RADIO ON THE ICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 66, 19 March 1930, Page 10

RADIO ON THE ICE.

EXPERT'S OBSERVATIONS. SOME ASTONISHING FEATS. i j PECULIARITIES ; OF SHORT-WAVE. i ' ' (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) DUNEDIN,. this day. From the radio station in Little America between 1,500,000 and. "2,000,000 words were received and transmitted, musical broadcasts and' broadcasts of personal messages' were heard! frequently, and scientific -observations of exceedingly high value were taken. In giving a comprehensive review' of . the work of radio for the Byrd expedition, Mr. Malcolm P. ♦Hanson, radio, engineer, said in a special interview with the "Star" that radio conditions in tlie Antarctic were found' to be not greatly different from those in moderate latitudes. The value of radio was threefold to the expedition. Admiral Byrd/ had always insisted on safety, and radio provided a highly valued link in the chain of safety by. providing communication with flying and dog parties, secondly, radio made for efficiency in handling the expedition's affairs between the base at Little .America, the ships at Dunedin, and New York. Every.day the commander directed letters to Mr. Charles Lofgren as if he were. in his office in New York, and business was completed with the United States at a moment's notice. From the standpoint of jnoral and the spirit of the men in general, radio had made an exceedingly valuable contribution, said Mr. Hanson. Tliey-were able to keep in continuous touch with their families. and many friends, and at the same time their families were,.wived anxiety, by reading daily in the newspapers of the activities and progress of the-expedition, and by-receiving, personal messages from men on tile ice. ; All Stations Reached Easily. Perhaps the greatest advance in radio was shown not only, in the ease, with which they \vere~generally. able, to-reach stations .in ' any..: part oi the j world'- on i

short-wave, but the great deal of experimenting which had to oe. done many times to determine the wave necessary for that particular season and time of day. The waves varied from 1,1 metres up to Gt> metres, and most of the communications were handled on 27 and :S4 metres. • The ease with ' which the station reached other stations was astonishing, but not unforeseen. Another thing which demonstrated the advance in radio was the communication with the small'light-weight sets carried by the dog parties. 'I hey were in continuous communication with the base. It spoke very well for the open tors in the dog parties, who had had no previous experience with radio, that they were able to maintain regular radio communication at all times without difficulty. . An interesting conclusion was that the short-wave sets appeared to be better recjiv'ul the further the part.v got away from the base.

Relayed Message to 'Plane. The aeroplane communications handled by. Mr. Harold I. June were quite good. On one occasiop an urgent message from the United States was relayed from the. base to Admiral Byrd in his 'plane, and the reply was dispatched and sent back to "the States from the station. That showed the application of radio to be reachlii"' extreme efficiency.

All tnese things were very interesting to us, but we were not astonished, because we knew what radio would do," said the expert. The radio conditions lat Little America were found to be quite good, especially owing to the fact that there were no man-made interferences, such as electrical machines, street cais,. and. motor cars. The electrical machines at the base were not in operationduring the radio traffic. * In addition, there, was an almost unlimited flat snow surface, over which lie was able to run receiving antennae in the proper direction for a great distance. To give, .better reception than ordinary receiving, aerials, receiving wires up to 1200 ft in length were run out over the snow towards the stations which they wanted to receive. The antenna was found to be very efficient.

Communication with * Sir - Hubert Wilkins' base at Deception Island was attempted, Mr. Hanson said, but it was not. successful, owing to intervening conditions, frequently, communication with New York was much easier than communication - with Dunedin. It all depended 911 the conditions. .Conditions also made attempts to communicate with." Sir: Douglas -Mawson unsuccessful.

Observations Recorded. Measurements taken at the Barrier threw some interesting light 011 the subjject. Signals from the United States [and Sou 111 America were often much [louder than those from a set but ten I miles away from the hasp. 011 certain wave lengths, it showed the peculiarity jof the short wave. '"A great number of scientific observations we took will have to be studied, and analysed very carefully and compared before they will have any definite value." said Mr. Hanson. "V\e found that radio conditions were not widely different from the. conditions in more moderate latitudes, when darkness <nul season were considered. We obtained a large number of very interesting photographs showing the relleetions whica the radio waves underwent from the beaviside layer, a thing which is being studied in various parts of the world. When the photographs have been carefully measured and compared they will throw a great deal of light on the nature of the heaviside layer in the Antarctic. The reason why these particular measurements seem so important is that in Antarctica we had a long winter .night Villi continued darkness, and a long summer day, and it had not been definitely known what the heaviside layer would cause under those condition;. The proximity of the magnetic pole would also have an cfle.ct on the layer in some way. As a matter of fact we found very peculiar variations in this layer at different seasons and under different- conditions, but they will have to be compared with variations ill other parts of the world before we can form any definite conclusion.

Valuable Data Sccurcd. With (lie assistance of. chiefly, MrFrank Davies, tlie physicist, and Messrs. Williams, Haines, and Harrison, the meteorologists, data Ave re secured which would show definite connections between the aurora and radio and magnetic disturbances. The data would require careful study, as there were 110 striking connections noticeable between them.

During the winter musical programmes were received better 011 the longwave. Station 2YA was particularly good, and it came through regularly, while the short-wave fluctuated and was marred by distortion and harshness. HoweVcr, during summer months, when it was no longer possible to receive longwave, short-wave fortunately improved considerably, and some good musical programmes were received."