Mobile Radio Telephone Service

Chronicle (Levin), 17 April 1948, Page 3

Mobile Radio Telephone Service

AUCKLAND, April 16. A radio mast which has made lts appearance on the summit of Mount Eden heralds a new era of telephonie communication iu Auckland. It will be usod by the Post and Telegraph Department for a! mobile very high i'requeney radio telephone service to enable public utilities to eommunicate with motor vehieles movihg about 'the city. Situated on the top of the mountam the mast is a- 40ft. self -supporting ironbark pole. The radio equipment wili be contained in a box and an underground. cable linking the ' transmitter to the city telephone exehange llas been m.stalled. As service grows more equip'ment will be needed on the' moiintain, and it is proposed to erecf a building there some time in the future. The* St. :John Ambulance Association, fire brigades, power "boards and. taxi prbprietors ar.e ajnong those" Whohave expressed an .interest in a radio telephone service of this nature. With this medium ambulance headquartors, for instance, can ' divert a vehicle out on call to ahother case in the same locality. At present drivers on completing an assignment have to ring m from the hospital by ordinary telephone for further instrnctions. Two-way radio experiments along similaj lines have been conducted for some time by the Police Department m Auckland. The equipment used has been designed by a commercial radio expert with the assistance of Constable R. A. Brien, of the Central Police Station. It is believed to haye proved highly successful, and already" messages transmitted from stations equipped with the apparatus to patrol cars have led to the arrest of lawbreakers.