SHORT-WAVE SETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 214, 10 September 1931, Page 20

SHORT-WAVE SETS.

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EARTHQUAKE LESSON,

One of the lessons learnt from the Napier earthquake was the necessity of having alternative means of communication with other centres. When the power failed and telegraph and telephone lines were brought down a desperate situation was in some degree relieved by radio messages from the ships lying in the roadstead. Amateur radio transmitters, too, played their part in bring: ing news to the rest of the Dominion and in putting in train relief measures. With this in mind the Post and Telegraph Department has undertaken and completed the installation of a number of self-contained short-wave radio sets at strategic centres throughout the Dominion. . , „ , . One of these sets has beqn installed in each district, either in the district engineer's house or in a convenient wooden building which is not likely to be affected by earthquakes. The sets are able to communicate with any part of the Dominion, and each week they are tested by communication with Welling: ton. They are operated either by power from the mains or by dry and so provide a very efficient and reliable means of communication in the event of any emergency. Altogether there are about 16 sets in operation. One of the chief difficulties during the Napier disaster was the lack of batteries for radio-transmitting, and it is anticipated that the provision now made for rapid communication at any time will meet any emergency. Apart from the question of earthquakes, it is possible that a severe snowstorm will isolate a district, and at such a time the shortwave sets will be brought into commission.