ETAKO WIRELESS STATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1490, 12 July 1912, Page 6

ETAKO WIRELESS STATION.

READY NEXT MONTH. A tiny hut beside the foot of a tall mast is all that can bo distinguished from the city of the Etakq wireless station, the erection of which is nearinj* completion on the heights of the Tinakori range. This is am untimely season for exterior work in connection with a wireless station, progress in which, is governed pretty completely by the state of the weather. Experience has proved that when Wellington 'city is visited by. a light north-westerly wind, its force at Etako is approaching half a gale, and when half a gale- is blowing on the Hat it is a full-sized one on the.hill-top. ' A gale in the city -means a hurricane on the ridge-top, and when it blows with Rnything like that force no work can be done. To get breath the men have to turn their backs to the wind, and actually lean against, it. So that the rainy anil windy weather experienced during the last two months are responsible for the somewhat slow progress that is .being made with the work. One of the masts is up. It consists of a tower of (Jregon nine timber (latticed .together with iron bolts), from -which rises a top-mast, and above that again' a top-gallant mast, all of Oregon pine, the whole 150 ft. in height. This structure is held in position by twenty-four stays of stout steel wire,' attached to anchors, each embedded in a ten-ton block of concrete. To prevent the stays from rusting they art served in spun-yarn, sailor fashion. The second mast is 'now being put together, and should be ready for erection in the course of the current fortnight. The two masts will be erected 300 feet apart, and will be connected by a h've-wiro aerial, with the main conduit leading down to tho operating-room, which'is built half-way between the two masts. Etako is rocky in formation, and is therefore not good electrical earth. To remedy this defect it is proposed to make nn artificial or static earth with wires, radiating out in nil directions, nnd joined up niuch in (ho same mnnner as a spider's web. An experiment is now being mode with such n radial system, which it is believed-will Iμ effective. The Tltako station will be fitted with a i\ kilowatt plant, guaranteed to send and receive messages over nOO miles by day and COO miles at night. Really a much better ranp-e will Be covered by the station. The generator,, storage, batteries, and a good deal of the wireless plant is already stored at the, hill-top-station. Given n few still days' now and again, it is expected that the new station will bo ready for work at the end of next month. .