Auckland Has Fine Station in 1YA

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 3, 5 August 1927, Unnumbered Page

Auckland Has Fine Station in 1YA

Heard Effectively All Over Oceania

The Last Word in Equipment

The. Auckland broadcasting station, 1YA, is described in the accompanying article and pictures. The station is of 500 watts, the same power as the Christchurch station, but it differs from -Christchurch and is like Wellington in the fact that it is not all on the one site. The studio is a short distance away from the transmitting station. The former is in France Street and the latter is on the roof of the premises of Messrs. George Court, Ltd., on Karangahape Road. It.is a. commanding position, the -aerial being 500 feet above sea level. The transmitting plant is identical a that at the Christchurch station; and is absolutely up to date.

Of the New Zealand broadcasting | stations,. 1YA is the best-known. It bore this cognomen before it came under the control of the present company, and it had a good reputation even then, The plant was small, but it was efficiently run. The company carried on with the old plant for some time’ till the new station was erected. The present 1YA was officially opened in August last year. It was the first of the new stations to be erected by the Radio -Broadcasting Company of New Zealand, Ltd., and Auckland for some time had the honour of being the home of the premier broadcasting station in New Zealand. Its ethereal voice has been* heard far afield, for communications have been received from’ Canada, proving that 1YA has been heard there, and it is regularly listened to in Australia, sheaves of correspondence testifying to that. In New Zealand the station has had a great vogue. It has resulted in a great increase in the num-. ber of listeners, especially in the Auckland Province, in which nearly half of the total receiving sets in the Dominion are located. THE OLD IYA. It is an easy matter to hark back to old radio broadcasting history in Auckland, for the old is really very recent. That fact alone seems to emphasise the advance which has been made, excellent as was the service rendered by old 1YA. The first apparatus consisted of a small 10-watt plant, installed by the Auckland Radio Service Company, this being replaced early by more modern equipment, operated with a power input approaching 200 watts. The radio dealers in Auckland made financial contributions to. support the station and provide a broadcast service for listeners. Later, when the license fee was fixed at 30s., the station was subsidised by the Post and Telegraph Department, as well as by the dealers, until the Radio Broadcasting Company of New Zealand took control, AN UP-TO-DATE STUDIO. ‘The studio was erected in France Street, a short distance from the transmiitting plant. ~The building is of brick and concrete, two stories in the front and one in the rear. The main studio, situated at the back, is a very fine room, 40 feet long and 24 feet wide, suitably furnished to provide the acous-

tic properties necessary to broadcasting. The walls are draped with soft grey curtains, with a heavy carpet to match, On the opposite side of the main entrance hall is a large reception hall and lounge, with a cloakroom adjoining. Upstairs are well-appointed dressingrooms, janitor’s room, kitchenette, and alarge smoking lounge and supper room, furnished for the comfort of artists broadcasting. The official opening of 1YA took place last August, the ceremony being performed by the Hon. W. Nosworthy, Postmaster-General. Other high Goyernment and Broadcasting Company officials who were present included the Mayor of Auckland (Mr. G. Baildon), the Chief Telegraph Engineer (Mr, A. Gibbs), the then Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Department (Mr. A. T: Markman), and Messrs. W. Goodfellow and A. R. Harris (chairman of directors and general manager, respectively, of the company). In a small#room ‘adjoining, with a sound-proof window to the studio, the announcer is accommodated. Here he has a switchboard for the necessary microphones, relay wires, and signals to the transmitting room etc. By means of these signals he keeps in close touch with the operator in the transmitting room, where there are red and green lights corresponding with those in the announcer’s room. WHERE THE WAVES COMMENCE. The transmitting plant, the real mechanism, is in a building on the roof of Messrs, George Court’s. Here are the motor generators, the transmitter, and the switchboards. It is in the transmitter that the secret of radio broadcasting lies. Here the electric power is converted into radio energy and sent out on the air by means of the aerial, to be collected by thousands of receiving sets throughout a vast areca. The vacuum tubes of the transmitter

are of the same type as those of the small receiving set, but many _ times larger. Thy are the secret, and the key of broadcasting. In the transmitting room is a loudspeaker, which is necessary to enable the operator to control amplification. There is the amplifier, the transmitter panel, and the power panel, all representing the latest developments in the science of wireless. The aerial is 500 feet above sea-level.

Each tower weighs approximately three tuns, and is 100 feet high. The span between the masts is 180 feet, and a flattopped T-aerial is erected between them, THE TRANSMITTING ROOM. The power supply for the radio transnitter is obtained from a_ three-unit motor generator set, consisting of one high voltage and one low voltage D.C.

generator, both direct, connected to a driving motor. * The motor drives the two generators, one giving power at 1600 volts and the other, a small one, power at a very low voltage. The power switchboard ‘is of the "dead front" type, which means that, although the control handles appear on the face of the switchboards, all of the current carrying portions are mounted at the rear of the slate panel to protect the operator from accidental cdntact.

The switchboard is compictely enclosed "by .a metal cabinet. An automatic safety switch shuts down the motor generator when the door of the cabinet is opened. The motor of the motor generator set is started or stopped by means ‘£ momentary contact push-buttons, provided on the panel, but a similar pushbutton is located in the control room.

RADIO ENERGY. In the operating room is the radio transmitter, whose function is to generate radio frequency encrgy, this energy. being modulated in accordance with the current variations produced by a microphone operating in conjunction with an amplifier and certain other auxiliary equipment. Four valves are used, two as oscillators and two as modulators, and a delayed action relay permits the fila« ment to attain its normal temperature before the plate voltage is applied. The electrical power required for the valves is of interest,.and the constants are:Plate potential, 1600 volts; total plate current, .9 amperes; filament potential, 14.3 volts; total filament* current, 29,3 amperes, Ail necessary electrical meters for checking the operation of the radio transmitter are provided on the panel. In addition to the apparatus described, there are, of course, the microphones and other associated amplifier equipment. A three-stage amplifier builds up the feeble microphone currents to the required strength, the amount of, amplification being adjusted by the ‘operator. There is also a single stage amplifier, which amplifies a small part of the output from the large amplifier sufficiently to actuate the monitoring loud-speaking telephone in the control room, The control room operator then has an aural check on the indications of his instruments,