The next night, a University of Kansas student can hear the recorded broadcast by telephone, thanks to the foreign newscast generated by the KU Language Laboratory.
He records several broadcasts in each language and a faculty member in each language picks the newswest to be used. He also uses descriptive, appropriate vocabulary and timeliness.
Harkenson said he spent about 15 hours a week scanning the short wave's frequencies in the region.
Harkanson said the tapes were changed twice a week, although some tapes were longer if they were exceptionally clear or another clear newest couldn't be found.
"Clarity and strength of signal determine how often it is changed," he said. "Clarity is the biggest concern, since it is used as a teaching device."
The tapes are edited and placed on a bank of tape players in Wescow Hall. By dialing one of six telephone numbers, students can call them for lessons, which average five minutes in length.
The numbers, in operation 24 hours a day,
are 86-3055 for French broadcasts, 86-3218
for Spanish, 86-3033 for Chinese, 86-3034
for Portuguese, 86-3019 for Portugal and
86-3241 for Russian.
Although he understands only English and Chinese, Harkanson said he recognized all six languages when he heard and recorded them from the radio.
Signal strength of stations varies seasonally. Harkanson said, so planning his schedule to record foreign stations at the best time is important.
Spanish stations are easy to find, he said, and Russian and French broadcasts can usually be heard in the afternoon. But he often has to depend on luck, he said.
"I can get most of what I need through 11 p.m.," he said. "If I really want to pick up another job, I should just work."
I've stayed over night here a couple of times."
Some powerful overseas stations, such as Radio Spain and the West German Deutsche Welle, are dependable sources, Harkanson said.
For other languages, he said, he sometimes has to depend on Voice of America, an American radio service that is connected to foreign lands in their native languages.
HARKANSON SAID he preferred not to use Voice of America because it was an American news service. But for languages other than English, said he, sometimes has few alternatives.
The foreign newscast business began on a trial basis in December 1974, and on a full-time basis in May 1986.
Harkanson began work on the service last September. Before that, the recording was done by another Language Laboratory for foreign language departments.
The Language Laboratory and Harkanson's work are funded by appropriations from the individual language departments.
The newcastset business began with the same languages it now has, he said, but the number of calls it receives has increased since the operation began.
During the 1975 fall semester, the service received 8,908 calls, an average of between 6,400 a week, Harkinson said. He said more calls were being received this semester.
SPANISH HAS BEEN the most popular language number called he, followed by French.
The Language Laboratory has facilities to expand the newcast service to 12 lines, but Jackson said he doubted whether there would be changes in the operation in the near future.
"It's all a matter of money," he said. "One of the language departments was able to put enough money, we could add to the bank. The other departments we added, the more staff we need."
Joseph C. Kuo, assistant professor of Oriental languages and literature, who assists Harkanson in editing the Chinese tapes, said the service was being used by Oriental students to hear news from their homelands.
He said he thought the service could be helpful to students in other disciplines.
"For instance, yesterday we made a tape of a Chinese broadcast about the change of prime minister. Kuo said. "The political activity is taking place from Peking."
Wheat, which has provided income for Kamans and food for millions of others, now supplies the bulk of beef.
By JAY BEMIS
Staff Writer
Wheat straw as energy studied
Fratt is being used as a mode for turning wheat straw in energy to fill electrical need.
The southwestern Kansas town has depended on natural gas for its power in past years. But officials have been told that the town won't get its traditional supply in future years, so they have begun a three-part plan for future energy sources.
The first part of the plan is to use small deposits of natural gas that now surround Pratt. It has been estimated that those deposits be sufficient for only a five-year period.
So, as the second part of its plan, Pratt is the chief expert on converting wheel shaft energy.
The third part of the plan would be setting up such an operation.
DEAN ECKHOFF, associate professor of nuclear engineering at Kansas State University, said in a telephone interview Sunday that such a plan would be practical, especially in western Kansas towns governments own electricity.
"It might be to their liking," he said. "It will attractiveness and potential for the work."
Wheat straw energy would be about 20 per cent more expensive than natural gas, he
said. But the straw, selling for up to $15 an acre, would mean added income for the farmer.
The wheat straw would be converted to energy by being burned in a boiler, he said. That boiler would be "universal," he said, and burn almost anything that's organic.
Gathering the wheat straw would be a manmoth operation, Eckhoff said. Straw from 20 per cent, about 200,000 acres, of a six-county area around Pratt would be enough to supply Pratt's electrical needs for one year.
ECKHOFF SAID the idea of wheat straw energy came to him while he was on a trip to Mississippi.
"I got to thinking when looking at the timberland down there of how it takes three acres of timber, which grows in a lifetime, for a year's heat," he said. "Then I thought of Kansas crops, which could provide an acre of energy for one year."
the concept of a bio-converter, or double-purpose, crop was well known and accepted in the scientific community.
Eckhoff he said he thought the wheat straw concept was probably the first of its kind in the Midwest or the nation, but said he had read of a similar procedure in Austria.
A PLANT there used wheat straw in its energy system to solve an unemployment problem, he said, because people could be hired to gather the straw.
Some people have criticized Eckhoff's system because they think it will take
nutrients from the land. Eckhoff, however,
referred.
"There's a mixture of nutrients that will and not up the plant material." Eckhoff said. "It will be formed and combusted, the system will return water and carbon dioxide into the air."
"Ashes will also be left, and we'll collect them and return them to the ground with some type of fertilizer or a manure spreader concept."
Eckhoff said his idea wasn't receiving any direct monetary support from the state, but he was providing $10,000 in matching funds to help pay feasibility study salaries.
THE PRATT CONTRACT is being handled through the Ozark Regional Committee, an agency which, according to Eckhoff, grew out of an executive development program for Appalachia. The agency has since spread its developmental programs into Missouri and Kansas, he said.
The feasibility study is the first of four being done by the Ramasa Center for Energy Sys. (Ramsa Center) in Calgary, Canada.
Gasification of wheat straw and of
manure from a feedlot north of Pratt is the second area of study.
The third area of study will be the energy properties of manure when it is burned at 40 to 60°C.
Finally, combustion properties of wheat,
are modified in other materials to be
reviewed for future use.
The first preliminary report on the Pratt project is supposed to be finished early this time. The report is expected late in the summer. The report should be completed early in 1977.
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FIND OUT call 841-7100
PUBLIC NOTICE
The deadline for filing
FISCAL YEAR 1977 BUDGET REQUEST FORMS
(Student Activity Fee) with the Student Senate
Treasurer's Office is
The Student Senate is funded from the Student Activity Fee
5:00 P.M., FEBRUARY 27TH, 1976.
Request Forms are available at the Student Senate Office, B 105, Kansas Union, or call 864-3746 for further information. Late submittals can not be accepted.
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