(10) J. R. Smith, NBS Chief Engineer

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 28, 5 January 1940, Page 12

(10) J. R. Smith, NBS Chief Engineer

ERY little has happened to radio in New Zealand in which J. R. Smith has not had a hand. He helped with the establishment of the Post and ‘Telegraph Department’s first station, at Awanui (North Auckland) in 1911. He supervised the installation of the first commercial transmitter in Wellington in 1912. When New Zealand troops occupied Samoa during Great War No. 1 he was for 18 months in charge of the transmitter which the Germans had used to warn their shipping in the Pacific that war

had been declared. Then Rarotonga was given its radio station, and Mr. Smith supervised the instailation. In 1930, as engineer in charge of the P. and T. radio laboratory, he visited Australia to discuss common interests with the authorities there. When he returned with a report on possible developments, plants for a new morse transmitter in Wellington were altered to provide for the installation of the present radiotelephone system Between the two Dominions. Change to Broadcasting Since his change over to broadcasting, he has supervised the installation of every NBS transmitter at present working. The job-an exacting one, to be sure-which was once a sideline to his duties as engineer in charge of Wellington’s telephone system, has become a job which brings under his control 14 stations working every day of

the week, with all their thousands of pounds’ worth of equipment, and the incessant demands for attention and improvement. Mr. Smith was born on the West Coast and started his long career in Ashburton, as a telegraph operator. Here he joined the second hockey club formed in New Zealand, at Tinwald, and when he was transferred back to the coast he started the game there. This was about 1900, when the Coast was riding high on a wave of prosperity, which was shared with Central Otago, as the big gold-dredging industry became established. Experimental Radio It was in 1911 that he started his radio work. With the P. and T. radio engineer he went to Awanui to help build a long-wave transmitter which was partly a first experiment and partly intended for sending to Australia and The Islands. The following year, the P. and T. Department, which had been operating an experimental spark transmitter from the tower of the Wellington G.P.O., erected its first general purpose commercial transmitter on Tinakori Hill, where the tall masts now bristle along the crest,

Parts of the original transmitter equipment, he says, are still there, although it is a far cry from the world-range continuous shortwave transmitters to the service maintained by the first spark system. In 1912 they used 1% kilowatts and their first tests covered a circle with a 1,000-mile radius. Still using one and one-and-a-half kilowatts, the modern shortwave transmitters in Wellington can span the world. Germans in Samoa His Samoan visit followed the destruction by the Germans of their newly-erected transmitter. As the New Zealand troops landed, the Germans broke some parts and hid others. Erected just before war broke out, the station had done its work. A small transmitter had been carried with the expeditionary force and this was used for a shipping service before the German station could be re-

built. It was back in commission by the time Mr. Smith arrived to take charge. From Rarotonga, he came back to Wellington to find the 1918 influenza epidemic raging. It missed him. Telephones As Well For the ten years following he was overseeing the P. and T. Department’s Wellington telephone system as well as the radio station. His transfer to the position in charge of the laboratory came in 1927 and it was in 1932, in September of the year in which the Broadcasting Board took over the New Zealand radio broadcasting services, that he changed over to this latest development, as chief engineer. Already he had seen radio go a very long way, but he sees an even wider prospect ahead. Every year brings new technical developments, better transmission, better reception. As a mem-

ber of the Radio Research Council, he has. lately supervised extensive experiments in investigating field strength and is watching with interest the ionosphere tests being carried out under the supervision of Professor White of Christchurch. Well Known At Bowls Of wide interest to many branches of science, these tests mean much to radio. By a transmitter capable of varying frequencies, signals are transmitted upwards to the outer atmospheric layers, The time taken for their return is measured, giving a comparison of the refractive or deflecting qualities of each layer, according to the frequency used. New Zealand has kept well ahead in such experiments. Also on his list of future developments is television, but while it costs as much as the total of New Zealand’s radio licence revenue to serve London alone, he thinks that it is still, for New Zealand, a long way off. Once prominent in hockey, Mr. Smith is now well known on the bowling green. He plays at Kelburn, In 1930, he was runner-up in the Wellington champion of champions singles. In 1928 he was a member of the winning rink, and has a first in the Wellington pairs.