TINAKORI WIRELESS STATION

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1930, Page 1

TINAKORI WIRELESS STATION

NEW MAST BEING ERECTED. WELLINGTON, May 111. It was four years ago on May I” that the steel wireless mast, on Tirmkori Hill was blown down during a gale of wind of unprecedented violence. Its velocity was placed by experts at 11.2 miles an hour. When a photographer took the picture of the fallen, mast, he was accompanied by two other men. all three having to crawl on their hands and knees to a post at the top of the hill, holding on to this while the photograph was taken. It was impossible to stand upright in such a gale. The original mast, JGol't. high, was replaced by a temporary one 60ft. high, but the advance of wireless and radio telephony lias necessitated the construction of a new muse of a height at least equal to the old cue. This work is now under way An English firm secured the contract for its construction, and the or v!;hm is 'being carried out by the Post- and Telegraph Department’s engineering staff. The new mast will he about the same height as the original «,;ie, but will, in addition, have some stays as a further precaution against the unusual wind stresses it is lilo-iy to experience. About a third of the new mast 'lias been erected, and, when complete, it will take an important part in linking up Australia and Great Britain with New Zealand by radio telephony. The original si eel mast was of American manufacture.