Omniscient Radio “Ear” of Post Office

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1052, 16 August 1930, Page 8

Omniscient Radio “Ear” of Post Office

HUT BEYOND TAKAPim* DISTANT CONTROL OF PLANT

Twelve miles away from the Ann. land Tost Office, among the Pine and manuka beyond TakanuU/ an unassuming wooden building , most like a week-end hut.

Inside this building, however. i s th* automatic receiving apparatus for an wireless messages to Auckland.

Although the operator sits at hi desk in a room in the Post Office ijj Queen Street, the sensitive mechaa. ism beyond Takapuna listens in, as jwere, and passes the messages ovetelephone lines to the City Few of the radio operators on the ships which are scattered over the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocear realise that the operator in Auckland uses receiving apparatus which is miles away from the electrical disturb, ances of Queen Street. It was thi continual disturbance which caused the establishment of the distant ro ceiving station.

In a small room in the Chief Post Office, Auckland, is the radio operator —ever on the alert—the only between scores of ships and the coast of New Zealand. Beside nim is th« transmitting set and in front of him ,1 control panel for operating his re ceiver twelve miles distant. HIGH STANDARD NECESSARY In the earlier days of wireless, h« was satisfied to communicate with Auckland from a couple o? hundred miles from the shore. Latterly, however, with the improvement of apparatus, a higher standard became possible, and this revealed a limitation in the Post Office station, the development of sensitive receiving apparatus

proving the situation in Queen Street to be quite inefficient for good radio reception.

Every type of electrical machinery | is found in the environs of the Post ; Office, and they all combined to inter- | fere with the reception of signals from ! distant ship stations. The problem of providing the high standard of service, warranted by the volume of shipping in and out of the port of Auckland, and necessitated by adequate service for the safety of life at sea. was attacked. In the Post Office itself, electrical machinery is used extensively in connection with telegraph apparatus. This was given attention with the object of reducing its interference with the radio service. Only partial success attended these efforts, AVOIDING DELAY The principal disadvantage of this method was that all messages must be retransmitted to the City telegraph office for delivery or transmission to other towns, with the consequent possibility of delay. In order to avoid this a new scheme was devised and developed. involving the placing of an unattended receiving station at a good receiving site, and transmitting the signals over a telephone tine to the operator. This system proved entirely satisfactory, and by means of two telephone wires the operator is enabled to have complete control over the apparatus situated 12 miles’ distant. He tunes in the desired station, the automatic apparatus at the far end doing its job faithfully, although left unattended for weeks and even months at a time. This illustrates the modern telegraph engineering practice of placing more and more reliance npon automatic apparatus. LINES TO AUCKLAND Suppose a ship in the central Tasman Sea calls Auckland. The signal* are intercepted by the automatic apparatus at Takapuna, which passes them to overhead, underground and submarine telephone circuits. »ni hence to the ear of the operator ft Auckland. He then transmits his answer with the apparatus located is the Post Office, and uses special control apparatus to tune his distant receiving set more accurately to the wave-length of the ship's transmitter. Messages are thus exchanged directly from Auckland while enjoying the superior efficiency of reception which can be obtained only at a considerable distance from the centre of the City.

With ordinary receiving apparatus, the range of the station i* limited to about 250 miles, while with the remotely controlled receiver beyond Takapuna, it '* three or four times this distance. The important service of keeping » watch for ships’ distress calls is * c ~ cordingly improved. This system has been in use at the Auckland Radi.’ Station for nearly three years and was developed specially for this statiOTIt is believed that the principle of J** mote control reception is not in us? to a similar service elsewhere.