Dunedin Makes Radio History

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 707, 5 July 1929, Page 10

Dunedin Makes Radio History

TALKS TO NEW YORK WORLD-WIDE EXPERIMENTS Press Association DUNEDIN, Today. Direct radio communication between Dunedin and New York has been established by Mr. Berkner, of the Bureau of Standards, Washington. The station here has been coupled with the Byrd Expedition supply ship, Eleanor Boling, at Port Chalmers, by a control line, making it possible to keep in constant toucb with New York and the Byrd Expedition base, and to relay messages from the base to New York. The remote control station was put into operation yesterday for the first time, and tests proved satisfactory, perfect communication with New York and Antarctica being established. This was the first time such a system had been worked in New Zealand. Messages were sent and received at the rate of 35 words a minute. Mr. Berkner is also carrying out research here. He is making fading records of English, American and Dutch short-wave stations for the purpose of obtaining more scientific information regarding the propagation of wireless waves. The geographic position of New Zealand in respect to the powerful short-wave broadcasting stations in other parts of the world, makes it possible for excellent work to be carried out. In this direction, special equipment for observation purposes has been designed for the Dunedin station, and results so far indicate that the final records made will be of great importance to the future of radio.