WIRELESS MARVEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 918, 11 March 1930, Page 1

WIRELESS MARVEL

HOW BYRD WILL SPEAK TO AMERICA SUCCESSFUL PRELIMINARY Special to THE SUN DUNEDIN, Today. A two-way broadcast made at midnight between 4YA, Dunedin, and W2XAF, Schenectady, New York, was a preliminary to the speeches to be made from Dunedin tonight by Rear-Admiral Byrd and Mr. Russell Owen, the New York journalist with Byrd’s Antarctic expedition. After a relay of 500 miles by telephone line and submarine cable to Wellington, the preliminary conversation from Dunedin was picked up from a rebroadcast by the Sydney shortwave station, 2ME, and then transmitted to the General Electric Company’s short-wave station from 8,000 to 9,000 miles away at Schenectady. Prom there, at 8 a.m. on Monday according to New York time, the conversation was sent to stations throughout the United States and Canada. Schenectady has notified Dunedin that it will attempt to broadcast the New Zealand speeches through WXAD. its other short-wave station, as one of W2XAF’S transmitters is faulty. The manager of the Radio Broadcasting Company of New Zealand, Mr. A. R. Harris, and Mr. A. G. Henderson, of the New Zealand United Press Association, spoke to New York from 3YA, while 2YA’s announcer had a conversation with America, too. AUCKLAND RECEPTION Auckland’s station, IYA, rebroadcast the New Zealand conversations from Dunedin to New York, in the preliminary for the speeches of RearAdmiral Bryd and Mr. Russell Owen. A good reception was gained. Christchurch was apparently unknown to the American announcer, who asked Dunedin to spell the name several times, very distinctly.