“HULLO, MRS SYDNEY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 661, 13 May 1929, Page 14

“HULLO, MRS SYDNEY”

AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA HAVE A CHAT MESSAGE FROM ANTARCTIC VOICES TRAVEL 21,000 MILES Pittsburg, U.S.A., and Sydney men were talking to one another by wireless telephony yesterday afternoon just as easily as a Ponsonby man talks to a friend in Parnell. A Sun man at Devonport heard the conversation clearly. Telephony tests were being conducted between the short-wave stations KDKA, Pittsburg, and the Amalgamated Wireless Co.’s station 2ME, Sydney, and lasted for some time. At one stage KDKA picked up messages from the Byrd expedition in the Antarctic and rebroadcast them for the benefit of American listeners. This rebroadcast was received by 2ME, Sydney, and again rebroadcast for Australian listeners.

The messages had a long voyage, travelling 10,000 miles from Byrd to Pittsburg, then another 11,000 miles to Sydney. The operator in the Antarctic, after sending out his message, would hear it return after travelling 20,000 miles to Pittsburg and back and also to hear it come back from Sydney. The voices carrying on the conversation were heard very clearly in Devonport. When a woman spoke from the Sydney station the Pittsburg operator. greeted her with “Hullo. Mrs. Sydney. How are you to-night?” American time was then after midnight Saturday, it being 4.30 p.m. Sunday, New Zealand time.