“SIGS” IN ACTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 520, 24 November 1928, Page 6

“SIGS” IN ACTION

WEEK-END CAMP OPENS ACTUAL SERVICE CONDITIONS Flash of heliograph and flutter of flag by day; wink of lamp and splutter of wireless by night. These phenomena in the neighbourhood of the tVaitemata will be outward evidence of week-end activities set on foot by the Northern Depot of the New Zealand Corps of Signallers. reinforced by a detachment from tho Ist Battalion, Auckland .Regiment. Dike the warning beacons of Ola Kn gland, tho fires of which sprang from hill to hill, service messages will flash from point to point, under the actual conditions that would exist in time of war.

The camp will open this afternoon, and it is expected that about 100 men will go “under canvas” until Monday. Narrow Neck has been selected as tho main station, and this will be established as a temporary field post office at which all messages will be dispatched and received. There, special records will bo kept and field diaries entered. The stations will bo Castor Bay, Narrow Neck, North Head and Kangitoto. Flags, heliograph and lamps will be used by each station and. in the case of Kangltoto, these will be reinforced by wireless. During the week-end the island will be in continuous communication with the mainland. The heliograph is by no means an obsolete method of signalling. In India the atmospheric conditions are so suitable that the flash has a range of up to 70 miles. In New Zealand it can be discerned at a range of 40 miles. The large flags can be seen with the aid of a telescope at a range of six miles. Lamps may be used in daylight when clouds put the “hello” out of action.

The week-end camp should be a particularly interesting one for all concerned, and will afford an excellent opportunity for the trainees to fend for themselves under real conditions rather than operate in a small paddock where messages may be checked by word of mouth. A number of brilliant first-year trainees will be among the signallers.