Wireless — the Invisible Bond

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 51, 5 July 1929, Unnumbered Page

Wireless — the Invisible Bond

=» URING the long time that this expedition has been far from civilisation, they have been carrying out investigations valuable to science. They have set about exploring some of the vast expanse of apparent waste, hitherto unknown, seeking information that can be revealed only by privation in eternal snows. But this is not all. They ‘seek to do a service to radio which is now doing such service to them. During all this long period they have not been out of touch with their homeland, and as a consequence the world is able to publish in its daily papers the events of the day in Little America Antarcticia. An adventure seal hunting, a man injured, a party a few hours overdue, the meditations of the leader all appear in our dailies a few hours after they have happened in a land thousands of miles from the nearest post. They have become so commonplace that they are read without any thought as to how the messages were received-perhaps they are not read. Every day from the Bay of Whales vibrations in the ether carry the tidings half way round the world to the listening posts in America from where they are sent out to the world. But this is not the only service of radio to the expedition. The short wave station of KDKA, W8XK, broadcasts regular programmes for the entertainment of the party. Every week messages are sent through this or allied stations from those at home and these followed with special programmes. Modern science has made possible the selection, and their almost perfect broadcast, of the best programmes from America. To recount the number of successful relays and rebroadcasts from American short wave stations would be unnecessary. Readers will recall the reports of many of these feats as most of them have been intercepted in thi, country. , Perhaps the most outstanding of these accomplishments was the rebroadcast by 2ME, Sydney, of KDKA who was re-

broadcasting the reply of the Antarctic party to the weekly messages. In this manner 22,000 miles were covered by the messages, before they were finally rebroadcast by 2ME. For a while New Zealand listeners were able to listen to the two-way communication, including musical numbers, between Byrd and his homeland. Relays from musical entertainments in New York are common, and because of this there is the chance that the wonder of the feats will be overlooked. It may be forgotten that this is only the commencement of the wireless age, that in the near future we shall be talking to relatives, friends and business associates on the other side of the world without effort or difficulty. That in this age we shall see them and talk to them though separated by half the world. But this is by the way. To come a little nearer home, one can cite the times when crystal owners have heard America talking to their explorers in the frozen wastes. Probably some have closed down in disgust because of a fade or a burst of static, and condemned wireless-but they forget that on a piece of apparatus costing a few pence they are intercepting conversation be_tween two stations thousands of miles away, listening to the same music and messages that the intrepid party, snug-

gling round their oil fire, and surrounded by perpetual snows are enjoying, and listening to a message which is checring some heart far removed from civilisation. _ As one sits by their drawing room fire listening to a mother sending a message to a son in that waste do they think of the tie wireless is, of what it means to that mother and that son? Doubt, and uncertainty, the two most painful mental situations have been reduced to a minimum and the mother and son, wife and husband, the child and the father can each set his or her mind at rest knowing the other is safe. The day of return can be looked forward to without the horror that perhaps some untoward news will greet them. But this is the vital service of radioit has another significance. Just. after. 10 o’clock, when the flickering oil lamp is about to be douched and the weary pioneers retreat within their sleeping bags there comes the bright announcement: "Good evening, everybody! this is station 2YA, Wellington." Yes! it is Mr. Announcer upon whom there are many just waiting for a slip or something they do not like to wax their bittex irony and sarcasm. Put in Antarctica-there, in the las. ._ nents of the day, Mr. Announcer ‘nd his pleasant tidings is welcomed with no uncertain note. "The voices and the music seem somehow to break down our sense of isolation for a few minutes while we snuggle down in our sleeping bags and think we have no connection with An‘tarctica," reads a recent message from the expedition to the "New York Times." | "We can almost see the inside of the broadcasting studio in Wellington. We can imagine what the men and women look like. It. is part of the world we have left, and it adds somewhat to the piquancy of our enjoyment that they cannot completely visualise our environment, that they cannot realise the pleasure they give a group of men so cut off © from the civilised community." -Continued on page 2. PIDEAUDT OAS HLOLODAUSOSEUSVEAUOEOCUEORGRDADUEDUDSUADEDUEGGOUUALEDEOEAAODATESOSOUUOOESUOASADSUOCODOEOAUSEUAEDENOEOSUNONUSTEOEUADEIOOSOSUSEREEDONOESEOUDENUEDDESETONODDOLRSOESOOESSGOUACONUNSEOUOAUEOOOSUSTOUO DEEL ESE

LMOST twelve months have elapsed since the small barque City of New York, the first unit of Byrd’s Expedition left from New York City, bound for the wilderness of ice and ‘snow. A singularity existed about this de-parture-time mot space was to separate them from their homeland -they carried radio.

In Southern Seas

(Continued from front page.) The Invisible Bond. RASPING roat comes from the loudspeaker, and then as it is tuned down the gay notes of the orchestia playing dance music comes floating into the room. Back there are cabarets filled with men and women whirling merrily about; many homes where those listening to the same music sit before cheerful wood fires. "They are clad in garments which we have almost forgotten, laughing as they talk, probably entirely unconscious that far south of them is this little group getting far more enjoyment from the music which they hear. It is our invisible bond with the world of comfort and security-invisible, but none the less real, because it has its roots in our memory and in our anticipations, "And how different is our home fro theirs! On a top bunk, where the air is warmest, is a man in his underclothes, leaning back against an ingenious sloping board, which he can raise when he turns in for the night. He is writing a dairy by the light of a candle, stopping now and then to listen and smile a broad smile of satisfaction at some new and lilting measure which reaches us from so far over the. sea. He has a picturesque beard, and his own wife would hardly recognise in him the trim figure ih uniform who, seven months ago, walked the streets of Dunedin." %