RADIO TELEPHONE

Hokitika Guardian, 17 June 1931, Page 2

RADIO TELEPHONE

UNSUCCESSFUL TEST. EDINBURGH TO AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND, June 15. Radio experts in Scotland made an attempt recently to “call up” Auckland by ' radio-telephone, and a telegraph official stood ready in Auckland to speak through space to a man at a telephone in Edinburgh. "What should I say?” asked the official as he reflected that a conversation with Edinburgh would be a great achievement in radio. When conditions have been at their best, the great broadcasting stations in England have been heard here, but the voice of New Zealand has never reached England. Several times during the past two or three months, the official said, he had been called upon to "stand by’’ for a call from Scotland, either front Edinburgh or Glasgow. On each occasion the test had ,to be abandoned, but, he added, “it will succeed in time.” ■Progress in long-distance speaking had a record of notable achievements in the past year or so, he explained, and New Zealand was now the goal of a great ambition. It would mean that the world had been encircled. Already the speaking voice had been transmitted over half .the distance, and it was becoming a common occurrence to hold conversation across the Tasman. Each of the tests has been made between 6 p.m; timl midnight, New Zealand time. One of- the obstacles to success is ,the fact .that New Zealand capnot speak into space with the same volume as England. The stations here are not powerful enough for long-dis-tance work, by present methods of transmission, A solution might bo found in new methods, and conversations carried on bv what appears to he a series of “hops” between a chain of stations linking Loudon and Australia. The difficult o •:I• f in’ present methods is that. . • i,:u. u Tq.-nds on the weather conditions, and ii is almost an impossibility to find these uniformly favourable over a distance of half the globe. Tn the trans-Tasman radio-telephone service a dozen calls, on the average, are put through every week between Auckland and Sydney. This service is not worked in quite the same way as an ordinary telephone call. For instance, “.the official in Wellington always makes a .test to determine whether the conditions are suitable, and, if any part of the conversation has to be repeated because of atmospheric trouble, the time lost is recorded on stopwatches and an allowance is made.