STUDYING WIRELESS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1847, 5 September 1913, Page 5

STUDYING WIRELESS.

AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. NECESSARY RESTRICTIONS. Replying ini tha House of Representatives to a suggestion by Mr. G. J. Anderson, M.P., that the Government ■should adopt tho same or similar regulations regarding wireless telegraphy as exist in the United' States, so thai students might use machines with aerials, but with shorter wave-lengths than official machines, the PostmasterGeneral (the Hon. R. H. Rhodes) made the following statement: — "Tho uso of an aerial is not necessaTy for tlio study or the prosecution of ■research work in wireless telegraphy. Demonstration-sets for fitting up 111 a room for such purposes are manufactured by wireless companies, and it has been found that such apparatus meets all tlio requirements necessary for tho successful teaching' of and tho carrying out of experiments in wireless telegraphy. The opinion of the mercantilo public using tlio public wireless system is _ strongly against allowing tho indiscriminate use of wireless apparatus that could be utilised to tap their messages, and it is clearly opposed to public policy ,to_ allow of interference with tho transmission of a. distress signal or call for help by wireless. . "From tho report of exports it would appear that owing to the largo number of amateur installations on tlio California,n- coast it is extremely difficult for ship-stations to communicate with coast-stations from sunsot until about 11 p.m., owing to the large amount of [talk' indulged im by amateurs. It has indeed been said that, outside the period of 'silenco' which, the United States Na.vy has had to enforce on all stations during the first fifteen minutes of cach hour, sJhould it unfortunately happen that a ship-station found it necessary to make tho distress signal tho chances of the call for help being attended to are remote. "By the regulations of tho United States, messages may be received by amateur stations without liconso, provided tho station ■is not equipped for sending. I should supposo that this is merely an instalment of restrictive t measures. "It may be taken as settled that tho ■Dominion Government will not consent under any circumstances to private messages coming, by means of any regulation it makes, to tho knowledge of ex: porimentors in wireless telegraphy. The difficulty experienced in the United States in connection with amateur wireless installations interfering with the transmission of legitimate business is well known, and oomplaints havo recently been made that wireless stations on housetops in tho city of Trenton, Now Jersey, havo violated tho wireless laiv. .Tlio successful study of wireless telegraphy is in no way hampered by tho regulations now ini forco in this Dominion, and tho requirement® of tho legitimate study of wireless telegraphy are fully mot by the present regulations."