EARTH WIRELESSLY GIRDLED.

Shannon News, 24 October 1924, Page 1

EARTH WIRELESSLY GIRDLED.

SUCCESS OF HEW -ZEAbAttDu'- > AMATEURS. TWO-WAY COMMUNICATIONS OVER liONG DISTANCE. (From the Christchurch ‘‘Sun’*). New Zealand amateur wireless operators are malting more lii&>' tory. JL-Yank Bell, of Waihemo, Palmerston (Otago), who, with Ivan O’Meara, of Gisborne, has been making the Dominion more prominent abroad by two-way communications over long distances, has succeeded in sending and receiving- from London, •a distance of 12,000 miles. R. Slade, of Dunedin, also has been' heard in London, and has received cabled confirmation of the receipt of his messages.

On Friday evening Frank Bell picked up an English amateur, 20D, whose name is not known here. On Saturday evening, between 6 and 7.15 o’clock, Bell was communicating with 2SZ, who i B Brown, of Mill Hill School, London. Bell reports that Brown's signals were strong and loud, but faded away at 7.10 p.m. New Zealand time, which would be about 7.45 a.m. London time or soon after daylight. The Englishman’s wave-length was 140 metres, and his signals were louder than those of most American amateurs coming into New Zealand. Bell sent two messages of 90 metres with an input of 150 watts, and received one message from Brown. : Bell stated on Sunday he would endeavour to maintain two-way communication with London during the evening. .The distance is about 12,000 miles, and the message would come and go in a direct line through the Pateific Ocean, Behring Strait, and the North Pole. He again succeeded in maintaining communications v with London and transmitting the Prime Minister’s congratulations to the English amateur, who gratefully acknowleged them. Brown added: “Congratulations concerning the first trans-world communication.” Bell also transmitted the following message to the High Commissioner for New Zealand (Sir James Allen): “Greetings from Home.” This was also received and acknowledged.

Several London stations were calling New Zealand during the evening, and New Zealand men had a very busy time. An sent the following congratulatory message:— “By Jove, the 4’s (New Zealanders) are the boys.”. Another- Englishman said that he received a cablegram on Saturday from New Zealand saying that he had been heard. Slade, of Dunedin, worked successfully through two London stations on Sunday. Bell reported that the London messages on Sunday were louder than 0131 Saturday evening.

/ To “The -Sun’s" Parliamentary reporter, the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. W. F. Massey) expressed pleasure at the news. “I congratulate Mr Bell whom I know personally, on the result of his enterprise, in being the first to speak to England. It is a very important event in the history of wireless, and brings us a little nearer vto the time, which I have more than once predicted, when the Prime Minister of Great Britain will be able to speak from his own room to the Prime Minister of New Zealand on matters of interest to the Empire and the Dominions.

"I congratulate also the Englishman Brown on being the first in the heart of the Empire to achieve two-way communication by wireless with Great Britain’s most remote Dominion. I believe that in the years to come wireless will take the place of cables, and, to some extent, of the postage system. That it will be another material factor in preserving the unity of the Empire I have not the faintest doubt. Consequently I welcome every advance that enthusiasts like Mr Bell and others who are working on the same lines are able to make.”

The dual success recently recorded in maintaining two-way communication between New Zealand and America and New Zealand and England has been a sharp blow to the prestige of amateur wireless interests in Australia, which have not yet met with any success. The Commonwealth’s leading amateur, Mr Macluran, who recently was experimenting in New Zealand and the Pacific on long-dis-tance works, thus expressed himself: “New Zealand amateurs ask us why we don’t keep our fingers out of our ears. I say to them, ‘Come over here and see the difficulties under which we work.’ New Zealand is wonderfully situated for long-distance wireless work. Amateurs can get with one valve in New Zealand what' it takes us two or three valves to get in Australia. For a high-power station New Zealand is in a greatly-superior position to Australia.” ENGLISH AMATEUR’S REPLY. The Prime Minister on Monday night received the following message from Mr Frank Bell, of Waihemo, who established a 'two-way communication by wireless with England at a week-end:—

i “Received the following message , from England 6.5 to-night, through G^Z:—'Prime Minister New Zealand. Thanks for congratulations

on establishing new link of Empire. s ? (Sgd.) Headmaster, Mill Hill School.’ "0 ENGLAND’S AMBITION. TO CONNECT WITH AUSTRALIA. J (Received Tuesday,'s.s p.m;> LONDON, October 20. The establishment of wireless touch with New Zealand is the result of the British Radio Society’s inaugurating: experiments whereby amateurs take the air for eight hours after midnight for three out of eyery. five nights'. The' remaining two are alloted to amateurs in France, Sweden, Denmark! and Switzerland. The society’s official says it is attempting to discover exactly what is possible in (1) short-wave sion and (2) reception on small power. “Our greatest ambition -is to establish communication with Australia, We have picked up South America but have not established two-

way communication. The PostmasterGeneral has given a • concession to the Society’s members, allowing them in-' creased a sending, power for testa abroad.” Partridge, living at Merton,... heard Bell’s New Zealand signals. '- They ■\\Pere weak. ‘ : Sir Geo.. Fenwick, head ...of. the Otago “Times” and nrfw in London, in a letter to the press says he had heard of the establishment of communica* tion with deep pleasure and was glad; the honour of the first girdling of the earth was shared by Bell, whose assiduous attention 'to wireless was thereby rewarded.