Trans-Pacific Radio Telephone

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 42, 1 May 1931, Page 2

Trans-Pacific Radio Telephone

Important Links AS yet unconquered by the telephone, the Pacific Qcean will be brought within thé world’s network of radiotelephone channels in about one year. Receiving and sending short-wave stations similar to. those in trans-Atlantic service are to be built shortly in Central California by the Trans-Pacific Communication Company Ltd., a subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The Trans-Pacific Company announced on November 11 the purchase of 640 acres of land at Dixon, near Sacramento, .as the site of the sending station, and 540 acres at Point Reyes for the receiving station. Hrection of the stations will begin early this year, and service bétween the United States..and Hawaii is scheduled for January, 1932. With ‘the completion of these stations, Honolulu and possibly at least one other trans-Pacitic city will be hooked up by regular service with any

ow of the twenty million telephones in the. United States. The Hawaiian stations are to be constructed by R.C.A, Communications, Inc. +» and will serve subscribers of the Mutual Telephone Company in Hawaii, The swiftness: of modern life is well illustrated in closing this trans-Pacific gap in the: world radio telephone network, which will then have encircled the globe in less than five years. World-wide Communication. HE first inter-continental and transoceanic circuit was opened in 1927 by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the British Post Office between New York and London. In time ‘world-wide communitation will unquestionably be a fact. After the telephone was invented in 1875 by Alexander Graham Bell it was not until forty years later that San Francisco talked. to New York, \ Already there are a dozen network clreuits operating in other parts of the world. The shortest is 3011 miles, New York to London; and the longest 9120 miles, London to Sydney.. Three moré are under construction and eight additional are projected, including the trans-Pacific. The complete circuit of the world by telephone from San Franciso through Sydney, London and New York, and back to San Francisco, is 21,475 ‘miles. "This is the. first step in the move of the: Bell system to connect its Unit‘ed States network with Far Hastern ‘countries. in or bordering on the Pacific. The project contemplates eventual establishment of services °to Japan, Australia-and- Philippines, and ‘Alaska. as well:as to ships at sea. The "transmitting station at Dixon will: have n-20-kilowatt transmitter, similar to those used in the trans_Atlanti¢e_ telephone service, It will

----- operate on wavelengths between 14 ar 44 metres. ‘ In connection with radio telephone service it is of interést to know that a new record for the longest telephone call yet made over a commercially-~ operated circuit was set recently when the first call went through from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, over wire and radio circuits totalling twenty-one thousand miles, via the trans-Atlantic circuit. The America-Australia service had: been opened by the Bell system the latter part of October. "The man at the telephone in Los Angeles was not aware that he was breaking a record. He had reason to talk with someone in Sydney, Australia; and did so, quite casually and successfully. . In spite-of its great length and the fact that it is. composed: of both wire and radio links, -this. circuit Oren individuals. in Los Angeles and‘ ney to converse on :the- NS though they lived" Across the ! et, bet from each other,