Wired Wireless

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 394, 30 June 1928, Page 5

Wired Wireless

N.Z. ’s New System will Revolutionise ’Phones

AUCKLAND AND HAMILTON FIRST

“Wired wireless.” That is the popular name which has been given to the new carrier telephone system shortly to be adopted in New eZaland. “Wir£t| wireless” will revolutionise the telephone in the Dominion. According to telephone units it will ten the voice distance from Auckland to Christchurch to as near as Pukekohe. This amazing invention will do away with all interference, and the voice will be carried much more clearly than at present. There will be no more buzzing lines, no cross-talk and no fadThe “carrier” system worfcs exactly like wireless except that instead of the message being spoken into the air it is carried along the telephone wire and is amplified at the terminal stations in the same way that radio is amplified. The present telephone accessories will remain ’in operation and the telephone itself will be operated exactly as it is now, though the method of carrying the message will be different. The first of the new equipment for the installation of the “carrier” j system, or “wired wireless,” is on its way to New Zealand and will arrive shortly. Auckland and Hamilton will be the first two centres to be connected by the new system in about two months’ time. TRUNKS LOADED In an interview to-day regarding; the new telephone system, Mr. E. C. Gage, chief telegraph engineer, said that the increased toll business over long-dis-tance' trunk lines necessitated additional trunk circuits being arranged. The usual practice was to run additional wires along the existing routes. This was expensive and the trunks were already loaded to capacity. The time had been reached when the reconstruction of the main lines had become necessary. As a result of a visit of the chief engine?r of telegraphs to Europe this year arrangements- had been completed for the installation of the “carrier” telephone system in New Zealand. This will ultimately bring all points in the Dominion within easy telephone reach of each other, frdm the farthest north to the farthest south. At the present time the distance oyer which easy telephone conversation can be carried by wire is approximately 500 miles. Recently, in order to enable a greater distance to be reached, telephone repeaters have been installed in Wellington and Seddon at the ends of the Cook Strait cable. This has enabled Auckland and Christchurch to converse easily.

DISTANCE DOESN'T COUNT For the “carrier” system, it will be necessary to instal a wireless telephone plant at the centres involved, the special feature of the transmission being that instead of broadcasting: telephone speech from an aerial it is conveyed along the existing wires as a carrier current. This does not iri any way upset the conversation or the use of the wires as they are at present, and speech will be just as secret as it is now. Distance does not count with the “carriqr” system, which is so much more efficient than the present wire system, and the loss in power between the terminal stations is practically negligible. It will make speech so much dearer that it will bring a voice from Wellington within a quarter of its present telephone distance. Amplifiers at the terminal stations will amplify the voice just as is done by wireless, thus making speech more distinct over long distances. One of the great advantages of the “carrier” channels, as the lines are called, is that quite a number can be worked on one circuit without interference one with the other. This is done by a system of tuning, just as in tuning in on the wireless. The invention and manufacture of the apparatus is entirely British. The experiments were carried out with the greatest secrecy. A large order has been placed with a British firm for tjie supply of material for the Dominion. The equipment which is on its way to New Zealand at present will provide for three complete channels between Auckland and Hamilton, three between Hamilton and Palmerston North and one between Seddon and Christchurch. The last-mentioned will link with the present ChristchurchWellington telephone cable. It is expected that these installations will be ready by March next. When the installation is completed the existing telephone facilities will be: Two complete “carrier” channels between Auckland and Hamilton, one between Auckland and ©fUmerston North, one between Auckland and Wellington, and one between Hamilton and Palmerston North. Hamilton and Palmerston North will be important North Island switching centres on the “carrier” system—Hamilton will switch the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua and Palmerston North will switch Wanganui, Napier and the Wairarapa. All these will be additional circuits the present telephone circuits. An outcome of the invention will be that no more copper wire will have to be erected in New Zealand for many years to come. As more materir/ comes to hand the whole of the Dominion will be linked by “wired wireless” and that dreadful straining of the ears t:o catch a faraway murmur will be a thing of the past.