NEW AERIALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1937, Page 10

NEW AERIALS

TINAKORI ARRAY

SEVEN NEW MASTS

ELABORATE WIRE SYSTEM

I Standing in isolated grandeur on. the top of Tinakori Hill, the 165-foot steel mast of the Government wireless station has long been a familiar sight for residents of Wellington, but its days are numbered, and instead of the sclitpry tower the top of the hill will carry seven towers 150 feet high and nine wooden masts 70 feet high. Work on these extensive alterations has already commenced, but a year or more will pass before the whole system is completed.

When the new equipment is all erected, over a quarter of a mile of the hilltop will be festooned with aerials and feeder lines, and-the greater part of the top of the hill will probably be given a wide' berth by aeroplanes, as the wires stretching across the skyline will constitute a danger area to any machine flying at a low altitude. To pedestrians, too, the hilltop will lose much of its charm because of the area occupied by the towers, poles, , and stays. EARTHING WIRES BURIED. The provision of such an elaborate system of transmission aerial calls for a good earth, and this has apparently been the first care of the engineers in charge of the work. About fifteen chains from the present aerial mast and transmitting station a spot on the hilltop has been chosen as the earthing centre, and wires have been buried in long'lines radiating from this centre. The next task was to keep the feeder lines that carry the messages from the transmitting set to the aerial clear o£ the earth wires, and workmen are now busy erecting feeder lines along both sides of the hill to connect with the various aerials to be erected. These lines are carried on heavy hardwood poles' Which have been taken to the hilltop by lorry; not a very easy task, as the only road to the (top is narrow, steep, and not particularly straight.

All along the hilltop work has been commenced on the foundations for the steel towers, and holes have been dug for some of the seventy-foot poles. As the hill is composed of rock, this Work has not been easy, but the greater task is still to come. This will be the carting of the seventy-foot poles to the top of'the Tiill. Special hardwood poles have been ordered from Australia. A load of such a length would be awkward to handle anywhere, but when it reaches the narrow roadway up the steepest part of the hill it will be doubly awkward. The roadway is so steep that it makes difficult climbing at any time, and the twists near the public road at the bottom will be almost too sharp to accommodate a load seventy feet lotig. Even when these huge poles are carried to their foundations, their erection will be another problem. Already the workmen have discovered that a high northerly makes ordinary wiring work on the feeder-line poles an impossibility, and consequently calm weather will have to be chosen-.for the erecting of the large poles It is therefore ' probable that the weather during the' next year of eighteen months will play an important part in the progress of the work. GOLD DISCOVERED. . The work" already done has. led to one interesting discovery. , Midway. along the hill there are several old tunnels in the hillside, and when a hole was ,dug; near these the diggers realised that the ' tunnels were the work of old-time "diggers" in search of gold. ' While the rock was being broken out of the hole a patch of black sand was discovered, and fine grains of gold could be seen against.the dark background. However, the find was so small and the likelihood of finding other "pockets" so remote thatUhe workmen did not become enthusiastic about goldmining. The single mast that * has served the transmitting station on the hill for so many years already carries several aerials* but the spread of these is naturally limited and the new system will probably give a wider range and improved service. When the new masts are ready for use the old one will be taken down; and the whole aerial sys-, tern of-the station will be new and ready for messages,' whether in morse or by telephone, across the Tasman. j Even at the present time the sound of a high northerly in the wires can be heard a long way from the hill, ana when the whole system of copper feeder wires and stranded aerial wires is erected the voice of the wind will bs still more apparent. Fortunately it does not have any effect on the quality of the * radio transmission from the aerials. Photographs of the work in progress are published on page 17.