ETHERIC TELEGRAPHY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1860, 20 September 1913, Page 13

ETHERIC TELEGRAPHY.

Sir, —Seeing tlic Postmaster-General's statement in your issuo on September 6, I wish to say that I think ho has been a. little misled in both tho theoretical and practical portions of wireless telegraphy, when ho 6ays amateurs enn oxperiment quite successfully wnuout tho uso of an aerial. Now, as aerial is an essential portion of a wireless instrument, becauso without it, electric waves or oscillations cannot bo forced into tho ether in the air, and no electric waves can bo received over any distance without an aorial in conjunction with a tuning coil; Again, tho instruments supplied by tho wireless companies at Homo consist of one-eighth inch i inch induction coil with a transmitting radius of only a. few feet, a battery, tapping key, and a pair of arms with aluminium constituting tho. aerial. Tho receiving instrument consists of a cheap coherer (now out of date), a decoherer (not used on all sets), a bell, a battery, and two discs for the aerial. How can an amateur .who wants to thoroughly understand wireless instruments learn from that?- Ho can't, and when ho comes in contact witli a proper installation, such as on board ship, ho is absolutely lost.

Tuning is another thing which the amateur needs to learn, and how ho can tune quickly to get the clearest signals when tho instrument is affected by atmospheric conditions, such as gales and heavy storms. \

There aro different systems too, which the amateur operator must be well acquainted with, the two mostly used being tho Marconi and tho Telefunken, tho latter differing from tho former in several ways, and is regarded by somo as being really the bettor system of tho two; but it is essential for the operator to bo able to use both.

To understand all this, tho amateur must oxperiment in making and using both systems, and this cannot bo done with the small sets described, and the larger sots need tho use of, an aerial which tho Government condemns. So what aro we poor unfortunate amateurs to do, when we havo been so severely crushed, and only allowed to use an instrument which tho amateur, who has any knowledge of tho "modern wireless," would, not waste his time in using.

What will tho Now Zealand Government do, when tliey want operators? To get them from places outside New Zealand, would bo a very unfair thing to do when the amateurs, if given a proper chance to experiment, would equal any of tho operators in.the world. —I am, etc., P. K. KINGDON. Napier, September 17, 1913.