Radio Conference

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 521, 17 June 1949, Page 5

Radio Conference

ISTENERS to shortwave programmes may not need to be reminded that there is congestion in high-frequency broadcasting. A turn of the dial seldom brings a station clearly into focus: there must be delicate manipulation before an overseas broadcast can be separated from noises which indicate that other stations are clamouring for attention. New Zealand’s interest in radio channels is no longer confined to the needs of home listeners, and this country was therefore represented at an international conference held recently in Mexico City to remove some of the congestion. One of the Dominion’s two delegates, Mr. W. L. Harrison, has explained in an interview the difficulties which had to be faced. It is not necessary to understand the technical problems to be able to assess the value of what was done. Shortwave transmission is helping to make the world smaller than it used to be, but the nations cannot speak clearly to one another if they try to speak loudly in the same place and at the same time. It was found at the conference that the 69 nations wanted about three times the number of channel hours available. They had to modify their requirements, and in the end they were able to produce a plan acceptable to 51 delegations. There was, of course, a practical reason why the conference had to be successful; and technical problems are~ more easily settled than the arguments of politics, where fact is constantly at the mercy of opinion. But technical issues are not isolated: national interest and political divisions may be found among the megacycles as well as on disputed ground in Berlin. It is therefore worth noting, hopefully, that an international conference has produced results, and that the way is open for firmer agreement in the future.