REQUIRED: RADIO TICKET

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 19, 16 November 1934, Page 5

REQUIRED: RADIO TICKET

THEN the steamer Ripple was lost in the vicinity of Cook Strait some "eight years ago the. question wasraised of providing small coastal vessels with wireless equipment for use in case of emergency. The matter was taken up by the Merchant Service Guild, and the outcome was that the Government demanded that a wireless set be part of the equipment of all ships trading on the New Zealand coast. It was not required at the time for any officer to be proficient in trans-mitting-the sets were to be used only in case of emergency. But the shipowners, having installed expensive wireless equipment, decided that it might as well be put to use in normal times, and they began to use their sets for ordinary ship-to-shore communication. The sets were usually operated by deck officers who were required to pass certain tests in transmitting and receiving at reasonable speeds, but the men were never at the transmitting keys long enough to maintain their speed, and the result was that a certain amount of time was wasted at post and telegraph offices by the necessity for "‘repeat’’ messages from coastal vessels. And so, at the instigation of the Post and Telegraph Department, all men wishing to qualify as navigating officers on New Zealand coastal vessels must obtain a third-class radio operator's ticket. And all those officers who are now working the wireless equipment on coastal vessels will be obliged to qualify also. 1 The new regulations have cauged something of a stir in shipping circles, and the following three suggestions have been made:-(1) That use be made of wireless telephones; (2) that a set short wave be used; or (3) that the sets be used, as was first intended, for emergencies only. There are several difficulties in the way of the adoption of the first idea. Most of the smaller vessels have only low power, and the use of wireless telephones would necessitate ‘the establishment of a chain of stations every hundred miles or so along the coast. The second suggestion-the use of a set short wave-seems feasible enough, and why it has not been tried out by the Post and Telegraph Department is something of a mystery. Apparently there is some technical difficulty in the way. The adoption of the third suggestion would be a retrograde step, for ship-to-shore communication has become of major importance in the shipping world, even for small vessels. The problem bristles with difficulties, but it "20ks as if, in the meantime, the officers will have to tolerate the bugbear of having to undergo several months’ training in the intricacies of wireless technique: _